A methodological framework for the study of residential location and travel-to-work mode choice under central and suburban employment destination patterns

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the methodological questions that arise from the study of the simultaneous choice of residential location and travel-to-work mode under central and non-central or suburban employment patterns. Geographic information system (GIS) visualisations and network analysis are used to generate a choice set based on the definition of spatially aggregated alternatives. Discrete choice models specified as cross-nested logit (CNL) are estimated for each of the two different types of employment patterns and direct and cross elasticities are presented. The analysis is carried out for the Greater Dublin Area, a metropolitan region that is a recent example of rapid employment suburbanisation and residential sprawl in a European context. A simulation exercise, tracing the extent of mode switching and location switching behaviour is undertaken using the framework developed.