A large national sample from the US 1977 Nationwide Personal Transportation Study is analyzed in order to test the transport economies that may result from the dispersion of work trip-ends. Based on indirect evidence that the largest metropolitan areas have the largest proportion of noncentral-city work trip-ends, we associate a variety of work-trip results for such cities with a polycentric urban form hypothesis. We claim that these results also suggest that decentralized settlement (‘sprawl’?) is not necessarily uneconomical.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AltshulerA, 1981The Urban Transportation System (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
2.
GordonP, 1979, “Deconcentration without a ‘clean break’”Environment and Planning A11281–290
3.
HamiltonB, 1982, “Wasteful commuting”Journal of Political Economy901035–1053
4.
KauJ BLeeC F, 1976, “Functional form, density gradient and price elasticity of demand for housing”Urban Studies13193–200
5.
MorrisonP AAbrahamseA, 1982, “Is population decentralization lengthening commuting distances?” N-1934-NICHD, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA
6.
PatersonJ, 1977, “Transport and land-use determinants of urban structure” in Urban Transport Economics Ed. HensherD A, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 153–174
7.
Real Estate Research Corporation, 1974The Costs of Sprawl, Detailed Cost Analysis (US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC)
8.
US DoT, 19811977 Nationwide Personal Transportation StudyUS Department of Transportation (US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC)
