The Influence of Jobs-Housing Balance and Socio-economic Characteristics on Commuting in a Polycentric City: New Evidence from China

Substantial increases in commuting times have become a serious problem affecting the quality of life in Chinese megacities. Accordingly, research into the dynamics of urban spatial restructuring and socio-economic transition in rapidly growing Chinese cities and the impacts on workers’ travel behaviour can provide important evidence in this research field. Using data from a recent survey of employees at their workplaces in sub-centres of Beijing, a multiple linear regression analysis was employed to measure the effect of certain variables on workers’ commuting time, by identifying relationships between the various independent variables (local jobs–housing spatial relationships, individual socio-economic characteristics and choice of transport mode) and the dependent variable (workers’ commuting times). The results of the regression analysis show that jobs–housing balance has a more significant impact on workers’ commuting times than socio-economic characteristics. The results also suggest that workers’ commuting behaviour is strongly related to socio-economic characteristics such as income, age, gender and education, as well as institutional factors such as economic and land-use reforms.