Commuting patterns in Romania: Case study on Cluj County
József Benedek
Babeș -Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
E-mail: jozsef.benedek@ubbcluj.ro
Iulia Hărănguș
Babeș -Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
E-mail: iulia_harangus@yahoo.com
Titus Man
Babeș -Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
E-mail: titus.man@.ubbcluj.ro
Regional Statistics, Vol 6, No 2. 2016: 39–53; DOI: 10.15196/RS06203
The study examines the spatial and economic characteristics of commuting to work in one of the most dynamic areas of Romania, Cluj County. Based on the 2011 census data, the study reveals a strong connection between accessibility and commuting intensity, while the urban network determines the spatial orientation of the dominant commuting flows. However, we found no significant relation between dynamic economic performance and commuting intensity.
Keywords: commuting to work, accessibility, economic development, Cluj County
Introduction
During socialism, apart from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, a restricted and controlled spatial mobility regime was established in Romania, characterised by a low motorisation rate and migration (Sandu 1984). Under these circumstances, commuting was reduced to the closer suburban areas of the large urban agglomerations. While at the beginning of the transition period a large amount of the active population was employed in agriculture, the establishment of capitalist market structures determined a radical change in the structure of economic activities, which has influenced the intensity of the commuting. As a result of the post-socialist economic restructuration, the workplaces became spatially more concentrated. However, housing is still strongly dispersed, partly due to the inherited settlement network (more than 13,000 localities) and partly due to on-going suburbanization (Soaita 2013). There are two ways of overcoming this inconvenience: migration and commuting. The main advantage of commuting is related to the satisfaction of different preferences offered by the proximity between workplace and residential location The commute between rural residential locations and urban workplaces is seen as a striking form of urban-rural integration (Partridge et al. 2010). In addition, labour can easier follow the change on the workforce market. However, commuting may cause major difficulties due to pollution, traffic jams, and costs.
However, the Romanian population still has an overall low spatial mobility–both internal migration and commuting have a low intensity, even by regional comparison. Characterized by a strong economic growth, although the period 2002–2011 has witnessed an increase in the number of active population, the inner-county commuting has registered a small decrease (table 1). It means that the strong economic growth was not enough to trigger a significant increase in commuting. In fact, we have not found any significant correlation neither between the county level GDP per capita and the commuting rate nor between the county level economic growth rate and the commuting rate, contrary to the empirical findings of international literature (Östh and Lindgren 2012).
In parallel, both inter-county and international commuting have almost doubled. It implies that there is little change in commute over short distances, but – somehow surprisingly – an important change in both middle- and long-distance commutes. The strong spatial concentration of economic growth and reducing importance of political borders for labour mobility in trans-border regions in Romania explains the latest situations in the country, which is forcing people from peripheries to travel longer distances for work (Nagy 2012). However, overall the commuting rate in 2002 was only around 16.8% and approximately 21% in 2011. This relative low growth of internal mobility is compensated by the strong international mobility of the Romanian population, with an estimated 2–3 billion Romanians being registered in different EU countries, mainly in Italy and Spain (Boboc et al. 2012). It means that more than 10% of the total population of Romania in 1992 has left the country, a particular situation in the present European context, which may explain the lower figures of internal mobility.
Conclusions
The study has produced some interesting results on present day commuting to work in a dynamic economic environment, illustrated through the Cluj County. First, although we were unable to measure the economic output at a local level accurately, the county level comparison of GDP per capita and commuting rate did not reveal any significant correlation between commuting and economic development, contrary to the findings in international literature. We have explained this particular situation in the context of intensive international migration. Second, we found a similar situation at the county level. In this context, we were able to provide qualitative information on the location of new industrial parks in relation with the establishment of spatial commuting attractors. We also presented new facts on the relationship between accessibility and commuting, the economic profile of commuters, and the important role played by settlement networks in the spatial orientation of commuting flows.
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