Accessibility and Complex Network Analysis of the U.S. commuting system

Recently practitioners are approaching spatial and environmental planning by adopting methods and tools drawn from Complexity Science. The strength of these methods is not only apparent in their systemic coherence but also in their capacity to consider a variety of components as a whole system. Given this background, the aim of this paper is to apply a methodology, tested for the Italian insular region of Sardinia, to an analysis of commuter accessibility in the United States through an indicator-based strategy. Spatial measures are applied to study the level of accessibility for commuters at the county level. The analysis provides us with an assessment of the accessibility for U.S. commuters and allows for the consideration of spatial planning objectives for U.S. counties.

► We study commuting patterns in the United States at county level.
► We implement Complex Network Analysis with accessibility indicators.
► The U.S. commuting system belongs to the class of scale free networks.
► Centrality and accessibility in the U.S. are positively correlated.