Understanding job-housing relationship and commuting pattern in Chinese cities: Past,present and future

There are debates about whether job-housing balance and short commuting distances could be achieved through government intervention in Western countries. However, few studies have been carried out in developing context. The present study aims to fill in this knowledge vacuum by studying how China’s changing socio-spatial context, particularly the spatial ideas of danwei, influences job-housing relationships and commuting patterns from a historical perspective. The results clearly show that the dominant trend in commuting patterns in Chinese cities has changed from intra-danwei commuting before 1978 to reverse commuting from the city center to the inner suburbs in 1978–1998, to long-distance suburb-to-city commuting since 1998. The findings suggest that government intervention could be helpful in achieving shorter commute in China, and that urban planning and policy that promote mixed land-use and job-housing balance should be considered. Some limitations of government intervention are also discussed.     

Suburbanization of jobs and the journey to work: A submarket analysis of commuting in the San Francisco bay area

Inrecent years, a debate has brewed over whether the decentralization of employment has been beneficial from a regional standpoint. In this article, we focus on one aspect of the debate: how the relocation of office workers from a downtown to a suburban location affects commuting patterns and mode choice. From a survey of 320 former downtown San Francisco workers who now work in the suburbs, we found that the average distance traveled remained essentially unchanged and that the average commuting speed increased. The most dramatic change, however, was the switch from public transit to drive-alone commuting. In the aggregate, we estimate that the change in job location was associated with nearly a threefold increase in vehicle miles traveled to work. While from a personal standpoint, employees seemed better off since they got to work faster and more comfortably, from a larger social and environmental perspective, the costs could be significant. More detailed analyses of commuter submarkets revealed that the transportation impacts vary considerably depending on whether the original residence was in the suburbs or central city and whether relocated workers had moved their residences in recent years. In general, those who remained in San Francisco and became reverse commuters were worst off whereas those who moved their residences out of the city were much better off in terms of job access. The article concludes that road pricing would be the best way to force motorists to internalize the external costs of increased drive-alone commuting. Second-best options would be to introduce development impact fees or employer-based trip reduction regulations.     

Commuting and wellbeing: a critical overview of the literature with implications for policy and future research

ABSTRACT

This review provides a critical overview of what has been learnt about commuting’s impact on subjective wellbeing (SWB). It is structured around a conceptual model which assumes commuting can affect SWB over three time horizons: (i) during the journey; (ii) immediately after the journey; and (iii) over the longer term. Our assessment of the evidence shows that mood is lower during the commute than other daily activities and stress can be induced by congestion, crowding and unpredictability. People who walk or cycle to work are generally more satisfied with their commute than those who travel by car and especially those who use public transport. Satisfaction decreases with duration of commute, regardless of mode used, and increases when travelling with company. After the journey, evidence shows that the commute experience “spills over” into how people feel and perform at work and home. However, a consistent link between commuting and life satisfaction overall has not been established. The evidence suggests that commuters are generally successful in trading off the drawbacks of longer and more arduous commute journeys against the benefits they bring in relation to overall life satisfaction, but further research is required to understand the decision making involved. The evidence review points to six areas that warrant policy action and research: (i) enhancing the commute experience; (ii) increasing commute satisfaction; (iii) reducing the impacts of long duration commutes; (iv) meeting commuter preferences; (v) recognising flexibility and constraints in commuting routines and (vi) accounting for SWB impacts of commuting in policy making and appraisal.     

Congestion pricing and roadspace rationing: an application to the San Francisco Bay Bridge corridor

This paper presents an empirical application of a congestion–alleviation strategy that C. Daganzo [Transportation Research B 29 (1995) 139–154] proposed as a “hybrid between rationing and pricing”. This strategy is applied to the San Francisco Bay Bridge corridor, in search of a practical and Pareto-improving solution to the Bridge's congestion. The work relies on a mode-split model for work trips across four different income groups residing in 459 origin zones, and it applies an equilibrium analysis based on Bridge performance. Results indicate that modal utilities (and thus choices) are sensitive to the specific combination of toll and rationing rate, as well as to the Bridge's travel-time (or performance) function, and the length of the congested section. Though no combination of tolls plus rationing rates was found to benefit all groups of travelers studied, further investigations may improve upon these results by refining some of the assumptions made here.     

