Suburbanization of Jobs And the Journey to Work

In recent years, a debate has brewed over whether the decentralization of employment has been beneficial from a regional standpoint. In this article, we focus on one aspect of the debate: how the relocation of office workers from a downtown to a suburban location affects commuting behavior. From a survey of 320 former downtown San Francisco workers who now work in the suburbs, we found that the average distance traveled remains essentially unchanged and that the average commuting speed declines. The most dramatic change is the switch from public transit to private auto commuting. In the aggregate, we estimate that the change in job location is associated with nearly a threefold increase in vehicle miles traveled to work. While from a personal standpoint, employees seem be to better off since they get to work faster in a superior form of transportation, from a larger social and environment perspective, the costs could be significant. More detailed analyses of submarkets reveal that the transportation impacts vary considerably depending on whether the original residence was in the suburbs or central city and whether relocated workers have moved their residences in recent years. In general, those who remain in San Francisco and become reverse commuters are worst off whereas those who move their residences out of the city are much better off in terms of transportation access. The research also shows that, consistent with theory, movers tend to trade-off larger lot living for a longer commute, even when jobs suburbanize. The article concludes that various users chargers, development fees, and transit service reforms are needed to respond to the rapid growth in suburban employment markets.