How urban land use influences commuting flows in Wuhan, Central China: A mobile phone signaling data perspective

Abstract

Commuting is an essential part of our urban daily life. Understanding of commuting flows is crucial for urban and traffic planning. Urban land use plays a fundamental role of urban studies, given that its verified impact on commuting pattern in previous studies. This paper explores whether urban land use influences the commuting flows and how it impacts the relationship between commuting flows and origin-destination distances (i.e., the accessibility). In this study, the basic gravity model is extended with land use variables. And both multiple regression and moderated multiple regression models are applied to analyze the relationship between commuting flows and land use (i.e., industrial, commercial, residential, educational land etc.), as well as the interaction effect between land use variables and the accessible distance. Commuting data is extracted from Wuhan’s mobile phone signaling data in 2016, particularly incorporated in the empirical analysis. The results show that industrial and residential origins are likely to send more commuters while industrial and commercial destinations attract more. An interaction effect between land use and distance is revealed that commuting flows with industrial origins (destinations) decrease fastest with distance increasing while those with commercial origins (destinations) decrease slowest. These findings imply that: 1) Urban land use of commuters’ origins and destinations significantly influences commuting flows; and 2) Urban land use moderates the relationship between the distance and commuting flows as well. This study contributes to policies-makings of urban and traffic planning through understanding commuting flows from the mobile phone signaling data perspective