Commuters waiting for the morning train in Maplewood, New Jersey, to travel to New York City

A commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commute out to earn their livelihood. Maplewood is a township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The City of New York Workforce (Voyager episode The workforce is the labour pool in Employment. Commuting is the process of Travelling between one's place of residence and regular place of work Most commuter towns are suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. A metropolis (from the Greek μήτηρ mētēr meaning 'mother' and πόλις pólis meaning 'city/town' is a big City, in most cases with

A commuter town may also be known as a bedroom community or "bedroom suburb" (Canada and U.S usage), a dormitory town (UK Commonwealth and Ireland usage), or less commonly a dormitory village (UK Commonwealth and Ireland). Canadian English ( CanE, en-CA) is the variety of English used in Canada. Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Hiberno-English also known as Anglo-Irish and Irish English is English as spoken in Ireland, partly the result of the interaction of the English These terms suggest that residents sleep in these neighborhoods, but mostly work elsewhere; they further suggest that these communities have little commercial or industrial activity beyond a small amount of retail, oriented toward serving the residents.

Distinction between suburbs and commuter towns

Camarillo, California, a typical U. Camarillo (ˌkæməˈriːoʊ or /ˌkæməˈrɪloʊ/ is a city in Ventura County, California, United States S. bedroom community made up almost entirely of homes, schools and retail outlets.

Suburbs and commuter towns are often the same place, but sometimes not. South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. As with college town, resort town or mill town, the term describes the predominant economic function of a place. A college town or university town is a community (often literally a Town, but possibly a small or medium sized City, or in some cases a Neighborhood A resort town, sometimes called a resort destination, is a town or area where Tourism or vacationing is a primary component of the local Culture and A Mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories (usually Cotton mills A suburb in contrast is a community of lesser size, density, political power and/or commerce than a nearby community. Economic function may change, for example when improved transport brings commuters to industrial suburbs or railway towns in search of suburban living. A railway town is a settlement that originated or was greatly developed because of a Railway station or junction at its site Some suburbs, for example Teterboro, New Jersey and Emeryville, California, remain industrial when they become surrounded by commuter towns. Teterboro is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, US As of the United States 2000 census, the borough population was 18 making Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County California, in the United States. Many commuters work in such industrial suburbs, but few reside, hence they are not commuter towns.

As a general rule, suburbs are developed in areas adjacent to main employment centres, such as a town or a city, but may or may not have many jobs locally, whereas bedroom communities have few local businesses and most residents who have jobs commute to employment centers some distance away. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. Commuter towns may be in rural or semi-rural areas, with a ring of green space separating them from the larger city or town. Where urban sprawl and conurbation have erased clear lines among towns and cities in large metropolitan areas, this is not the case. Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is the spreading of a city and its Suburbs over rural land at the fringe of an urban area A conurbation is an Urban area or Agglomeration comprising a number of Cities, large Towns and larger urban areas that through Population A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large Metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central

Causes

Commuter towns can arise for a number of different reasons. Sometimes, as in North Tarrytown, New York or Tiburon, California, a town loses its main source of employment, leaving its residents to seek work elsewhere. For other uses see Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow, is a village in the Town of Mount Pleasant in Westchester Tiburon is an affluent incorporated town in Marin County California. In other cases, a pleasant small town over time attracts more residents but not large businesses to employ them, requiring them to commute to employment centers. Another cause, particularly relevant in the American South and West, is the rapid growth of once-small cities. Owing largely to the earlier creation of the Interstate Highway System; the greatest growth was seen by the sprawling metropolitan areas of these cities. The Dwight D Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly called the Interstate Highway System (or simply the Interstate System) As a result many small cities were absorbed into the suburbs of these larger cities.

Often, however, commuter towns form when workers in a region cannot afford to live where they work and must seek residency in another town with a lower cost of living. Cost of living is the Cost of maintaining a certain Standard of living. The late 20th century Dot-com bubble and United States housing bubble drove housing affordability in Californian metropolitan areas to historic lows, spawning exurban growth in adjacent counties. The " dot-com bubble " (or sometimes the " IT bubble " was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2001 (with a climax on March 10 The United States housing bubble is an Economic bubble in many parts of the United States housing market including areas of California, For example, most cities in Riverside County, California can be considered exurbs of Los Angeles and San Diego. Riverside County is a County located in the southeastern part of the U As of 2003, over 80% of the workforce of Tracy, California was employed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. Tracy is a city in San Joaquin County, California, in the United States. The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Bay, is a geographically and ethnically diverse metropolitan region that surrounds the

A related phenomenon is common in the resort towns of the American West that require large workforces but emphasize building "McMansions" and other expensive housing. A resort town, sometimes called a resort destination, is a town or area where Tourism or vacationing is a primary component of the local Culture and The Western United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American West or simply the West &mdashtraditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost McMansion is a pejorative Neologism, coined by NY environmentalist Jay For example, the resort town of Jackson, Wyoming has spawned several nearby bedroom communities, including Victor, Idaho; Driggs, Idaho; and Alpine, Wyoming, where the majority of the Jackson workforce resides. Jackson is a Town located in the Jackson Hole Valley of Teton County, Wyoming, United States. Victor is a city in Teton County, Idaho, United States. The population was 840 at the 2000 census. Driggs is a city in Teton County, Idaho, United States. It is part of the Jackson, WY -ID Micropolitan Statistical Area Alpine is a town in Lincoln County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 550 at the 2000 census. Many of the workforce who serve The Hamptons also reside in communities more modest and more suburban than their workplace, giving rise to a daily reverse commuter flow from more dense to less dense areas. The Hamptons refers specifically to the towns of Southampton and East Hampton on the east end of Long Island New York.

