In the western part of The Netherlands (the so-called Rim City Holland and its surroundings), a migration of people from larger cities to rural areas is linked to a rapid increase in long-distance commuting by car. The polynodal structure of the area facilitates a spread of housing and workplaces which entails very large traffic flows and numerous inter-crossing relations. The national government has defined a policy to forestall a further growth of suburbanisation and commuting. To achieve that goal, new locations of residence and employment should be developed as much as possible within a number of city regions and in such a way that the use of public transport and slow transport modes (bicycling and walkin) will be feaseble. Within each city region, there should be a equilibrium between living and working. Noting the uncertainties connected with the realisation of these policy objectives, a study was undertaken of the interrelationships between migration and work-change behaviour and commuting. Four principles were formulated: 1) Collecting consictend data on change of residence, change of workplace, and home-to-work trips; 2) Formulating and testing hypotheses to identify variables that explain the interrelationships; 3) Designing and applying methods for evaluation of policy alternatives; and 4) Carrying out a step-by-step approach to produce useful interim results at the end of each stage. These principles were intended to avoid the pitfalls associated with the use of large-scale static transport and allocation models. Results of the study are discussed with an elaborate of the approach to be followed in subsequent stages. The descriptive part of the study has been carried out with data obtained from national Labour Force Samples Surveys. These two-yearly surveys appear to be a very useful source of relevant information for monitoring purposes. An extensive household survey was taken, providing data needed for the explanatory analysis, which in turn will provide a basis for methods for policy evaluation. An experiment with a simple model is carried out to provide information for the evaluation of policy alternatives currently being considered by government planners. (A)
Samenvatting