Räumliche Dynamik des Pendelverkehrs in Deutschland und der Schweiz: Das Beispiel München und Zürich

Abstract

It is well known among European transport researchers that cross-municipality commuting increased constantly over the years. Less and less people live and work within the same municipality. The average distances of commuting rose markedly through recent decades. This paper explores this trend in new ways focusing on the commuting patterns of two agglomerations in Germany and Switzerland: Munich and Zurich. The analysis is based on data of commuting trips at the spatial scale of municipalities for two points in time. In order to compare the shifts in commutes for both agglomerations we use different indicators considering in- and out-commuting trips jointly. Our results are in line with prior studies from Germany, Switzerland and abroad. We clearly find a trend of increasing shares of in- and out-commuting trips. The intensification of commuting goes along with a rise in commuting distances over the years. We thus can observe expanding commuter sheds in Munich and Zurich as well as in other agglomerations within both countries. The interregional comparison shows somewhat higher degrees of commuting volumes and distances in the case of Munich. In the Zurich region municipalities with high levels of in- and out-commuting trips are frequently located along motorways and/or in close neighbourhood to major urban centres. We can not detect similar patterns in the region of Munich.