Research On The Relationship Between Jobs-Housing Balance And Commuting In Shanghai

For half a century, hypothesis wheather jobs-housing spatial balance influences commuting has been studied in the west countries, while the domestic research findings are little in China. Mitigating traffic congestion and related environmental problems is expected through balancing jobs-housing in space. Although some planners and public policy-makers consider jobs-housing spatial balance as a desirable solution to traffic congestion and air pollution, little consensus exists on the viability and effectiveness of jobs-housing balance.In the past few decades, market-oriented reform in China has revitalized economy, and promoted urban sprawling. Meanwhile it has brought a series of problems, such as environmental pollution and traffic congestion which have become issues of concerns for urban governments and citizens. In the situation, it's of great importance to study wheather jobs-housing relationship influences commuting in Chinese mega-cities. Lessoned from the research achievements in and abroad, this paper studied out the basic instructive thought for empirical research of the jobs-housing relationship in Shanghai.The principal data for the study is from a sampled questionnaire survey toward 1600 resident of Shanghai in 2009. Scatter diagram, Curve fitting, Pearson correlation and Stepwise multiple regression are applied to analyze empirically the relationship between jobs-housing and commuting in Shanghai. Then we explore which factors may affecet job-housing relationship, and how the job-housing imbalance happens based on the theoretical research and empirical findings. We try to propose some strategic advice to mitigate traffic congestion under the concept of jobs-housing balance in the end.First, the findings suggest that average commuting time and distance are shorter where the number of jobs and resident are approximately equal. Second, we find the degree of how jobs match resident actually has clear influence on the average commuting time and distance. The more jobs match resident, the shorter average commuting time and distance are. Third, among many factors, the degree of how jobs match resident actually in an area and the proportion of those who choose walking and bicycle riding as commuting mode are the most two effect factors. Fourth, comparing to areas with longer commuting distance, area where commuting distance is shorter has shorter average commuting time. Fifth, among many factors, average commuting distance in an area is the most effect factors for average commuting time. Individual, commuting distance is the most important factor which affects the efficiency of commuting in the end. All in all, the relationship between jobs-housing balance and commuting is confirmed, and balancing jobs-housing in space will help mitigate traffic congestion in Chinese mega-cities.