Commuting

Commuting is largely a phenomenon which exists in industrialised societies, where access to modern modes of travel such as cars, trains, busses and bicycles, enables people to live some distance from their workplace. Prior to the 19th century most people lived within walking distance of their workplace.

The advent of modern transport modes and commuting, has had a large impact on life. It has allowed cities to expand to sizes which were previously not practical, and the creation of suburbs where people can live outside urban areas and commute to work.

Many large cities or conurbations are surrounded by commuter belts also known as metropolitan areas. That is areas of suburbs or towns surrounding large cities, which are often called commuter or dormitary towns, which are places in which people live, but commute into the city or conurbation to work.

Commuting has brought numerous problems such as traffic congestion and enviromental damage, as it allows so called urban sprawl ie where undeveloped areas built over to create new suburbs, and requires the building of roads etc to cope with traffic.

See also commuter train, suburb, urban planning.