The use of ETC data to visualize excess commuting and jobs-housing balance in Taiwan

Keywords: Jobs-housing balance, excess commuting, human dynamics, GIS, spatial big data
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Rapid urban growth extends the boundaries of urbanized areas and makes people spend extra travel cost on the journey to work. Scholars have examined commuting behaviors between residence and work places within a region, and suggested the conceptual theory of jobs-housing balance to evaluate if there are sufficient job opportunities for residents in the region. A quantitative measurement of excess commuting is proposed to reflect the degree of jobs-house balance. However, current studies focus on the evaluation of excess commuting and the causality of spatial restructuring between residence and workplace, the extend of excess commuting in an urban region is not spatially delineated. This study aims to examine the degree of jobs-housing balance through the calculation of excess commuting and represent the spatial extent of excess commuting of Taiwan cities. This study analyzes Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) data of Taiwan to calculate three key parameters of excess commuting, Tmin, Tobs, and Tmax. The three parameters are used to visualize the extent of commuting zones and examine commuting patterns of Taiwan cities. The analytical results explain how ETC data is used for the calculation of excess commuting, and how the indicators of excess commuting are used to visualize the extent of commuting zones.