IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jotrge/v16y2008i1p14-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Commuting behaviour in sparsely populated areas: evidence from northern Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • Sandow, Erika

Abstract

From a Swedish regional development policy perspective, increased long-distance commuting is viewed as a means for creating larger local labour markets and thus stimulating regional economic growth. One of the prerequisites for such a development is that individuals are willing to commute longer distances. In the context of a relatively peripheral and sparsely populated area in northern Sweden, this paper aims to study commuting behaviour and factors influencing individuals’ propensities to commute longer distances. Using a longitudinal set of geo-referenced data, individuals’ commuting propensities were estimated in a binary logistic regression, and significant effects were found for a range of socio-economic and demographic factors. The results also show that the local labour market’s geographical structure is important. Overall, most individuals commute within their locality of residence and women commute shorter distances than men do – a pattern that has been relatively stable since the beginning of the 1990s. This article attempts to outline causes and effects of this commuting behaviour, which are important to understand in the development of regional development policies aimed at increasing geographical labour mobility.

Suggested Citation

  • Sandow, Erika, 2008. "Commuting behaviour in sparsely populated areas: evidence from northern Sweden," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 14-27.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:16:y:2008:i:1:p:14-27
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2007.04.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692307000506
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2007.04.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim Schwanen & Frans M. Dieleman & Martin Dijst, 2004. "The Impact of Metropolitan Structure on Commute Behavior in the Netherlands: A Multilevel Approach," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 304-333, September.
    2. White, Michelle J, 1986. "Sex Differences in Urban Commuting Patterns," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 368-372, May.
    3. Clark, William A. V. & Huang, Youqin & Withers, Suzanne, 2003. "Does commuting distance matter?: Commuting tolerance and residential change," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 199-221, March.
    4. Janice Fanning Madden, 1981. "Why Women Work Closer to Home," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 18(2), pages 181-194, June.
    5. Larry D. Singell & Jane H. Lillydahl, 1986. "An Empirical Analysis of the Commute to Work Patterns of Males and Females in Two-Earner Households," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 23(2), pages 119-129, April.
    6. Schafer, Andreas & Victor, David G., 2000. "The future mobility of the world population," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 171-205, April.
    7. Joan Moss & Claire Jack & Michael Wallace, 2004. "Employment Location and Associated Commuting Patterns for Individuals in Disadvantaged Rural Areas in Northern Ireland," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 121-136.
    8. Genevieve Giuliano & Kenneth A. Small, 1993. "Is the Journey to Work Explained by Urban Structure?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 30(9), pages 1485-1500, November.
    9. David Levinson, 1998. "Accessibility and the Journey to Work," Working Papers 199802, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    10. Harsman, Bjorn & Quigley, John M., 1998. "Education, Job Requirements, and Commuting: An Analysis of Network Flows," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt7vx9f36b, University of California Transportation Center.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Natalia Presman & Arie Arnon, 2006. "Commuting patterns in Israel 1991-2004," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2006.04, Bank of Israel.
    2. Jennifer Roberts & Karl Taylor, 2017. "Intra-household commuting choices and local labour markets," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 69(3), pages 734-757.
    3. Mette Deding & Trine Filges & Jos Van Ommeren, 2009. "Spatial Mobility And Commuting: The Case Of Two‐Earner Households," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 113-147, February.
    4. Wang, Donggen & Chai, Yanwei, 2009. "The jobs–housing relationship and commuting in Beijing, China: the legacy of Danwei," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 30-38.
    5. Natalia Presman & Arie Arnon, 2000. "Commuting Patterns in Israel," Regional and Urban Modeling 283600076, EcoMod.
    6. Surprenant-Legault, Julien & Patterson, Zachary & El-Geneidy, Ahmed M., 2013. "Commuting trade-offs and distance reduction in two-worker households," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 12-28.
    7. Jordy Meekes & Wolter H. J. Hassink, 2023. "Endogenous local labour markets, regional aggregation and agglomeration economies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 13-25, January.
    8. Kawabata, Mizuki & Abe, Yukiko, 2018. "Intra-metropolitan spatial patterns of female labor force participation and commute times in Tokyo," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 291-303.
    9. Mei Zhang & Jia Tang & Jun Gao, 2023. "Examining the Effects of Built Environments and Individual Characteristics on Commuting Time under Spatial Heterogeneity: An Empirical Study in China Using HLM," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-20, August.
    10. Cho, Eun Joo & Rodriguez, Daniel & Song, Yan, 2008. "The Role of Employment Subcenters in Residential Location Decisions," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 1(2), pages 121-151.
    11. Yujie Hu & Fahui Wang & Chester Wilmot, 2020. "Commuting Variability by Wage Groups in Baton Rouge 1990-2010," Papers 2006.03498, arXiv.org.
    12. Hong, Sung Hyo & Lee, Bun Song & McDonald, John F., 2018. "Commuting time decisions for two-worker households in Korea," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 122-129.
    13. Hui Chen & Sven Voigt & Xiaoming Fu, 2021. "Data-Driven Analysis on Inter-City Commuting Decisions in Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-24, June.
    14. Vincent-Geslin, Stephanie & Ravalet, Emmanuel, 2016. "Determinants of extreme commuting. Evidence from Brussels, Geneva and Lyon," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 240-247.
    15. Yusuf Sofiyandi1, 2018. "The Effect of Residential Location and Housing Unit Characteristics on Labor Force Participation of Childbearing Women in Indonesia: Using Twin Births As A Quasi-Natural Experiment," LPEM FEBUI Working Papers 201822, LPEM, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, revised Jul 2018.
    16. Jie Zhang & Yang Xie, 2015. "Optimal Intra-Urban Hierarchy of Activity Centers—A Minimized Household Travel Energy Consumption Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-19, August.
    17. Yingling Fan, 2017. "Household structure and gender differences in travel time: spouse/partner presence, parenthood, and breadwinner status," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 271-291, March.
    18. He, Mingwei & Zhao, Shengchuan & He, Min, 2016. "Tolerance threshold of commuting time: Evidence from Kunming, China," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-7.
    19. Qin, Ping & Wang, Lanlan, 2019. "Job opportunities, institutions, and the jobs-housing spatial relationship: Case study of Beijing," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 331-339.
    20. Crane, Randall, 2007. "Is There a Quiet Revolution in Women's Travel? Revisiting the Gender Gap in Commuting," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8nj9n8nb, University of California Transportation Center.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:16:y:2008:i:1:p:14-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-transport-geography .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.