Analyzing Changes in Urban Form and Commuting Time*

Urban work trips have changed in important ways during the last decades. In Québec City, a medium‐sized Canadian metropolitan area, commuting distances increased for both male and female workers between 1977 and 1996, while durations increased for male workers and decreased for female workers. This article seeks to identify spatial and social factors responsible for these changes. We develop a disaggregate model of trip duration estimated on the basis of large samples derived from travel surveys comparable through time. Using categorical variables to specify change, we are able to separate change effects from level effects attributable to various dimensions of urban form. Our analysis clearly indicates that, once travel mode and key social factors are controlled for, the shift from a monocentric to a dispersed city form is responsible, in the Québec metropolitan area, for increasing commuting time. This is contrary to findings in larger metropolitan areas, where, it has been argued, the suburbanization of jobs maintains stability in commuting duration.     

GENDER,RACE, AND COMMUTING AMONG SERVICE SECTOR WORKERS*

The generality that women work closer to home and have shorter commuting times than men needs to be assessed for racial groups. Statistical analysis of commuting times for a large sample of service workers in the New York metropolitan area shows that black and hispanic women commute as far as their male counterparts and their commuting times far exceed those of white men and women. Workplace factors, such as income, occupation, and job accessibility, are important in explaining these findings.     

Spatial Mismatch and Employment in a Decade of Restructuring∗

Spatial barriers to employment limit women's job opportunities, but their effects differ among racial/ethnic minority groups. This study evaluates the degree of spatial mismatch for minority women and men by comparing the commuting times of African American, Latino, and white workers in the New York metropolitan region. Using Public Use Microdata for 1980 and 1990, we perform a partial decomposition analysis to assess the role of spatial mismatch in lengthening commuting times for minority workers. The results show that African American men and women living in the center of the region have poorer spatial access to employment than their white counterparts. In the suburbs, African American women and Latinas suffer no spatial mismatch; rather, their longer commuting times reflect greater reliance on mass transit. Comparison with 1980 findings reveals little change in spatial mismatch over time despite significant economic and social restructuring in the 1980s. Spatial barriers still limit employment prospects for the majority of minority women living at the core of the region.     

Journey‐to‐Work Patterns in the Age of Sprawl: Evidence from Two Midsize Southern Metropolitan Areas*

Among others, one commonly identified negative consequence of urban sprawl is an increase in the length of the journey to work. However, there has been more discussion of this than serious scrutiny, hence the relationship between urban sprawl and commuting patterns, especially at the intraurban level, remains unclear. Using the 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) data for two Southeastern metropolitan areas, this research investigates the extent to which workers living in sprawl areas commute farther to work than those living in higher density areas. The analysis of variance confirms that workers commuting from sprawl areas to urban areas experience a longer commute in terms of time as well as mileage, though this varies when workplace and home locations are taken into account. However, multivariate statistical results suggest that there are limits to the utility of sprawl as a predictor of travel behavior compared to workers' socioeconomic characteristics, as other factors appear to be equally or more important.     

“Is there any time left for walking?” Physical activity implications of suburban commuting in the Barcelona metropolitan region

ABSTRACT

The present study delves into the explanatory factors of the walking patterns of residents in metropolitan regions, who tend to be pressed for time when travelling to their daily destinations or activities. We particularly focus on the effects of the commuting distance on the amount of walking that can be achieved, which has health, socioeconomic and environmental implications. This study confirms the potential benefits of using smartphone tracking data to examine walking patterns. To enable this, a smartphone tracking application was developed to obtain accurate mobility data from a group of adults (n = 93) residing in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region (Spain) and have to commute to a suburban university campus that can only be reached by using motorized transport modes. The results highlight the commuting distance and employment status as strong determinants of the amount of walking time achieved by this study group. Moreover, it was determined that among transit users, the commuting distance of male commuters was negatively associated with walking when compared with female transit users, whereas explanatory factors for private transport users bore insignificant results. Smartphone devices proved their potential as an effective and useful source of data in transportation and health research.     

Race,Gender, and Constrained Work Trips in Buffalo,NY, 1990

This study investigates whether women's short commutes should be interpreted as constrained or convenient work trips by examining how race, gender, travel mode, occupation, residential location, workplace location, and Inc.ome affect commuting time. The analysis is restricted to a sample of European American and African American male and female workers residing in Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding county using data drawn from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the 1990 U.S. census. Given the pervasive gender wage gap, women unsurprisingly have more compromised (short commutes to low-Inc.ome jobs) work trips than do men. Multivariate analysis reveals that among those who reverse commute to suburban locations, African American women have the longest work trips.     

