• Land and Housing Review
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.73-87
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• 2024

To evaluate the efficiency of commuting patterns, various commuting indicators such as excess commute and commuting potential utilized have been developed and used. It is crucial to calculate these indicators reasonably to reveal the differences in commuting patterns among metropolitan areas and to consider these in the process of formulating commuting policies. However, commuting indicators are generally calculated at the administrative district level, and thus, they are not free from the problem of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP). This issue can undermine the rationality of comparing commuting efficiency between metropolitan areas, making it necessary to handle the calculation of commuting indicators carefully. Therefore, this study utilises Monte Carlo Simulation to calculate optimal, actual, and maximum commuting distances, and thereby presents the excess commute and the commuting potential utilized. To apply Monte Carlo Simulation to the context of South Korea, a constrained Monte Carlo Simulation is conducted, where residential and workplace locations used in the simulation are selected based on the actual locations of buildings. The analysis is conducted on 13 metropolitan areas with established metropolitan plans using the 2016 Household Travel Survey data. The commuting indicators calculated through the simulation showed minimal differences compared to the results obtained through conventional methods. The comparison of commuting efficiency among metropolitan areas revealed that even if the degree of spafial balance between residential and workplace locations is similar, the actual commuting patterns can differ significantly. It is suggested that further research considering characteristics such as the area of each metropolitan region will be necessary in the future.