University of California Transportation Center

Most analyses of urban transportation and residential location ignore the effects of labor force experience or individual skills upon the location of the worksite; they also ignore the potential effect of these factors upon the tradeoff between housing and community costs.

This paper, in contrast, analyzes the spatial distribution of worksites by industry, occupation, and educational requirements within a large metropolitan area. In a parallel fashion, we investigate the spatial distribution of the residential sites of workers, differentiated in a similar manner.

We use this spatially disaggregated information to analyze regularities in commuting and transport behavior. We also develop alternative measures of regional homogeneity, more descriptive alternatives to ratios of jobs to income and similar summary statistics measuring regional "balance."