Ridesharing in North America: Past,Present, and Future

Since the late 1990s, numerous ridematching programmes have integrated the Internet, mobile phones, and social networking into their services. Online ridematching systems are employing a range of new strategies to create “critical mass”: (1) regional and large employer partnerships, (2) financial incentives, (3) social networking to younger populations, and (4) real-time ridematching services that employ “smartphones” and automated ridematching software. Enhanced casual carpooling approaches, which focus on “meeting places”, are also being explored. Today, ridesharing represents approximately 8–11% of the transportation modal share in Canada and the USA, respectively. There are approximately 638 ridematching programmes in North America. Ridesharing's evolution can be categorized into five phases: (1) World War II car-sharing (or carpooling) clubs; (2) major responses to the 1970s energy crises; (3) early organized ridesharing schemes; (4) reliable ridesharing systems; and (5) technology-enabled ridematching. While ridesharing's future growth and direction are uncertain, the next decade is likely to include greater interoperability among services, technology integration, and stronger policy support. In light of growing concerns about climate change, congestion, and oil dependency, more research is needed to better understand ridesharing's impacts on infrastructure, congestion, and energy/emissions.     

Trip time-stop time studies of extreme driver behaviors

The focus of the present study has been to investigate the extent to which drivers with “extreme” modes of behavior deviate from the “normal” (chase-car) trend in a given city. The experiment consisted of collecting trip time-stop time data in the Central Business District (CBD) of Roanoke, Virginia, using three vehicles circulating simultaneously in the area. While one of the three vehicles was engaged in the chase-car mode, the other two vehicles were driven aggressively or conservatively. Similar data were also collected in the Austin, Texas, CBD. Using the data for each driver type, three two-fluid trends are established for the Roanoke CBD: an aggressive, a normal (chase-car), and a conservative trend. On a trip time-stop time diagram, while the conservative and aggressive trends are essentially parallel, the conservative trend approaches the normal trend at off-peak periods. The aggressive trend, on the other hand, approaches the normal trend at peak periods. The differences among the trends, however, are by and large statistically significant. Similar results have been obtained in Austin—despite uncertainties at high levels of demand, where the normal trend may cross the aggressive trend. The results also underline the importance of common data collection techniques when comparing the quality of traffic service of various cities using the two-fluid model approach. In assessing the statistical significance of differences among the two-fluid trends of various city networks, the potential impact of driver behavioral variations must be considered.     

A traffic congestion detection and information dissemination scheme for urban expressways using vehicular networks

The cooperative vehicle-infrastructure technologies have enabled vehicles to collect and exchange traffic information in real time. Therefore, it is possible to use Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) for detecting traffic congestion on urban expressways. However, because of the special topology of urban expressways (consisting of both major and auxiliary roadways), the existing traffic congestion detection methods using VANETs do not work very well. In addition, the existing dissemination methods of congestion information lack the necessary control mechanism, so the information may be disseminated to irrelevant geographical areas. This paper proposes a congestion detection and notification scheme using VANETs for urban expressways. The scheme adopts a simplified Doppler frequency shift method to estimate and differentiate traffic conditions for major and auxiliary roadways. Vehicular cooperation and human cognition are introduced to improve the estimation accuracy and to describe the overall traffic conditions. Additionally, the scheme develops a spatial–temporal effectiveness model based on the potential energy theory to control the dissemination area and survival time of the congestion information. Meanwhile, the proposed scheme uses several broadcast control mechanisms to alleviate vehicular network congestion. Simulations through TransModeler indicate that our scheme ensures the accuracy of the estimation of congestion degree. Consequently, the scheme can provide effective references for driving decision-making and path-planning.     

Optimization-based study of the location of park-and-ride facilities

Park-and-ride facilities are parking lots located on the periphery of cities to intercept car trips coming from the suburbs and diverting them to a transit system, thus playing a potentially important role in reducing traffic congestion and air pollution in urban areas. In this paper, we present a study carried out to shed light on where to install park-and-ride facilities in the city of Coimbra, central Portugal. Its main component is an optimization model which aims to determine the best possible locations for a given number of park-and-ride facilities under the objective of minimizing car use in the urban areas. The main result of the study is that the introduction of only three park-and-ride facilities could reduce car use in Coimbra's urban areas by 19%, an impact that would be very difficult to achieve through measures such as decreasing bus fares, increasing parking fees and/or increasing bus services.     

