Commuter train Photograph by Wally Gobetz/Flickr citylab.com |
Hello Everyone:
A new week, fresh material. Today, with the help of Eric Jaffe's article for CityLab, we answer the question in the title "What's More Important to Non-Car Commuters: Living or Working Near Transit?" If you are a person without access to reliable transportation (e.g. a car), this is an important question. Mr. Jaffe writes, "In an ideal transit city, where commuting by bus or rail is convenient as taking car...But in the typical city, where transit-oriented development remains a work in progress, one end of the commute might be much more accessible than the other..." He asks his readers the important question, "...which is more likely to get commuters out of their car: living near a stop, or working near one?
Analysis of commuter patterns of 3,400 employed locals Denver, Colorado Data: Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice citylab.com |
Metro bus kplu.org |
Predictably, people who lived and worked near light rail stations had the highest commute shares. When commuters lived and worked one mile away from light rail lines, 35 percent used non-automative transportation; at the half-mile mark, the number increased to 50 percent; when the distance was a 15 minute walk, 62 percent of commuters used non-car transportation. In short, Mr. Jaffe writes, "All three figures easily topped the regional transit commute share of 16 percent (which included employed locals who did not live or work, or live and work, near transit).
"Non-Car Commute Share of Denver Workers By Transit Proximity" Data: Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice citylab.com |
Further, Eric Jaffe reports, "More surprisingly, commuters who worked near light rail had much stronger transit commute habits than those who lived near it." The statistical breakdown was: "Those with offices within a mile of transit had a 26 percent transit commute share; those with homes, meanwhile, had a mere 11 percent-lower than the overall regional average. At the half-mile mark, those shares rose to 31 percent for office proximity and 18 percent for home proximity. At the 15-minute threshold they hit 37 and 26 percent, respectively."
Light rail commuters healthline.com |
Living near a transit station area by itself does not increase the likelihood of using non-car modes for work commutes. But as would be expected, if the destination (work) is near a transit station, persons are less likely to drive a car to work. (http://www.sciencedirect.com)
In the interest of making things clear, the authors of the University of Denver study insist they are not implying that the clustering of household near transit is unimportant. The statistics underscore this point, "when both home and office were within a short, 15-minute walk of a station, transit was chosen by a strong majority of commuters-62 percent among this population." Eric Jaffe makes clear that this is the case under ideal circumstances, both ends of the journey have easy access to transit options.
Subway riders leaningenglish.voanews.com |
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