In certain major European cites such as London or Berlin such commuter towns started life due to bomb damage in World War II. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Residents were moved out to semi rural areas within a 50-mile (80 km) radius 1. ) to rehouse returning soldiers and their families outside of badly damaged urban areas and 2. ) to provide economic bases of development outside of cities due to a change in focus from railway to road based industry. Around London, several towns were built for this purpose by the Commission for New Towns such as Stevenage, Basildon and Crawley. English Partnerships (EP is the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by Regional Development Agencies Place-name meaning Stevenage may derive from Old English stiþen āc / stiōen āc / stithen ac (various Old English dialects Basildon (ˈbæzɪldən is a New Town located in south Essex, England at. Crawley ( is a town and Local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England

Effects

Where commuters are wealthier and small town housing markets weaker than city housing markets, the development of a bedroom community may raise local housing prices and attract upscale service businesses in a process akin to gentrification. Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is the change in an Urban area associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class Long-time residents may be displaced by new commuter residents due to rising house prices. This can also be influenced by zoning restrictions in urbanized areas that prevent the construction of suitably cheap housing closer to places of employment. Zoning is a term used in Urban planning for a system of land-use Regulation in various parts of the world including North America the United Kingdom

The number of commuter towns increased in the U.S. the UK and the Republic of Ireland during the 20th century because of a trend for people to move out of the cities into the surrounding green belt. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Ireland ( Irish: Éire, ˈeːrʲə is a country in north-western Europe. A green belt or greenbelt is a policy or land use designation used in Land use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped wild or agricultural land Historically, commuter towns were developed by railway companies to create demand for their lines. One 1920s pioneer of this form of development was the Metropolitan Railway (now part of London Underground) which marketed its Metro-land developments. The Metropolitan Railway (MetR and the Metropolitan District Railway (District were the first two underground railways to be built in London, creating the world's The London Underground is a Metro system serving a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas of Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire Metro-land (or Metroland) refers broadly speaking to the Suburban areas that were built to the north west of London in This initiative encouraged many to move out of central and inner-city London (to suburban London boroughs such as Harrow) and out of London itself, to commuter villages in Buckinghamshire or Hertfordshire. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. A Commuter village is a type of commuter settlement or Bedroom community that sits in a rural area formerly inhabited by people who worked in or who had worked Buckinghamshire (abbreviated Bucks) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. Hertfordshire (ˈhɑːtfədʃə(r, abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of Commuter towns have more recently been built ahead of adequate transportation infrastructure, thus spurring the development of roads and public transportation systems. These can take the form of light rail lines extending from the city centre to new streetcar suburbs and new or expanded highways, whose construction and traffic can lead to the community becoming part of a larger conurbation. For specific light rail systems many of which use the words "light rail" as part of their name see List of light-rail transit systems. A streetcar suburb is a community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of Streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Before adding any more images to this * * page please do carefully consider * * whether they would be mere decoration * * or actually improve Traffic on Roads may consist of Pedestrians ridden or herded Animals Vehicles Streetcars and other Conveyances either singly A conurbation is an Urban area or Agglomeration comprising a number of Cities, large Towns and larger urban areas that through Population

In the United States, it is common for commuter towns to create disparities in municipal tax rates. When a commuter town collects few business taxes, residents must pay the brunt of the public operating budget in higher property or income taxes. Property tax, or millage tax, is an Ad valorem tax that an owner pays on the value of the property being taxed Such municipalities may scramble to encourage commercial growth once an established residential base has been reached. Commerce is a division of trade or production which deals with the exchange of goods and services from producer to final consumer Within a urban area there is a tendency for land uses to Aggregate.

Exurbs

The expression "exurb" (for "extra-urban") was coined in the 1950s, by Auguste Comte Spectorsky to describe the ring of prosperous rural communities beyond the suburbs that are commuter towns for an urban area. Rural sociology is a field of Sociology associated with the study of social life in non- Metropolitan areas It is the scientific study of social arrangements and behaviour Rural communities fall into a number of types as outlined below South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. ^[1] Most exurbs serve as commuter towns, but most commuter towns are not exurban.

