The Relation between Jobs-Housing Ratio and Commuting in LA County

The Relation between Jobs-Housing Ratio and Commuting in LA CountyDiana Gonzalez Gonzalez2/13/2012

Question•Is there a relationship between jobs-

housing ratio and commuting in LA County?

The Concept of Jobs-Housing Balance• Jobs-housing balance occurs in areas where people can

both live and work• Concept seen as a solution to congestion and air

pollution • Jobs-housing ratio= # of jobs in an area/ # of housing

units in the area• According to Southern California Association of

Governments (SCAG)▫An area with more housing then jobs is housing rich

with a ratio less than 1 ▫An area in balance has a ratio between 1 and 1.29 ▫An area with more jobs then housing is job rich with

a ratio greater than 1

LA County Jobs-Housing

Ratio by Neighborhoo

ds

Map created by Diana Gonzalez GonzalezSources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey And U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS)

Commute Time Comparison

Maps created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS)

Comparing Two Different Neighborhoods: Vermont Square and Beverly Hills

Vermont Square mean travel time 1.5x

longer than Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills jobs-housing ratio 10x

larger than Vermont Square

Maps created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey and U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS)

Comparing Beverly Hills and Vermont Square Average

Commute Distance

Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey, U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey, and LA Metro

Methodology• Jobs-housing ratio

▫ # of jobs from the 2009 U.S. Census Business Patterns Survey

▫ # of housing units from 2005-2009 U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS)

▫ Divided # of jobs by # of housing units to get ratio• Average commute times

▫ Total travel time to work in minutes and # of workers from 2005-2009 U.S. Census ACS

▫ Divided total travel time to work in minutes by # of workers to get average

• Average commute distance▫ Took average commute times (in minutes) and

multiplied it by average county rush hour speed (miles per minute) to get average distance

Skills• Inset map

▫ Used to locate LA County in relation to California▫ Used to locate Vermont Square and Beverly Hills in relation to LA County

• Graduated symbol▫ Used to display average travel times▫ Used to compare the jobs-housing ratio and average travel times of Vermont Square and

Beverly Hills• Aggregating attribute fields

▫ Jobs-housing ratio created by dividing # of jobs by # of housing units▫ Average travel time created by dividing total travel time to work in minutes by # of

workers• Attribute sub-sets selections

▫ Freeways selected out of a larger shapefile on California roads• Buffering

▫ Created a buffer to compare average commute distance between Vermont Square and Beverly Hills

• Geoprocessing▫ Used merge create neighborhoods out of census tracts. ▫ Clipped California counties with the layout of California’s shore to get a more refined

California counties ▫ Clipped LA County boundaries with California counties to have only LA county

boundaries▫ Clipped LA County boundaries with California census tracts to have only LA census

tracts▫ Clipped Beverly Hills and Vermont Square buffers with LA County boundaries so buffers

don’t extend to ocean

Next Step•Using LA County to evaluate the validity

of the jobs-housing ratio. Can this concept really be used to reduce congestion and commutes?