February 5, 2007

Reverse Commuting Changes Region, UIC Study Says

Work trips by all modes into Cook County have increased in recent years but work trips into the five collar counties have increased faster, according to a study by researchers at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, published in the latest edition of the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum.

The increase in commuting affects not only transportation, but also the housing and job markets, said Siim Soot, director emeritus of UIC's Urban Transportation Center and co-author with Joseph DiJohn, research professor, of "Emerging Commuting Trends: Evidence from the Chicago Area."

Lake and DuPage counties joined Cook County in experiencing more inbound than outbound commutes, the researchers reported. From 1990 to 2000, the number of commuters heading into Cook County increased by 51,000; but the number going into DuPage County increased by 68,000 and into Lake County by 41,000.

Other changes since 1990:

• Job growth in the suburbs.
• More decentralized work sites, leading more workers to commute greater distances on already congested roadways.
• Employers embracing the entire metropolitan area as their labor pool because workers are willing to commute.
• Growing demand for housing on large lots in more affordable outlying suburbs, leading more residents to commute to more distant jobs. (Metropolitan Chicago now has one of the country's highest rates of
  homeownership at 70 percent, up from 55 percent 20 years ago, DiJohn noted.)

Although congestion has increased, Soot said it would be even worse if not for changes in population growth.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, the number of workers -- and commuters -- increased faster than the overall population. In the 1990s the population began to grow faster than the number of workers, and the
ratio of commuters-to-residents shrank proportionately. The report was funded in part by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public
medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.

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