The Relation between Jobs-Housing Ratio and Commuting in LA County Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez 2/13/2012

Question Is there a relationship between jobs-housing ratio and commuting in LA County?

The Concept of Jobs-Housing Balance Jobs-housing balance occurs in areas where people can both live and work Concept seen as a solution to congestion and air pollution Jobs-housing ratio= # of jobs in an area/ # of housing units in the area According to Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) ▫An area with more housing then jobs is housing rich with a ratio less than 1 ▫An area in balance has a ratio between 1 and 1.29 ▫An area with more jobs then housing is job rich with a ratio greater than 1

LA County Jobs-Housing Ratio by Neighborhoods Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey And U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS)

Commute Time Comparison Maps created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Source U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS)

Comparing Two Different Neighborhoods: Vermont Square and Beverly Hills Vermont Square mean travel time 1.5x longer than Beverly Hills Beverly Hills jobs- housing ratio 10x larger than Vermont Square Maps created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey and U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey (ACS)

Comparing Beverly Hills and Vermont Square Average Commute Distance Map created by Diana Gonzalez Gonzalez Sources: U.S. Census 2009 County Business Patterns Survey, U.S. Census 2009 American Community Survey, and LA Metro

Methodology Jobs-housing ratio ▫# of jobs from the 2009 U.S. Census Business Patterns Survey ▫# of housing units from U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS) ▫ Divided # of jobs by # of housing units to get ratio Average commute times ▫Total travel time to work in minutes and # of workers from U.S. Census ACS ▫Divided total travel time to work in minutes by # of workers to get average Average commute distance ▫Took average commute times (in minutes) and multiplied it by average county rush hour speed (miles per minute) to get average distance

Skills Inset map ▫Used to locate LA County in relation to California ▫Used to locate Vermont Square and Beverly Hills in relation to LA County Graduated symbol ▫Used to display average travel times ▫Used to compare the jobs-housing ratio and average travel times of Vermont Square and Beverly Hills Aggregating attribute fields ▫Jobs-housing ratio created by dividing # of jobs by # of housing units ▫Average travel time created by dividing total travel time to work in minutes by # of workers Attribute sub-sets selections ▫Freeways selected out of a larger shapefile on California roads Buffering ▫Created a buffer to compare average commute distance between Vermont Square and Beverly Hills Geoprocessing ▫Used merge create neighborhoods out of census tracts. ▫Clipped California counties with the layout of California’s shore to get a more refined California counties ▫Clipped LA County boundaries with California counties to have only LA county boundaries ▫Clipped LA County boundaries with California census tracts to have only LA census tracts ▫Clipped Beverly Hills and Vermont Square buffers with LA County boundaries so buffers don’t extend to ocean

Next Step Using LA County to evaluate the validity of the jobs-housing ratio. Can this concept really be used to reduce congestion and commutes?

Sources (2008). Rtp 2012 growth forecast. Los Angeles: Southern California Association of Governments. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). County business patterns: zip code business statistics: total for zip code. Retrieved January 23, 2012, from 0CZ1&prodType=table 0CZ1&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Universe: Housing units. Retrieved January 25, 2012, from R_B25001&prodType=table R_B25001&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Aggregate travel time to work (in minutes) of workers by sex. Retrieved February 6, 2012, from R_B08013&prodType=table R_B08013&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Aggregate travel time to work (in minutes) of workers by sex. Retrieved February 6, 2012, from R_B08013&prodType=table R_B08013&prodType=table U.S. Census Bureau. (2009). Means of Transportation to Work by Selected Characteristics Retrieved February 6, 2012, from R_S0802&prodType=table R_S0802&prodType=table Metro. (2012). I-405 Sepulveda Pass Improvement Projects. Retrieved February 7, 2012 from