Spatial Mismatch and Employment in a Decade of Restructuring*

Spatial barriers to employment limit women's job opportunities, but their effects differ among racial/ethnic minority groups. This study evaluates the degree of spatial mismatch for minority women and men by comparing the commuting times of African American, Latino, and white workers in the New York metropolitan region. Using Public Use Microdata for 1980 and 1990, we perform a partial decomposition analysis to assess the role of spatial mismatch in lengthening commuting times for minority workers. The results show that African American men and women living in the center of the region have poorer spatial access to employment than their white counterparts. In the suburbs, African American women and Latinas suffer no spatial mismatch; rather, their longer commuting times reflect greater reliance on mass transit. Comparison with 1980 findings reveals little change in spatial mismatch over time despite significant economic and social restructuring in the 1980s. Spatial barriers still limit employment prospects for the majority of minority women living at the core of the region.     

Job/Housing Imbalance and Commuting Time in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area: Exploration of Causes of Longer Commuting Time

Commuting is the major source of congestion and air pollution in the United States. For almost a decade, urban policy-makers have been concerned about the geographical balance between locations of jobs and housing as a strategy for reducing traffic congestion and air pollution in American cities. Despite the popularity and apparent acceptance of the job/housing (J/H) imbalance concept among public policy-makers, little empirical research has been done on the J/H imbalance and how it relates to commuting patterns. This research examines commuting patterns in the Atlanta metropolitan area to determine the extent to which commuting flow volume is the result of an imbalance between the location of home and workplace by using the most sophisticated and largest geographical scale data provided by the 1990 U.S. Census of Transportation Planning Package. This paper uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) to measure the job/housing imbalance within a commuting catchment area having a 7-mile radius from the centroid of each Transportation Analysis Zone. Analysis of variance, stepwise multiple regression and cartographic evidence all confirm the relationship between the imbalance of jobs and housing (J/H) and mean travel time to work. This investigation highlights the fact that the imbalance between the location of jobs and housing is the most important determinant for longer commuting and suggests that higher quality housing growth close to the job-rich communities may benefit the workers to economize the commuting time.     

The spatial distribution of occupational prestige in metropolitan Tel Aviv

Summary Occupational prestige is the social value attributed to occupation, and in most instances indicates socio-economic status. It is obtained at the workplace and manifested in one's lifestyle in a specific place of residence, and its spatial distribution therefore follows the repetitive flow of commuters. The geography of such prestige has not previously been studied; this study uses the 1983 census to examine the spatial distribution of occupational prestige in metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel. It was found that most workers use short, local commuting routes, which point to relatively closed secondary spatial labour markets. Common generalizations in research regarding commuting length and occupational status reflect the social composition of the entire workforce, with workers of higher occupational status tending towards longer commutes. Yet, this study shows that such commuting is also undertaken by workers of lower occupational status, while short commuting is also undertaken by workers of higher status. In addition, the results show that such generalizations are spatially differentiated.     

Travel From Home: An Economic Geography of Commuting Distances in Montreal

The question of how home and workplace are linked through commuting is at the heart of much recent work on metropolitan areas. However, the emphasis tends to be either on spatial-economic models or on the impact of empirically measured individual, household, neighborhood, and transport mode characteristics; relatively little work has focused on job characteristics and place of employment as they relate to travel to work. In this article, I investigate whether people travel different distances to access different types of job location, with particular attention to the different distances traveled by men and women. My points of reference are the major employment centers (poles) in the Montreal region. After controlling for a wide range of explanations that may account for different travel distances, I conclude that differences in commuting length between different places of work are, by and large, independent of possible explanatory factors such as residential location, economic sector, occupation, income, and participation in household earnings—some places of work generate longer commutes than others. Men and women behave differently in relation to these places: women will travel farther to access jobs in centers whereas men will not; and despite their shorter average overall commutes, women travel farther than men to reach jobs in the CBD. This suggests, at the metropolitan scale, that each job location may have its own local culture or "milieu," and that men and women react differently to them.     

Metropolitan dynamics in Israel: an emerging “metropolitan island state”?

This study analyzes metropolitan dynamics in a small country with an “island state” context of closed boundaries, using commuting data and mobile phone tracking data. We examine whether the Israeli context encourages the formation of a monocentric “metropolitan state,” characterized by increasing links between localities throughout the country and its principal metropolitan node (Tel Aviv)—rather than with secondary metropolitan areas—and by fuzzy, overlapping metropolitan boundaries. Commuting data from the 1995 and 2008 censuses show that metropolitan expansion processes in Israel are gradual. Mobile phone tracking data for 2013 reveal similar patterns, confirming the urban structure’s stability and the reliability of tracking data as a means of assessing metropolitan processes. The “island state” context supports growing monocentricity, but, when it comes to commuting and travel for other purposes, Israel is not yet a metropolitan state; metropolitan boundaries are not as fuzzy and rapidly changing as expected.     

