Analysis of Commuting Patterns in Texas Urban Areas--Volume I (1193-1F)

The years from 1950 to 1980 represented a period of extremely rapid growth in Texas. The trends documented in this report illustrate the impact of three main themes on the amount of commuter traffic that was handled by the roadway system in Texas metropolitan areas.|The increase in suburban commuting, commuting by private automobiles and the increase in the number of people in the labor force were the three main themes of "Cornrnuting in America," a report prepared by Alan Pisarski for the Eno Foundation for Transportation. This report used that document as a basis for analyzing the commuting patterns in Texas. In general, Texas urban areas also exhibited these trends.|Between 1960 and 1980 the population of Texas metropolitan areas increased 63 percent while employment increased 149 percent. Similar trends were noted for all three metropolitan area sizes defined in this study. A major cause of the significantly greater increase in employment than in population was the rise in female participation in the labor force from a rate of 36 percent of working age women in 1960 to 56 percent in 1980.|The increasing availability of automobiles and the movement of employment locations to the suburbs combined to increase private vehicle commuting by 93 percent from 1960 to 1980, while public transit commuting declined 23 percent. The dramatic increase in freeway and street traffic volume in Texas cities was accentuated by this increase.