Why do they live so far from work? Determinants of long-distance commuting in California

The determinants of long-distance commuting (trips longer than 50 miles one-way) in the U.S. appear to be poorly understood even though long-distance commuting likely has substantial environmental, social, and economic impacts. A review of the literature shows that that few papers have considered how housing costs influence long-distance commuting. Moreover, residential self-selection has rarely been accounted for in commuting studies. To start addressing these gaps, the authors analyze the long-distance travel component of the 2012 California Household Travel Survey via a generalized structural equation model. In their model, land use and housing costs are explained by household and head of household characteristics; together with these characteristics, land use and housing costs influence long-distance commuting. The authors find that the probability of a household commuting long-distance decreases with an increase in the job-housing ratio (OR = 0.914***) and most importantly, with the median home value of the census tract where a household resides (OR = 0.488***). Conversely, this probability increases with the median census tract home values where household members work (OR = 1.765***). Finally, the authors' model results confirm the presence of small residential self-selection effects. These results highlight the importance of providing more affordable housing and mixed development options to reduce long-distance commuting and its associated environmental impacts.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102489
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692318302837
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09666923
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Mitra, Suman K
  • Saphores, Jean-Daniel M
• Publication Date: 2019-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transport Geography
  • Volume: 80
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0966-6923
  • Serial URL: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jtrangeo

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commuting; Costs; Housing; Land use; Residential location; Socioeconomic factors; Structural equation modeling; Travel surveys; Trip length; Work trips
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01718552
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 30 2019 10:09AM