THE CHANGING COMMUTE - A CASE-STUDY OF THE JOBS-HOUSING RELATIONSHIP OVER TIME

Commuting patterns between home and work were studied among 30 000 emp loyees of Kaiser Permanente, a major health care provider in Southern California. The study tracked the differences between home and work lo cation among employees over 6 years by analysing employee records and responses to a survey of over 1500 of the workers. It was found that w ork trip lengths had in general not grown over the 6 year period. Grow th of the work force had contributed more to the growth in local traff ic congestion than had a lengthening of the work trip over time. The a utomobile remains the dominant mode of travel between home and work fo r these employees, and choices of residential location were found to b e based upon many factors in addition to the home-work separation, suc h as quality of neighbourhood and schools and perceived safety.