Journey to work 2

More on 2018 journey to work patterns in Auckland. Last time I looked at journey to work patterns based on home location (or trip origin). Now its time to look at destinations (or workplace address).

But first, back to origins. If the percentage of work trips by bus, train, ferry, walking and cycling are mapped at the Area Unit level, then we get a 'concentric ring' type pattern, with the proportion of public and active work trips falling as distance increases from the centre.

There is a noticeable 'tail'  in Waitakere where (presumably) train use is quite high.

Now lets look at destinations (workplaces). Arranging Local Board areas roughly north to south, workplaces in the central Waitemata Local Board have a distinct peak of trips by public transport, walking and cycling, but otherwise the percentage of trips by bus, train, ferry, walking and cycling (or BTFWC for short) to other workplaces sees only a very gentle decline from the centre out to the edge. There is a bit of a drop off for the edge Local Boards of Rodney and Franklin. What is interesting is that the inner area Local Boards do not see a big step up from the middle ring Boards in terms of use of public transport and active modes to access workplaces, as was the case with origins.

If we look at bit closer at the Area Unit level, then, apart from the central area, there is no strong pattern of public and active transport use related to workplace locations.




When we look at where jobs growth occurred between 2013 and 2018, the central area is very important, but so too are the distinctive northern and southern employment hubs.

The growth of jobs in the central Waitemata Local board has had a big influence on rates of BTFWC. But what of the northern and southern sub regional hubs?

Overlaying the percentage of trips to workplaces by BTFWC with job growth does not suggest that the northern and southern employment hubs have made much of an impact on rates of BTFWC. Partly this may be because the workplaces in the northern and southern hubs are not concentrated in a few spots. These ‘hubs’ cover large areas, and are more of a cluster.

There is logic to the northern and southern hubs in terms of business location and proximity to many homes.

If we look at where bus and train use increased between 2006 and 2018 (differences between the 2006 and 2018 census questions for means of travel to work make it too hard to compare other combinations of trips), then the central area stands out, as well as Albany to the north and Manukau in the south, along Smales Farm, Ellerslie and Penrose in between.

So maybe locating more jobs along the central north-south spine of the region (northern bus way - central area - southern rail line) is the way to go.