Why do they live so far from work? Determinants of long-distance commuting in California

Abstract

The determinants of long-distance commuting (trips longer than 50 miles one-way) in the U.S. appear to be poorly understood even though long-distance commuting likely has substantial environmental, social, and economic impacts. A review of the literature shows that that few papers have considered how housing costs influence long-distance commuting. Moreover, residential self-selection has rarely been accounted for in commuting studies. To start addressing these gaps, we analyze the long-distance travel component of the 2012 California Household Travel Survey via a generalized structural equation model. In our model, land use and housing costs are explained by household and head of household characteristics; together with these characteristics, land use and housing costs influence long-distance commuting. We find that the probability of a household commuting long-distance decreases with an increase in the job-housing ratio (OR = 0.914***) and most importantly, with the median home value of the census tract where a household resides (OR = 0.488***). Conversely, this probability increases with the median census tract home values where household members work (OR = 1.765***). Finally, our model results confirm the presence of small residential self-selection effects. These results highlight the importance of providing more affordable housing and mixed development options to reduce long-distance commuting and its associated environmental impacts.