An investigation of commuting trip timing and mode choice in the Greater Toronto Area: Application of a joint discrete-continuous model

The trip timing and mode choice are two critical decisions of individual commuters mostly define peak period traffic congestion in urban areas. Due to the increasing evidence in many North American cities that the duration of the congested peak travelling periods is expanding (peak spreading), it becomes necessary and natural to investigate these two commuting decisions jointly. In addition to being considered jointly with mode choice decisions, trip timing must also be modelled as a continuous variable in order to precisely capture peak spreading trends in a policy sensitive transportation demand model. However, in the literature to date, these two fundamental decisions have largely been treated separately or in some cases as integrated discrete decisions for joint investigation. In this paper, a discrete-continuous econometric model is used to investigate the joint decisions of trip timing and mode choice for commuting trips in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The joint model, with a multinomial logit model for mode choice and a continuous time hazard model for trip timing, allows for unrestricted correlation between the unobserved factors influencing these two decisions. Models are estimated by occupation groups using 2001 travel survey data for the GTA. Across all occupation groups, strong correlations between unobserved factors influencing mode choice and trip timing are found. Furthermore, the estimated model proves that it sufficiently captures the peak spreading phenomenon and is capable of being applied within the activity-based travel demand model framework.     

The intra-household choices regarding commuting and housing

This paper is an empirical analysis of the relationships between commuting decisions of spouses in dual-income households, where the role of housing and housing tenure is taken into account. The study is based on a large survey of US commuters and actual commuting and housing choices. Household commuting decisions are analyzed together with housing choices using the data from the 2001 American Housing Survey. A sample of dual-career spouses who commute to work by car only is used to explore the inter-relationship between male and female commuting decisions in such households and the effect of housing choices on their commuting. The inter-relationships between spousal commuting decisions are examined separately for the two forms of housing tenure: ownership and renting. In general, men commute further than women and owners commute further than renters.It is shown that for both renters and homeowners, journeys to work by men and women in such dual-earner households appear to be “complements” and not “substitutes”. This means that commute trips are jointly chosen to be longer (or shorter) for both spouses, as part of household selection of preferred housing and neighborhood characteristics. The residuals of equations explaining commute times and commute distances for men are strongly positively correlated with those for women. Many of the explanatory factors affect the men and women in similar ways. In particular, housing value is positively correlated with commute times and distances for both genders. The commute distance for women owners appears more sensitive to housing value than that of men, meaning women adjust their trips to work even more so than men do, as part of obtaining better housing.For both homeowners and renters, longer commute distances were correlated with higher salaries for both spouses. Somewhat surprisingly, it was found that commuting distances for women are similarly or even more sensitive to income increments than are those of men. Household size appears to affect women who own housing in ways opposite from those who rent. Other housing and neighborhood factors also affect the joint commuting decisions of these men and women.     

Tradeoffs among free-flow speed, capacity, cost, and environmental footprint in highway design

This paper investigates differentiated design standards as a source of capacity additions that are more affordable and have smaller aesthetic and environmental impacts than modern expressways. We consider several tradeoffs, including narrow versus wide lanes and shoulders on an expressway of a given total width, and high-speed expressway versus lower-speed arterial. We quantify the situations in which off-peak traffic is sufficiently great to make it worthwhile to spend more on construction, or to give up some capacity, in order to provide very high off-peak speeds even if peak speeds are limited by congestion. We also consider the implications of differing accident rates. The results support expanding the range of highway designs that are considered when adding capacity to ameliorate urban road congestion.     

