Cartography geeks blog Fuck Yeah Cartography reports about an appealing mapping initiative that enables you to trace commuter traffic to any zip code area in the United States. Type in any zip code and see where people are commuting to/from and how much time they spend commuting. The interactive maps provide interesting information, however, the service does not work yet for European zip codes.
Typing Brooklyn zip code 11201, for instance, shows that most commuters to and from Brooklyn come from other Brooklyn zip code areas, which points to a very local labor market. For example: 2.5% of workers in 11201 live in 11226. This is a 4.6 mile commute that takes 17 minutes. The average commute to 11201 is 8.2 miles and takes 18 minutes. The example of Brooklyn also shows the big barrier of water. The amount of travelers from Staten Island and Manhattan to Brooklyn is very low. Only 0.5% of the workers in 11201 live in 10002 (Lower East side), while this is only a 2.6 mile commute that takes 8 min.
When work within a specific zip code area gets more specialized, the catchment area is much broader as expected. When typing Wall Street’s zip code 10005, for instance, we find out that 0.6% of the workers in 10005 live in 07726 (a village called Englishtown). This is a 48.4 mile commute that takes 1 hour and 3 minutes. Interesting about Wall Street’s commuting pattern, however, is that a lot of the financial experts live close to their work at Manhattan. Obviously, Manhattan’s real estate prices and atmosphere fits well with the income and needs of the Wall Street workers. In general, the pattern between commuting to/from huge metropolitan centers and smaller regional centers shows a big difference. In crowded metropolitan areas commuters don’t travel much time and miles, while regional centers have a much broader catchment area.
2 Comments
Great tool but sloppy analysis. Tracking whether water is a barrier to commuting between Manhattan and Brooklyn, you would have to look at employment in a number of zip codes in Manhattan (as employment is diffuse), or at least take in a few centers such as 34th/Madison. A reasonable hypothesis would be most commuting is from Brooklyn to Manhattan, not the reverse, given relative housing prices and employment densities, and that there would not be a very strong correlation between individual zip codes in each borough, but a strong overall correlation between the two. The tracking also leaves out important data sets like cpmmuting between zip codes on the a given subway line – (for example). I’m all for mapping and data, but it’s got to be matched with proper analysis…
Hi Marc,
I think the term water here should not only be understood is a fysical phenomenon, but as a social economic barrier aswell. The difference in income and real estate prices between Brooklyn and Manhattan are a.o. a result of the fact that water seperates both pieces of land.
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