Effects of spatial structure, job-housing mismatch, and dual-earner households on commuting in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area

The overall goal of this research is to measure the extent and causes of "longer" commuting. A review of the geographic literature shows that in the last two decades, many researchers have observed that commuting length and traffic congestion have been increasing in many metropolitan areas in the United States. However, there is very little information available on the extent and causes of longer commuting. By using the most sophisticated Census data---Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) and Public Use Micro Data Samples (PUMS)---and by combining several theoretical concepts (i.e. job-housing imbalance and mismatch, urban restructuring, and family structure) with advanced statistical and GIS techniques, my dissertation measures the extent and causes of longer commuting in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Specifically, it measures the degree to which commuting volume is the result of (i) the spatial structure of the city; (ii) the inefficiencies in matching jobs to housing; and (iii) the effect of dual-earner households.;Results show that polycentric city structure strongly affects commuting times and has induced shorter commutes in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area in terms of travel times. Results also provide very strong evidence that some areas of Atlanta have longer-than-average mean commuting times because of job-housing imbalance and the lack of affordable housing for low-status workers near their workplaces. It is apparent from this study that spatial mismatch is becoming more relevant to commuting time. Regardless of sex, minority residents of the central area suffer from spatial mismatch and therefore continue to face significant spatial barriers in traveling to work. The most robust finding of this research is that it is a misperception that dual-earner households contribute more to longer commuting than do single-earner households. The finding suggests that there is no significant difference in commuting times between dual-earner and single-earner households.