Commuting Times and Land Use Regulations

Land use regulations are one of the primary ways in which state and local governments influence the urban landscape, affecting where people live, how much they commute and the impact they have on the environment. Using a new, novel data on the stringency of land use regulation in the U.S. over the past decades, we study the effect of local regulation on the individual commuting times. Paired with demographic data from the U.S. Census, we examine whether land use policies disproportionately affect particular socioeconomic or demographic groups and find a positive relationship between land use regulation and commuting time. In addition, we show that this relationship increases disproportionately for workers with a Bachelor's degree or more, and that these impacts could be mitigated by the establishment of a public transit system.