Commuting Variability by Wage Groups in Baton Rouge 1990-2010

Abstract

Residential segregation recently has shifted to more class/income-based in the United States, and neighborhoods are undergoing significant changes such as commuting patterns over time. To better understand the commuting inequality across neighborhoods of different income levels, this research analyzes commuting variability (in both distance and time) across wage groups as well as stability over time using the CTPP data 1990-2010 in Baton Rouge. In comparison to previous work, commuting distance is estimated more accurately by Monte Carlo simulation of individual trips to mitigate aggregation error and scale effect. The results based on neighborhood’s mean wage rate indicate that commuting behaviors vary across areas of different wage rates and such variability is captured by a convex shape. Affluent neighborhoods tended to commute more but highest-wage neighborhoods retreated for less commuting. This trend remains relatively stable over time despite an overall transportation improvement in general. A complementary analysis based on the distribution of wage groups is conducted to gain more detailed insights and uncovers the lasting poor mobility (e.g., fewer location and transport options) of the lowest-wage workers in 1990-2010.

Keywords: commuting variability, wage rate, land use, Monte Carlo simulation, CTPP

JEL Classification: J30, R40