Impacts of commuting efficiency on congestion and emissions: case of the Hamilton CMA, Canada

This study uses IMULATE (Integrated Model of Urban LAnd use, Transportation, energy and Emissions) to examine the impacts of commuting efficiency on congestion and automobile emissions—specifically, non-methane hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides—in the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. Estimates of these externalities are compared for two commuting scenarios: a base scenario of estimated commuting flows for 1991 and an optimal scenario in which the mean commuting time for all workers is minimized. The findings indicate that significant reductions in congestion and automobile emissions are possible by advocating policies that encourage greater commuting efficiency in the locational choices of workers. The analysis of jobs–housing balance as one such means suggests that a considerable proportion of commuting cannot be explained by geographical imbalances in the distributions of jobs and housing, and that workers consider many factors besides commuting costs in their locational choices. It is concluded that policies promoting jobs–housing balance as the principal strategy for facilitating more efficient commuting may not meet the expectations of policy-makers.     

Beyond the journey to work

This paper analyses the Nationwide Personal Transportation Study (NPTS) surveys of 1977 and 1983–1984 that reveal a remarkable increase in nonwork travel. This growth occurred among all city size classes but was stronger for suburban residents. Also interesting is that the rate of increase in nonwork trips was higher in the peaks (especially in the morning peak) than in the off-peak period. Some, but not all, of these trips may be price-elastic and might be diverted by congestion pricing strategies. The nonwork trip growth is concentrated in the “family and personal” and the “social and recreational” categories. Although higher-income households make more trips than low-income households, the increase in nonwork travel is common to all income groups. The growth in nonwork travel does not appear to be closely associated with the growth in female employment or trips related to the children of working women. The most convincing explanation of the growth in nonwork travel is that the trip cost savings (less time and distance) experienced because of more efficient spatial settlement patterns have provided an incentive to undertake more trips. Another implication is that urban economic models and urban transport policies have overemphasized the journey to work, especially to the central business district (CBD).     

Structural changes in commuting in the Toronto region 1971–1981

Changes in the commuting structure of the Toronto CMA are examined using 1971 and 1981 census journey to work data. There have been important changes in household structure, the employment base and the associated location decisions which in turn have created significant changes in commuting structure. The proportions of one‐ and two‐person households increased sharply over the decade and many of these smaller‐sized, high occupational status households were located in the older inner residential areas. The bulk of the larger‐sized households continued to be located on the developing fringe where housing prices are much lower. The structure of the employment base shifted over the decade with a reduction in the proportion of manufacturing jobs and growths in the proportions of jobs in finance and services, with the bulk of these office‐based jobs located in the Yonge Street transit corridor. Job growth in the suburbs was dominated by employment in manufacturing, transportation, trade and services. The addition of some 100000 jobs in the Yonge Street corridor resulted in strong commuting growth from the inner suburbs as well as from the newly developing outer suburbs. About half of the labour force living in the outer suburbs in the decade found local jobs, with the remainder of the labour force commuting to jobs in Metropolitan Toronto, principally along the high‐mobility transit and freeway corridors.     

Efficiency and equity issues in special fees for financing transportation infrastructure

Theoretically, charges for building and operating facilities and services should be efficient (proportional to one's use of or benefit derived from the service) and equitable (proportional to one's ability to pay). A number of “innovative” financing techniques have been used recently, whereby the private sector (developers, property owners, businesses, and users) pays entirely or partially for the cost of building and operating transportation facilities or services. These techniques are particularly popular when the impact from the land use developments on the transportation system is such that substantial improvements are warranted in order to avoid serious congestion problems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate special fee assessments (a popular sub-set of “innovative” financing techniques) used for financing highway and mass transportation in order to determine their efficiency and equity implications. The need for such an investigation arises from the fact that everyone residing or doing business in a particular area does not benefit equally from a given transportation system, and neither is everyone able to contribute equally toward that system's building and operation. This paper presents some of the most commonly used special fee assessment techniques and suggests fee structures that are “optimal” on the basis of the benefits that contributors derive from the given transportation system, as well as their ability to pay for it.     

