TY - JOUR PY - 2010// TI - The effect of neighbourhood characteristics, accessibility, home–work location, and demographics on commuting distances JO - Transportation A1 - Manaugh, Kevin A1 - Miranda-Moreno, Luis F. A1 - El-Geneidy, Ahmed M. SP - 627 EP - 646 VL - 37 IS - 4 N2 - The goal of this paper is to better understand home-to-work travel distances throughout the Montréal Metropolitan region. A simultaneous equation modelling analysis is carried out to jointly explain commuter trip length and home–work location as a function of neighbourhood typologies, commuter socio-demographics and measures of job and worker accessibility. First, a factor and cluster analysis of urban form is performed over the entire region on a fine-scale grid pattern. The outcome of this analysis is the classification of typologies at both home and job locations. Different measures of accessibility and commuter socio-demographics are then incorporated into the analysis. Varied data sources including a detailed Montréal Origin–Destination Survey on over 30,000 home-to-work automobile trips are analyzed. Among other results, commuters that live and work in a different sub-region almost double the average trip distance and although socio-economic factors have a statistically significant correlation with commuter distance, these factors have a marginal effect. Interestingly, our results highlight the importance of urban form and job accessibility. Deciding on whether to live and work in the same sub-region was modelled as an endogenous binary random utility model; unobserved heterogeneities seem to be simultaneously influencing both the home–work location choice and trip-to-work distances. Our results underscore the importance of home–work location with respect to urban form and job accessibility. Hence, policies that support more dense and mixed land-use in suburban areas would not be enough to reduce commuter distances. These actions should be accompanied by other policy initiatives to discourage long car trips. Keywords Commuting distance - Travel behaviour - Neighbourhood typology - Home–work location - Modelling - Accessibility measures

LA - SN - 0049-4488 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11116-010-9275-z ID - ref1 ER -