Examining Changes in Commuting Metrics Across Two Decades with LEHD

Data.

Daniel Schleith, Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, 401 Braunstein Hall, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0131, E-mail: schleidk@mail.uc.edu

Michael J. Widener, PhD, Department of Geography, University of Cincinnati, 401 Braunstein

Hall, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0131, E-mail: michael.widener@uc.edu

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Introduction • Some amount of travel to work is “required” by the layout

of a region. • Actual travel to work always higher than this required

amount.

• z

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Background

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Horner, M. W. (2002) Extensions to the concept of excess commuting. Environment and Planning A, 34, 543-566.

Commuting Measures • Observed Commutes (Tobs) The average commute distance

• Theoretical Minimum Commute (Tmin) Measure of jobs-housing balance

• Theoretical Maximum Commute (Tmax) Measure of overall dispersion or sprawl

• Excess Commuting (EC) (Tobs – Tmin) / Tobs

• Commuting Range (R) Tmax – Tmin

• Capacity Used (CU) (Tobs – Tmin) / R

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Metro Locations

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Considerations for the analysis

• 25 metro regions • 2 years (2002 & 2011) • 2 geographic extents (the 1990 metro

definition and the 2010 metro definition) • Road network distance used as the

commuting cost. • Scaling the underlying geography to be

computationally feasible.

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LEHD Data

• Published by the census bureau with almost complete national coverage Massachusetts missing, some states missing 2002, 2003

• Created from state unemployment insurance records • Consists of per block counts of residents and workers • Available from 2002-2011 currently • Already aggregated to 2010 blocks for 02-09 • Some workers are not included in the data Migrant workers, uniformed military, and self-employed

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Rank Order Comparison Tmin

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Discussion • We recalculated all of the commuting

measures from Horner’s 2002 paper for 25 metro regions.

• Understand how the urban forms are changing over time. Miami’s results support a polycentric urban form

being able to facilitate shorter commutes Overall metros remain fairly consistent

o Especially with 1990 boundaries preserved oColumbus the only metro to decrease in Tmin, Tobs,

and Tmax from 2002 to 2011.

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Appendix

The Transportation Problem

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