Empirical Evaluation of Alternative Model Specifications to Predict Commuting Flows

This study is devoted to empirical and modeling aspects on how characteristics of spatial structure influence commuting flows. Within a doubly‐constrained framework, results from a competing‐destinations formulation are evaluated and compared to results from the traditional gravity model. The evaluation depends critically upon the specification of within‐zone journeys‐to‐work. Specific labor‐market characteristics are found to be significant to explain how workers are absorbed in diagonal elements of the trip‐distribution matrix. We also find that the parametric specification of the accessibility measure is important, and that the competing‐destinations formulation is superior to the traditional gravity model.