IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v32y1995i1p69-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Excess Commuting in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area: Measurement and Policy Simulations

Author

Listed:
  • David Merriman

    (Department of Economics, Loyola University of Chicago, 820 N Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA, Department of Economics, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois 60115, USA)

  • Toru Ohkawara

    (Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry, Tokyo, Japan)

  • Tsutomu Suzuki

    (Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry, Tokyo, Japan)

Abstract

In this paper data from the 1985 Japanese Population Census are used to measure 'excess' commuting among 211 origin and destination points in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Using an approach developed by Hamilton, it is found that about 90 per cent of commuting time in Tokyo is excess. Using White's method only about 15 per cent of commuting time is excess. Sensitivity analyses reveal that the results are not very sensitive to the major assumptions of the analyses. The findings are compared and contrasted with Small and Song's results for the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Several simulations are used to examine the effect of decentralisation of employment on commuting behaviour and it is found that commuting time could be significantly reduced by decentralising jobs or centralising workers.

Suggested Citation

  • David Merriman & Toru Ohkawara & Tsutomu Suzuki, 1995. "Excess Commuting in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area: Measurement and Policy Simulations," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 32(1), pages 69-85, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:32:y:1995:i:1:p:69-85
    DOI: 10.1080/00420989550013220
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420989550013220
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420989550013220?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. Yukio Noguchi, 1990. "Japan's Land Problem," Japanese Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 48-64.
    2. Willson, Richard W., 1992. "Estimating the Travel and Parking Demand Effects of Employer-Paid Parking," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt37p740qt, University of California Transportation Center.
    3. Small, Kenneth A & Song, Shunfeng, 1992. ""Wasteful" Commuting: A Resolution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(4), pages 888-898, August.
    4. Giuliano, Genevieve & Small, Kenneth A., 1991. "Subcenters in the Los Angeles region," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 163-182, July.
    5. 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.
    6. White, Michelle J, 1988. "Urban Commuting Journeys Are Not "Wasteful."," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 1097-1110, October.
    7. Suh, Seoung Hwan, 1990. "Wasteful commuting: An alternative approach," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 277-286, November.
    8. Hamilton, Bruce W, 1989. "Wasteful Commuting Again," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(6), pages 1497-1504, December.
    9. Cropper, Maureen L. & Gordon, Patrice L., 1991. "Wasteful commuting: A re-examination," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 2-13, January.
    10. Hatta, Tatsuo & Ohkawara, Toru, 1993. "Population, Employment, and Land Price Distributions in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 103-128, January.
    11. Noguchi, Yukio, 1990. "Land Problem in Japan," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 31(2), pages 73-86, December.
    12. Lawrence Thurston & Anthony M. J. Yezer, 1991. "Testing the Monocentric Urban Model: Evidence Based on Wasteful Commuting," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 19(1), pages 41-51, March.
    13. White, M.J., 1988. "Urban Commuting Journeys Are Not Wasteful," Papers 88-10, Michigan - Center for Research on Economic & Social Theory.
    14. Michelle J. White, 1990. "Commuting and Congestion: A Simulation Model of a Decentralized Metropolitan Area," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 18(3), pages 335-368, September.
    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. Niedzielski, Michael A. & Horner, Mark W. & Xiao, Ningchuan, 2013. "Analyzing scale independence in jobs-housing and commute efficiency metrics," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 129-143.
    2. 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.
    3. Hu, Yujie & Wang, Fahui, 2015. "Decomposing excess commuting: a Monte Carlo simulation approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 43-52.
    4. Cheng, Lin & Chen, Chen & Xiu, Chunliang, 2017. "Excess kindergarten travel in Changchun, Northeast China: A measure of residence-kindergarten spatial mismatch," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 208-216.
    5. Myung-Jin Jun & Simon Choi & Frank Wen & Ki-Hyun Kwon, 2018. "Effects of urban spatial structure on level of excess commutes: A comparison between Seoul and Los Angeles," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(1), pages 195-211, January.
    6. Jiangping, Zhou & Chun, Zhang & Xiaojian, Chen & Wei, Huang & Peng, Yu, 2014. "Has the legacy of Danwei persisted in transformations? the jobs-housing balance and commuting efficiency in Xi’an," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 64-76.
    7. Schleith, Daniel & Widener, Michael & Kim, Changjoo, 2016. "An examination of the jobs-housing balance of different categories of workers across 26 metropolitan regions," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 145-160.
    8. Frost, Martin & Linneker, Brian & Spence, Nigel, 1998. "Excess or wasteful commuting in a selection of British cities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 529-538, September.
    9. Chunil Kim & Choongik Choi, 2019. "Towards Sustainable Urban Spatial Structure: Does Decentralization Reduce Commuting Times?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-28, February.
    10. Shu‐Hen Chiang, 2012. "The Source of Metropolitan Growth: The Role of Commuting," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 143-166, March.
    11. Mark W. Horner, 2008. "`Optimal' Accessibility Landscapes? Development of a New Methodology for Simulating and Assessing Jobs—Housing Relationships in Urban Regions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(8), pages 1583-1602, July.
    12. Kim, Seyoung, 1993. "After the Resolution: Excess Commuting for Two-Worker Households in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt2km7f60d, University of California Transportation Center.
    13. Shunfeng Song, 1995. "Does generalizing density functions better explain urban commuting? Some evidence from the Los Angeles region," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(5), pages 148-150.
    14. Michael A. Niedzielski, 2006. "A Spatially Disaggregated Approach to Commuting Efficiency," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 43(13), pages 2485-2502, December.
    15. Tufayel A. Chowdhury & Darren M. Scott & Pavlos S. Kanaroglou, 2013. "Urban Form and Commuting Efficiency: A Comparative Analysis across Time and Space," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(1), pages 191-207, January.
    16. Vincent Viguié, 2015. "Cross-commuting and housing prices in a polycentric modeling of cities," Policy Papers 2015.03, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    17. Andy C. Pratt, 1996. "Coordinating Employment, Transport and Housing in Cities: An Institutional Perspective," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(8), pages 1357-1375, October.
    18. Korsu, Emre & Le Néchet, Florent, 2017. "Would fewer people drive to work in a city without excess commuting? Explorations in the Paris metropolitan area," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 259-274.
    19. Murphy, Enda, 2009. "Excess commuting and modal choice," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 735-743, October.
    20. Guillaume Pouyanne, 2005. "Land Use mix and Daily Mobility - the Case of Bordeaux, France," ERSA conference papers ersa05p84, European Regional Science Association.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:urbstu:v:32:y:1995:i:1:p:69-85. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.