Suzanne Davies Withers

Does commuting distance matter?: Commuting tolerance and residential change

This research uses a longitudinal data set of commuting behavior to test the nature and strength of the association between residential change and employment location. Do households minimize commuting distances when they change residences and what are the differences for one-worker and two-worker households? The analysis utilizes descriptive measures of distance and time to work for pre- and post-residential relocations and develops estimates from a probability model of work-place attraction. We extend earlier research on commuting distances by using a multimodal rather than a monocentric city, by specifically considering the commuting responses of two-worker households and by formally estimating a model of the response to commuting distances. The findings indicate that both one- and two-worker households with greater separation between workplace and residence make decreases in distance and time. Overall, as other studies have shown, women commute shorter distances and are more likely to minimize commuting after a move than are men. The probability model fits the likelihood of decreasing distance with greater separation and provides a more exact specification of the connection between residence and workplace than previous analyses of this relationship.

Changing Jobs and Changing Houses: Mobility Outcomes of Employment Transitions

The life-course approach to residential mobility and migration recognizes a central role for a variety of demographic and economic triggers in the mobility process. Having a child, getting married, separated, or divorced, have all been identified as triggers that generate residential relocations. It is obvious that a job change can also be viewed as a stimulus for residential relocation, although until now the interconnection has been evaluated mainly for long-distance migratory moves rather than for its effects on residential mobility. In this analysis we use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to test the association between employment changes and residential relocation. We examine both the occurrence and the timing of residential moves triggered by employment transitions. We show that job changes increase the likelihood of residential relocation in the aggregate and for singles when we hold other & “triggers” constant. The results of the analysis of the timing of job changes and residential relocations indicate that temporal differences exist between households types. Overall, the results establish that job change is an important triggering process in residential relocation and emphasizes the interconnected nature of life-course events.

Quantitative methods: advancement in ecological inference:

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DEMOGRAPHIC POLARIZATION OF HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN SIX MAJOR UNITED STATES METROPOLITAN AREAS

This paper extends current discourse on urban poverty by providing evidence of the demographic polarization of housing affordability in metropolitan areas. Findings from the 1990 Census indicate that American society has become increasingly polarized with respect to income and employment opportunities. It also has become more racially and ethnically diverse, particularly in metropolitan areas. Frey (1995) described the new spatial distribution of the population as an emerging “demographic balkanization” because of pronounced spatial segmentation of the population by race, class, ethnicity, and age across metropolitan areas. This spatial segmentation is the direct result of immigration, regional migration, and the differential cost of living. In this paper, I extend these ideas by addressing the issue of housing affordability in selected metropolitan areas. The urban housing market is the arena that links poverty and geography. The demographic diversity of housing affordability within metropolitan areas is...

University of Washington's Master of Geographic Information Systems for Sustainability Management

The aim of the Master of Geographic Information Systems (MGIS) for Sustainability Management program at the University of Washington is to teach people how to create a more sustainable world—not an uncommon aim in higher education. But what makes this online graduate degree program unique is that it focuses specifically on how to design a sustainable world by combining the power of problem-solving approaches like geodesign, with the power of problem-solving technology like geographic information systems (GIS).