Project Number:
06-16
Research Project:
Network Accessibility & the Evolution of Urban Employment
P.I. Name & Address:
Christian Redfearn
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
Tel: (213)821-1364
Fax: (213)740-0001
Email: redfearn@usc.edu
Co-P.I.s:
Genevieve Giuliano
School of Policy, Planning, and Development
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0626
Tel: (213) 740-3956
Fax: (213) 740-0001
Email: giuliano@usc.edu
Project Objective:
It is becoming increasingly clear that all major cities in the U.S. have become polycentric (McMillen, 2003). What is less clear are the determinants of growth in these nodes of concentrated employment outside the traditional city center. Recent research by Giuliano and Redfearn (2005a, 2005b) inventories an extensive set of employment subcenters within the five-county region that makes up the Los Angeles Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area and tracks their growth over three time-periods: 1980, 1990, and 2000. Giuliano and Redfearn find that the locations of these employment concentrations have remained remarkably stable over this twenty-year sample period. During this period, however, the amount and density of employment has changed substantially. Employment and employment density have grown more rapidly in the suburban and exurban centers – but at an uneven rate among them. The importance of the region’s highway system is made clear by the fact that essentially every subcenter is located adjacent to at least one major freeway, with many subcenters located at the intersection of two or more. The question we propose to address is the extent to which the differential employment growth across subcenters can be explained the quality of local access to Los Angeles’ extensive transportation network.
Task Descriptions:
1. Gather Data
2. Developing measures of network accessibility
3. Model estimation
4. Dissemination of preliminary results
5. Refinement, conclusion
6. Submission of publishable article in a peer reviewed journal
Milestones, Dates:
Total Budget:
$85,000
Student Involvement:
Two students @ 25% effort, 9 months
Relationship to Other Research Projects:
Related to 04-13; part of urban mobility focus area
Technology Transfer Activities:
Project report posted on the website
Potential Benefits of the Project:
More effective transportation planning
TRB Keywords:
Urban development; employment centers
Primary Subject:
4b.4 Transportation planning, economics, and institutional issues
Goals:
4c.2 Mobility
Enabling Research:
4c.6 Human performance and behavior
Modal Orientation:
Multimodal - highway, transit
