Analysis of Results

One telling descriptive characteristic of an area’s urban form is the ratio between the total number of jobs in the area and the number of households within that same area, or more simply, the Jobs to Households Ratio (JHR). This ratio, often referred to as a measure of balance, basically communicates the spatial complexity and directionality of an area’s commuting flows.

The Imagine Austin study area had a JHR figure of 1.56 as of 2010, with 400,445 households and 625,000 total jobs. In other words, the Imagine Austin study area is “jobs rich.” The New York City borough of Manhattan possibly has the highest JHR figure in the nation at a whopping 2.75, while a place like San Jose exhibits what some practitioners might call an “inverted” JHR of .84, strongly reflective of just how suburban San Jose truly is. A simple but rough spatial surrogate for the Imagine Austin study area is Travis County and its communing flows. There are three distinctly different types of commuters who are operational on any given morning in the county: commuters who live and work in Travis County (43% - the largest share); commuters who live outside the county but work within it (38% - here’s where the big congestion problems come from); and finally, commuters who live in Travis County but work outside it (19% - this is the smallest share of commuters).

The question then is this: in what direction will the JHR for the Imagine Austin study area move? Because the Imagine Austin study area is an increasingly smaller piece of the much larger functional economic region, there is a sense that the JHR ratio will actually increase over time—trending toward a Manhattan scenario.

Although the policy directive from the Imagine Austin comprehensive plan envisions a more balanced jobs to households environment within the study area, it is difficult to see how this would happen, especially from a 2017 vantage point where population growth is now heavily suburban whilst job creation—though beginning to decentralize somewhat –is still largely concentrated within the greater urban core.