Commuting

The term commute has become shorthand for traveling some distance between one's home and place of work on a regular basis. The term commuting is derived from commutation ticket, the U.S. term for a season ticket because the daily fare is commuted to a single payment. Commuting clearly implies the routine and repeated nature of a work-related journey. Hence, commuters are defined as those who travel to work (sometimes also to school) by mainly motorized transportation (private car or public transport), and non-commuters are those who work at home or walk or cycle to work.

Policymakers and researchers are very interested in collecting statistics on commuting behavior and studying commuting patterns and trends in and around metropolitan areas. The primary objective is to better understand the variations in commuting distances and times, modal usage and choices, and trip planning and chaining behavior among different groups. Usually, a multidimensional approach is followed, whereby economic, social, health-related, and spatial aspects come to the fore.

The main factor behind the increased demand for mobility in general and commuting in particular has been the geographical dispersion of economic activities, which in turn resulted from the effect of motorization and the related substantial increase in the use of the private car. It is true that most people have become more mobile and footloose and experience greater locational freedom, which in turn has led, in many modern, industrialized societies, to a clear trend of moving away from traditional older urban centers in favor of suburban and rural locations. The result is urban sprawl and suburban development. This separation of the place of work and the place of residence has led to a substantial increase in commuting distance and time. Other noticeable trends that also have an impact on commuting are the increasing number of households in which at least two family members work at distinct locations other than the place of residence, the increase in the number of solo drivers (the so-called single-occupant vehicles, or SOVs), and a higher average disposable income, resulting in a higher number of car owners.

Studies in both the United Kingdom and the United States have shown that the average oneway travel time for a commuter in 2000 was about 25 min. (minutes), which represented a 3-min. increase in travel time over the average in 1990. This increase in commuting distances and times, leading to longer peak hours, also brought into the open the issue of long-distance commuting and excess commuting. In general, longdistance or extreme commuting occurs when a daily journey to work takes more than 90 min. each way, and this phenomenon has contributed to what economists term the commuting paradox. The commuting paradox refers to the fact that people usually overestimate the value of the things they will obtain by commuting (e.g., an intrinsically or financially more rewarding job, additional welfare gained from a pleasant living environment, more material goods, lower rents for housing, and more prestige) and underestimate the benefit of what they are losing: social connections, hobbies, and/or health. One extreme was noted in 2006, when America's Longest Commute award was given to a person who drove 372 miles (or about 4½ hours) roundtrip to and from work each day. Excess commuting, on the other hand, is defined as the additional journey-to-work travel represented by the difference between the average actual commute and the optimum (or minimum) possible average commute, given the spatial configuration of workplace and residential sites. This concept is interesting because it relates to the issue of defining and modeling what could be termed an ideal commute time and a relative desired commute amount. Obviously, a single answer is not possible here because of the huge heterogeneity in commuting behavior.

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