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"Research on Trip Distribution:
Models and Potential Applications to Irish Commuting" 

Presented by Prof. Morton O' Kelly

Venue: 4 pm, September 3rd, NIRSA Conference Room, 3rd Floor, John Hume Building, NUI Maynooth.

Morton O' Kelly is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at Ohio State University.

Abstract

Journey to work data present a rich source for studies of urban hinterlands, labour markets, functional regions, catchment areas, as well as various topics often labeled under the heading of a “spatial mismatch” hypothesis. While the majority of trips take place within a broad urban area, evidence of extreme commutes has been observed in a wide range of urban contexts. Even a well defined study area will omit some sources (long distance in-commuters) and sinks (long distance out-commuters). The challenge is to define appropriate study areas so that the vast majority of trips are inside the region; various accounting schemes for handling external trips are discussed. Whether this extreme commuting is the result of a dearth of affordable/accessible housing, constraints, preferences, or a combination of household space time budgets, we clearly would like to have a rigorous model to quantify the extent to which commuting extends beyond the norm in some sense. Coupled with this question is the observation that there are notable occupational and gender differences in who commutes. Irish examples would include evidence of say bus or train commuters traveling to Dublin for work, from distances that would simply have been unimaginable 40 years ago.

This seminar attempts to provide a broad overview of these issues, presents some notation and models for an analytical basis for such studies, and then simply invites discussion on a range of topics that would seem to be especially ripe for further exploration. Among these [participants please add examples!], would be to share awareness of unique aspects of particular US vs. European data sets, and of course the fascinating problem of integrating data across UK and Irish data series.