TRAVEL TO WORK AND LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION OF MEN AND WOMEN IN AN AUSTRALIAN METROPOLITAN AREA

For a number of social and cultural reasons, labor force participation rates of Australian women are low. One reason not previously investigated is the problem of geographic accessibility to employment, especially for suburban women. Results from journey-to-work studies show that females either work locally or in the central-city area, whereas males travel to more dispersed locations. Further investigation of female travel patterns from each of fifty-five suburban local government areas shows that the socioeconomic status of an area, together with its job mix, explains much variety in female work travel and suggests that workforce participation rates depend in part on local job availability. The research contributes to an understanding of the nature of occupational and geographical disaggregation of the Melbourne metropolitan labor market.     

PATTERNS OF SPATIAL DISPERSION IN METROPOLITAN COMMUTING

The simultaneous impact of residential and employment decentralization in the form of multinucleations on patterns of commuting concentration and dispersion is examined for the Washington metropolitan area with 1980 data. Because of the area's generally white-collar labor force, the impact of segregated occupational groups is minimized and it is possible to examine strictly the spatial dimensions of commuting dispersion. Commuting becomes increasingly more dispersed from the center of the area to about 12 miles outward. Beyond that point, the patterns of commuting become considerably more complex, responding to a wide range of sizes of employment in a widely dispersed pattern of nucleations. In some sectors, commuting dispersion remains somewhat constant. In one sector, commuting patterns revert to some level of concentration, possibly responding to a somewhat unique situation of employment concentration along a corridor. These findings contribute to the recognition that tomorrow's transit structure cannot rely on its traditional form, but must become more selective.     

Job Proximity and Accessibility for Workers of Various Wage Groups

This research proposes two indexes, job proximity and accessibility, to measure workers' location advantage by residences with respect to their job markets. Job proximity is designed to capture the spatial separation between residents and jobs. Job accessibility measures one's ability to overcome such separation as may be affected by transportation means, road network, congestion, and intensity of competition for jobs among workers. The research compares the two measures among workers of various wage levels in an attempt to reveal who has the greatest advantage in job access and whether job access is a spatial or nonspatial issue. In Cleveland in 1990, the mean wage rate of 30,000 was a critical turning point: below this level, the higher the mean wage rate in a residential area, the farther the area was away from jobs; above this level, the trend is reversed. In other words, below a wage threshold, workers tend to trade better and more spacious housing (usually farther away from jobs) for more commuting; but above the threshold, workers retreat for saving in commuting (pertaining to their high opportunity cost of commuting). Although low-wage workers enjoy better job proximity, many of them (particularly some inner-city residents) have the worst job accessibility because of their limited transport mobility as indicated by a low level of automobile ownership. Job proximity declines with distance from the CBD and conforms to the monocentric model, as does job accessibility but to a less degree. Since workers with various wages respond differently to job access, the distribution of mean wage rates in the metropolitan area is hardly monocentric.     

Paleolimnological reconstructions of Rouyn-Noranda lakes within the zone of influence of the Horne Smelter,Québec,Canada

Diatoms were identified and enumerated from a surface sediment calibration set of 50 lakes in northwestern Québec. The relationship between species composition and environmental variables was examined using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA). Forward selection and Monte Carlo permutation tests in CCA indicated that diatom species distributions in the data set are most strongly correlated to lakewater pH. A strong (r ² _boot = 0.83) weighted averaging calibration model, that includes bootstrapped error estimates, was developed for inferring past lakewater pH. Using this model, temporal changes in pH were reconstructed for two kettle lakes, Lac de la Pépinière and Lac Perron. Based on limnological data, both the study lakes were expected to have recently acidified due to increased acidic precipitation and increases in anthropogenic metal loading. However, our long-term pH inference data indicate that these lakes were naturally acidic during pre-industrial times. Nonetheless, the rate of acidification, particularly in Lac de la Pépinière, has accelerated in the last ∼75 years. These long-term pH records developed for the dilute lakes in northwestern Québec suggest that the region has received increased atmospheric pollutants from the nearby Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda. The pH inference profiles are markedly different from many other paleolimnological studies in acid-sensitive regions of Canada that have become acidic primarily as a result of industrial activities. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi: ) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Race,Gender, and Constrained Work Trips in Buffalo,NY, 1990

This study investigates whether women's short commutes should be interpreted as constrained or convenient work trips by examining how race, gender, travel mode, occupation, residential location, workplace location, and Inc.ome affect commuting time. The analysis is restricted to a sample of European American and African American male and female workers residing in Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding county using data drawn from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the 1990 U.S. census. Given the pervasive gender wage gap, women unsurprisingly have more compromised (short commutes to low-Inc.ome jobs) work trips than do men. Multivariate analysis reveals that among those who reverse commute to suburban locations, African American women have the longest work trips.     

