Der einpendelverkehr von Turku

Abstract

This paper deals with commuter traffic into Turku, the provincial capital of south‑west Finland. The research material has been collected in two ways, from income tax returns and from census returns. This information has been complemented by means of interviews.

The number of people commuting into Turku is approximately 10 000 and they form about 15 % of the total working population of the town. The areas in which they live follow a comparatively regular pattern stretching in practice for about 40 km in all directions from the centre of the town. The proportion of commuters living within a particular residential area decreases very regularly as the distance from the town increases and follows the shape of a general gravity model. It has therefore been possible, when making analyses, to enlist the aid of linear and quadratic gravity models. There is a strong concentration towards the centre in the siting of commuters' dwellings. Just over a quarter of all commuters live in a belt stretching one kilometre from the municipal boundary and just over a half in a similar belt five kilometres from the boun­dary.

In absolute numbers, commuters work for the most part in the centre of the town or its immediate neighbourhood. Relatively, however, there are most commuters in the more easily reached industrial areas outside the central business area. The investigation shows that there are above average numbers of commuters in the employment areas situated along their approaches to the town. There was no clear distinction observable between traffic to work within the town and commuter traffic. The town boundary only cuts into two the region in which the people working in Turku live.

It was observed that, as the length of the journey to work increases, so the proportion of young people increases while that of women decreases. The number of unmarried people among commuters is above the average for the investigated area as a whole. Their proportion increases sharply with increasing distance from Turku. Compared with the population of Turku commuters work more in secondary occupations and less in tertiary occupations. A half of all com­muters are employed in industry. The level of education of commuters was lower than the average in residential areas and quite clearly lower than the average for Turku’s population. As the distance from Turku increases so also does the number of commuters employed in tertiary occupations and having a higher education.

Commuters form two groups of almost the same size. In the first are those who lived in their present dwelling before working in Turku and in the second those for whom getting a job in Turku was the reason for moving to their present dwelling. For the former, primary commuters, the median journey to work is noticeably longer than for the latter, secondary commuters. The pre­-dominating residential area of secondary commuters is a belt stretching 5–7 km from the municipal boundary.

The investigation has shown that, with the aid of a population census made only once every ten years and of material collected from annual tax returns, a consistent picture of the size and nature of commuter traffic can be obtained. In the investigation the effects exerted by operational units of different sizes on the results were compared. Changes in the size of areas influence the para­meters of the gravity model. It is therefore possible to compare the calculated parameters of commuter groups only when the calculations have been made using data collected from the same area matrix.