Empirical Evaluation of Alternative Model Specifications to Predict Commuting Flows

This study is devoted to empirical and modeling aspects on how characteristics of spatial structure influence commuting flows. Within a doubly-constrained framework, results from a competing-destinations formulation are evaluated and compared to results from the traditional gravity model. The evaluation depends critically upon the specification of within-zone journeys-to-work. Specific labor-market characteristics are found to be significant to explain how workers are absorbed in diagonal elements of the trip-distribution matrix. We also find that the parametric specification of the accessibility measure is important, and that the competing-destinations formulation is superior to the traditional gravity model.