Mapping the American Commute: from mega-regions to mega commutes

This working paper examines the geography of commuting in the contiguous United States, using a very large dataset produced by the US Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The objective of the study is to map spatial patterns of commuting in the lower 48 states and to show how individual towns and cities connect. It draws upon an emerging literature on ‘mega-regions’ and also more established literature on mapping spatial interactions and functional urban polycentricity. A second objective of the study is to identify areas of ‘mega-commuting’, characterized by very long distance commutes. Recent evidence from the US Census Bureau suggests such journeys are on the rise. The paper also examines the possibility of ‘super-commuters’ before exploring the validity of using the underlying data at the micro-scale. A final objective is to demonstrate the utility of open data and open source software in handling large spatial interaction datasets. Based on the evidence presented in a series of national and regional commuting maps, the paper describes an intricately-connected web of interactions associated with the American commute; a key contributor to economic growth.