城市居民出行的空气污染暴露测度及其影响机制——北京市郊区社区的案例分析

利用2010年北京两个典型郊区社区（天通苑、亦庄）居民出行的GPS数据与活动日志调查数据,测度了不同交通方式环境下居民每日出行过程中PM_2.5和CO空气污染暴露度,并分析了不同人群PM_2.5和CO空气污染暴露度的差异性,进而构建结构方程模型分析郊区社区居民PM_2.5和CO空气污染暴露度的影响因素。研究表明：① 机动化出行率对空气污染暴露程度的直接影响最大,其次是出行次数与出行时间,即机动化出行率越大,出行次数越多、出行时间越长空污染暴露程度越高;机动化出行率通过影响出行时间和出行次数间接影响空气污染暴露度;职住距离对居民空气污染暴露度也存在影响,职住分离程度越高空气污染暴露度越高,职住距离通过增加出行时间进而增加空气污染暴露度。② 不同社会经济属性群体的出行空气污染暴露度存在一定差异性,中等收入群体显著高于低收入群体和高收入群体,租房者显著低于购房者;未婚群体的PM_2.5污染暴露度显著高于已婚群体,驾照持有群体的CO污染暴露度高于无驾照群体。     

上海都市区边界划分——基于手机信令数据的探索

都市区是中心城市及其主要影响范围,在区域经济发展中有重要的引领作用。国外都市区范围根据中心城市与外围地区的通勤联系划分,本质上是与中心城市具有密切经济联系的统一劳动市场区。国内由于统计数据的缺乏,通过通勤联系划分都市区的相关研究难以开展,且划分结果在内涵上与国外都市区差异较大。移动电话是目前普及率最高的移动通讯终端设备,其包含的地理位置标签可反映用户的职住地信息。利用上海移动2014年上半年某两周2G手机信令数据,识别用户的居住地和工作地,参照国外标准,根据中心与外围地区的通勤联系划分上海市都市区。在通勤联系的基础上,尝试采用消费联系作为都市区划分的辅助标准,并对划分结果进行了调整。结果表明：① 基于通勤联系的上海都市区主要包括中心城周边地区、松江新城及外围大型工业区,基于消费联系调整的上海都市区包括中心城周边地区、松江、嘉定、青浦等新城及浦东惠南地区、长兴岛,整体上呈现东西略长、南北略窄的形态;② 通勤联系和消费联系可以相互结合划分中国的都市区边界,通勤联系作为主要指标,消费联系作为辅助指标;③ 上海与国外城市都市区差异较大,国外都市区范围扩展极广,上海都市区范围未超过行政边界,局限在在中心城周围相对较小的范围内。     

北京城市居住空间形态对居民通勤方式的影响

借助GIS分析和多项式逻辑回归模型,基于5 066份大规模问卷调查数据对北京进行了实证分析,考察北京城市居住空间形态特征在城市空间上的差异,及其对居民通勤方式的影响程度。结果显示：北京城区和郊区的居住空间形态的空间分异显著,并且对居民的通勤方式造成了重大影响,超大街区不利于步行,而高容积率对小汽车出行有显著的抑制作用,高度混合的土地利用形态则能够显著促进居民选择步行通勤。性别、年龄、收入对北京居民的通勤方式具有影响,女性、中老年及低收入群体选择绿色出行方式的概率更高。结论表明居住空间形态规划是引导居民通勤方式的重要途径之一,据此提出了减少居民小汽车出行、促进绿色出行的规划建议。     

From Rural Dilution to Multifunctional Countryside: Some pointers to the future from South Australia

Rural dilution, a term originally used in the UK in the 1950s, refers to change in the social composition of rural populations: those elements engaged in primary production (and its necessary servicing) are thinned out by agricultural restructuring and labour shedding, while at the same time in-migration of new elements (retirement, long-distance commuting, lifestyle migration) is occurring. The extent to which such dilution occurs is influenced by a number of factors, including distance in travel time from the nearest metropolitan or other large city, location with respect to the coast/perceived environmental amenity, and rural population density. This paper explores changes in traditional rural communities in Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia, which lie 2½-3 hours' drive from Adelaide and have been subject to substantial rural dilution. Drawing on two detailed surveys of the strictly rural (dispersed) population of the region carried out in 1984 and replicated in 2000, some important social impacts of the recent migration flows are identified, including changes in perceived community identity and allegiance, shopping and business patterns, and the very recent impact of the uptake of electronic communication innovations. The paper concludes with an assessment of the extent to which the trends identified are likely to continue, and mould future communities in similar distance and amenity situations over the next 10-20 years, changing the nature of rurality in Australia.