Commuter town

A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many other terms: "bedroom community" (Canada and northeastern US), "bedroom town", "bedroom suburb" (US), "dormitory town", or "dormitory suburb" (Britain/Commonwealth/Ireland). In Japan, a commuter town may be referred to by the wasei-eigo coinage "bed town". The term "exurb" was used from the 1950s, but since 2006, is generally used for areas beyond suburbs and specifically less densely built than the suburbs to which the exurbs' residents commute. Often commuter towns form when workers in a region cannot afford to live where they work and must seek residency in another town with a lower cost of living. The late 20th century, the dot-com bubble and United States housing bubble drove housing costs in Californian metropolitan areas to historic highs, spawning exurban growth in adjacent counties. , over 80% of the workforce of Tracy, California, was employed in the San Francisco Bay Area. In some cases, commuter towns can result from changing economic conditions. Steubenville, Ohio along with neighboring Weirton, West Virginia had an independent regional identity until the collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s. Steubenville Pike and the Parkway West also created easier access to the much larger city of Pittsburgh. In 2013, Jefferson County, Ohio (where Steubenville is located) was added to the Pittsburgh metropolitan area as part of its larger Combined Statistical Area. In Japan, most of the national railway network was privatized by the 1980s but unlike in the UK, both the national railway's tracks, trains, stations and real estate were included in the privatization agreements. Japan's privately operated railroads view real estate investment and development of commuter towns as central to their business model.

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Metro-land

Metro-land (or Metroland – see note on spelling, below) is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century that were served by the Metropolitan Railway. The railway company was in the privileged position of being allowed to retain surplus land; from 1919 this was developed for housing by the nominally independent Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE).

Streetcar suburb

A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when the introduction of the electric trolley or streetcar allowed the nation’s burgeoning middle class to move beyond the central city’s borders. Early suburbs were served by horsecars, but by the late 19th century cable cars and electric streetcars, or trams, were used, allowing residences to be built farther away from the urban core of a city.

Garden city movement

The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture. Ebenezer Howard first posited the idea in 1898 as a way to capture the primary benefits of the countryside and the city while avoiding the disadvantages presented by both.

Space allocation for multi-modal urban networks with ridesplitting services and public transport

Nikolaos Geroliminis, Lynn Fayed

The surge of Mobility on Demand (MoD) is largely attributed to advancements in mobile internet and technology. Ridesourcing platforms, among other solution services, offer convenience and flexibility when it comes to pick-up/drop-off time and location, all ...

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine2022

Spaces of effort, exploration of an experience of mobility

Alexandre André Robert Rigal, Farzaneh Bahrami

This article combines empirical, theoretical, and philosophical references to explore the notion of Effort as an integral part of active mobility and urban experience. Considering the increasing value of physical effort in urban life styles, we challenge t ...

2017

Effectiveness of variable speed limits considering commuters' long-term response

Wei Liu

This paper examines the effectiveness of variable speed limits (VSLs) on improving traffic flow efficiency and reducing vehicular emissions in a stylized setting of morning commute where a fixed number of individuals commute from home to work through the f ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2015