The impact of urban form on commuting in large Chinese cities

Studies on cities in Europe and the United States have demonstrated that travel behaviour is influenced by urban form. Based on these findings policies steering the shape of cities have been proposed to reduce urban transport emissions and limit congestion. Such policies can also be relevant for the rapidly growing and motorising Chinese cities. Yet, empirical evidence on the relationships between urban form and car usage is scarce for the specific Chinese context that is characterised by high densities, fast development and strong government steering. Using novel crowd-sourced datasets we study the impact of several urban form variables (city size, urban density, land-use mix, polycentricity and spatial clustering) on the cost of commuting expressed in time and distance. The results show that city size and spatial clustering are important determinants of commuting: large cities without clear clusters of businesses and other facilities have longer average commuting times and distances. Increased prosperity also adds to longer and lengthier commutes. Spatial planning measures that maintain or reinforce high-density clusters can help limiting commuting distance and time. Current sprawled urban development may have long-term, negative consequences for the accessibility and liveability of Chinese cities and could hamper their economic potential.     

Australian private-vehicle fleet changes on register and on road, 1971–1982

Despite stagnation in new-vehicle sales from the mid 1970s, both the size and total usage made of the Australian stock of cars and station wagons continued to grow unabated into the early 1980s. Such apparently contradictory trends were an international phenomena, as were increased sourcing of vehicles from Japanese manufacturers, and the experience of less than favourable economic and demographic conditions. This paper looks at the factors behind the movements noted, and attempts to assess to what extent the “downsizing” phenomena observed overseas was encountered in Australia. Increasing vehicle life expectancy and an initially favourable age structure were found to account for contradictory growth rates in new registrations and the vehicle stock, while increased lifetime utilisation of light/medium vehicles accounted for much of the increase observed in total distance travelled. Only a weak downsizing trend was detected commencing circa 1979, its weakness reflecting an unexpected trend away from light vehicles. Projections indicate that if levels of, and size patterns associated with, new-vehicle registrations persist, downsizing trends will continue to be weak, and overall stock growth rates are likely to slow, although stagnation is unlikely by 1990.     

Using a stages of change approach to explore opportunities for increasing bicycle commuting

Given the potential benefits of bicycling to the environment, the economy, and public health, many U.S. cities have set ambitious goals for increasing the bicycle share of commute trips. The Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change, which seeks to describe how positive and permanent change can be fostered in individuals, may shed light on how cities can most effectively increase bicycle commuting. We use the model’s “stages of change” framework to explore the potential for increased bicycle commuting to the UC Davis campus in Davis, California. Our analysis uses data from the 2012 to 2013 UC Davis Campus Travel Survey, an annual online survey that is randomly administered to students and employees at UC Davis. Based on their responses to questions about current commute mode and contemplation of bicycle commuting, respondents are divided into five stages of change: Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, and Maintenance. We construct a Bayesian multilevel ordinal logistic regression model to understand how differences in socio-demographic characteristics, travel attributes, and travel attitudes between individuals explain their membership in different stages of change. In addition, we use this model to explore the potential of various intervention strategies to move individuals through the stages of change toward becoming regular bicycle commuters. Our results indicate that travel attitudes matter more to progression toward regular commute bicycling than travel attributes, tentatively supporting the efficacy of “soft” policies focused on changing travel attitudes.     

Modeling and analysis of mixed flow of cars and powered two wheelers

In modern cities, a rapid increase of motorcycles and other types of Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) is observed as an answer to long commuting in traffic jams and complex urban navigation. Such increasing penetration rate of PTWs creates mixed traffic flow conditions with unique characteristics that are not well understood at present. Our objective is to develop an analytical traffic flow model that reflects the mutual impacts of PTWs and Cars. Unlike cars, PTWs filter between cars, have unique dynamics, and do not respect lane discipline, therefore requiring a different modeling approach than traditional “Passenger Car Equivalent” or “Follow the Leader”. Instead, this work follows an approach that models the flow of PTWs similarly to a fluid in a porous medium, where PTWs “percolate” between cars depending on the gap between them.Our contributions are as follows: (I) a characterization of the distribution of the spacing between vehicles by the densities of PTWs and cars; (II) a definition of the equilibrium speed of each class as a function of the densities of PTWs and cars; (III) a mathematical analysis of the model’s properties (IV) an impact analysis of the gradual penetration of PTWs on cars and on heterogeneous traffic flow characteristics.The proposed model could contribute as an enabler for ‘PTW-aware’ future Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems technologies and traffic regulations.