Some Effects of Employment Centers on Commuting Times in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 1990

This study examines the relationship between one-way commuting time to major employment clusters in the Atlanta metropolitan area in 1990 and (1) the employment size of the clusters, (2) their distance from the major CBD cluster, and (3) selected attributes of workers in these clusters. The clusters are divided into centers and subcenters and central area and suburban locations. In addition to analyzing descriptive data, seven independent variables were correlated with mean commuting time in order to test three sets of hypotheses. Data are from the 1990 U.S. Census of Transportation Planning Package for a 13-county portion of the Atlanta metropolitan area, and utilize 948 Transportation Analysis Zones. It was found that three sets of factors are associated with mean commuting time: In order of importance they are distance of the cluster from the CBD (inverse association); characteristics of the workforce in the cluster, viz. percentage of high-income workers, percentage of workers who are Black, and percentage of transit users; and employment size of the cluster.