Citation

Reggiani A, Rietveld P. J. Transp. Land Use 2010; 2(3): 1-4.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, The author(s), Publisher University of Minnesota, Center for Transportation Studies)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article introduces a special issue on networks, commuting, and spatial structures. The author focuses on the interaction between home and workplace as a central component in the travel behavior of commuting. The relation between land use (residential and employment location) and commuting is complex and is worth ongoing exploration, even though there is already a wealth of research on this issue. The author provides a brief historical overview of the literature from the 1960s to the present, covering topics including the relationship between population growth and commuting time, the size distribution of cities, commuting costs, the network concept, the relevance of dynamic data provision, and commuter preferences. The author defines the network concept as the idea that many spatial economic phenomena can be described by a network of interactions among agents, where interconnectivity and interoperability between the systems play important roles. The articles in this issue were selected with two goals in mind: to provide new analytical insights into the modeling and analysis of (complex) transportation networks, as well as into the behavioral preferences of users; and to constitute a methodological platform from which to identify novel research directions. This Special Issue originates from a Euro-NECTAR (Network for European Communication and Transport Activities Research) Conference, organized in Porto, Portugal, in May 2007. The introduction concludes with an acknowledgment of the researchers at that conference and a chart that summarizes the six papers in the special issue.