More evidence that Lawrence is becoming a bedroom community exists in new census data that show nearly twice as many people leave Douglas County to go to work than come into the county, and the number of outbound commuters has grown by 73 percent since 1990.

The figures have raised concerns about the economic and social impact of the daily commute that 13,082 people are taking to work mostly in Johnson County and Topeka.

“What it pretty clearly suggests is that the number of people who live here but feel like they need to work outside the county is going up much more rapidly than the number of jobs that are being created here,” said Luke Middleton, a research economist with Kansas University’s Policy Research Institute.

Economic development officials say the high rate of commuting outside the county is worrisome.

“I think what these numbers tell me is that we may be reaching somewhat of an imbalance,” said Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development with the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “We may be experiencing some brain drain.”

She said it was likely the county was losing money because people who work outside the community tended to spend money there for gas, meals or shopping.

And some said they were concerned about the social cost of a commuter city.

“I think it is a bad deal,” said Dave Baldwin, a Lawrence resident who used to commute to the Kansas City area. “I think it is part of our housing problem here in Lawrence. All the better-paying jobs are in Kansas City or Topeka, and then those people come back here to live and drive up the cost of housing.

“It seems like we end up with the lower-wage jobs but the higher-priced housing.”

A 2001 study commissioned by the chamber backed up Baldwin’s suspicions. The study showed most outbound commuters said they traveled for a better-paying job outside Douglas County.

Baldwin also questioned how the large amount of commuting was affecting the community.

“I think one of the biggest problems (about commuting) is it just eats up people’s time,” Baldwin said. “If I was still spending 10 hours a week on the road, that is 10 hours a week less that I would be able to spend on groups like Habitat for Humanity.”

But Middleton, the research economist, said the commuting issue probably does little harm. He said there was no data to show that commuters spend significantly less in their hometown than noncommuters do.

In fact, he said, one positive way to look at commuters is that they take money, in the form of wages, out of one community and bring them back to Lawrence.

“I think a lot of the concern stems from this idea most Americans have about being self-sufficient,” Middleton said. “We feel like we shouldn’t need to rely on Johnson County for jobs to take care of ourselves.

“From an economic standpoint, I don’t think there are very many issues that we consider to be overly problematic. I think it is more of a societal type of thing.”

Parman said she was trying to use the large number of commuters to her advantage when she attempts to attract new companies to locate here.

“We really market to companies that we have a worker base that they should have potential to capture and keep here,” Parman said. “You have to think that people would rather work where they live. What all this tells me is that we need to be attracting jobs that really match the skills of our work force. That’s how we combat this.”

Middleton agreed that focused economic development likely was the community’s best strategy to reduce the commuter rate.

Reducing the rate, though, won’t be easy, and Middleton said people should be realistic about their expectations. He said Lawrence always would have a significant number of commuters because of its location between two of the state’s largest employment centers — Kansas City and Topeka.