Exurbs are not unique to the United States. They are also found in other land-rich developed countries, notably Canada. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Reasons for exurban growth vary. In the 1970s, rampant crime and urban decay in U. Urban decay is a process by which a City, or a part of a city falls into a state of disrepair S. cities was the primary 'push force', whereas exurban growth has continued in the 2000s even as most U. S. cities experience plummeting crime and urban revitalization. However, house prices have skyrocketed, so middle-class people who want a large yard or farm are pushed beyond suburban counties.

Exurbs vary in wealth and education level. Exurban areas typically have much higher college education levels than closer-in suburbs, and have average incomes much higher than nearby rural counties. Depending on local circumstances, some exurbs have higher poverty levels than suburbs nearer the city. Others (like Loudoun County, Virginia outside Washington D.C. and Ozaukee County, Wisconsin near Milwaukee) have some of the highest median household incomes in their respective metropolitan areas. Loudoun County (ˈlaʊdən "LOUD-un" is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is part of the Washington Metropolitan Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D Ozaukee County is a county in the US state of Wisconsin. As of 2000 the population was 82317

Then and now

Commuters from early exurbs, such as the end of Philadelphia's Main Line and Upper Westchester County, New York, reached the city center via commuter rail and parkway systems. Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə The Main Line is a collection of affluent towns in the western suburbs of Philadelphia named after the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad (currently Amtrak's Westchester County is a primarily Suburban county located in the U Commuter rail, regional rail or suburban rail is a Passenger rail transport service between a city center and outer suburbs and Commuter towns In the United States, Parkways are defined as follows A type of road A broad landscaped thoroughfare especially: one from which trucks and

Today's exurbs are comprised of small neighborhoods in otherwise bucolic areas, towns, and (comparatively) small cities. Pastoral, as an adjective refers to the lifestyle of Shepherds and Pastoralists moving livestock around larger areas of land according to seasons and availability Some lie in the outer suburbs of an urbanized area, but a few miles of rural, wooded, or agricultural land separates many exurbs from the suburbs. Exurbs that originated independently of the major city to which many residents commute may feature some cultural institutions or universities of their own. Others, by contrast, consist almost exclusively of commuters and lack the historical and cultural traditions of more established cities. Many early 20th century exurbs were organized on the principles of the garden city movement. The garden city movement is an approach to Urban planning that was founded in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom

Yesterday's sprawling exurbs, such as Forest Hills, Queens and Garden City, New York often become a later decade's suburbs, surrounded and absorbed into a belt of infill. Forest Hills is a neighborhood in the central part of the New York City borough of Queens. Garden City New York is a village in central Nassau County, New York, in the USA, which was founded by multi-millionaire Alexander Turney Infill in its broadest meaning is material that fills in an otherwise unoccupied space

Planning

Some communities that lie outside the city proper of a metropolitan area could also be considered exurbs (such as in the American West^[2]), whereas those inside the municipal boundaries are often known as suburbs. Many suburbs within the metropolitan city proper enjoyed their greatest growth in the post-World War II period and slowed subsequently; since the 1990s, extensive development has occurred outside of the city. There have also been significant growth differences between inside and outside metro boundaries; many developments typical of exurbs such as big box retailers lie just on the outside, due to older suburbs being governed by careful inner-city land-use politics while communities outside are more willing to develop greenfield sites. Big-box store is a term that refers to a style of physically large Chain store, and by extension to the company behind the store

Some environmentalists, architects, and urban planners consider exurbs to be manifestations of poor or distorted planning. Environmentalism is a broad philosophy and Social movement centered on a concern for the conservation and improvement of the environment. An architect is a licensed individual who leads a design team in the Planning and Design of buildings and participates in oversight of Building Construction An urban planner is a professional who works in the field of Urban planning for the purpose of maximizing the effectiveness of a community's land use and infrastructure Extremely low densities – often featuring large lots and "McMansions" – create heavy car dependency. McMansion is a pejorative Neologism, coined by NY environmentalist Jay Automobile dependency is a term coined by Professors Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy to capture the predicament of most cities in the United States Canada Australia and New This also makes the construction of municipal infrastructure and deployment of services unusually costly and inefficient. Such communities typically include big box stores, fast food chains, and large shopping malls, but lack amenities such as parks and cultural institutions. Big-box store is a term that refers to a style of physically large Chain store, and by extension to the company behind the store Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly A shopping mall or shopping centre is a building or set of buildings that contain Retail units with interconnecting Walkways enabling visitors A park is a protected area of Land and Water, usually in its natural or semi-natural (landscaped state and set aside for some purpose often to do with human Nevertheless, relatively cheap land, cheap fuel, and low taxes fuel rapid economic and population growth in many exurbs. Many Middle class families with children are attracted to low costs, ample private space, and the lower crime rates compared with more intensively developed areas. The middle class, in colloquial usage consists of those who have some economic independence but not a great deal of social Influence or power.

"They begin as embryonic subdivisions of a few hundred homes at the far edge of beyond, surrounded by scrub. Then, they grow – first gradually, but soon with explosive force – attracting stores, creating jobs and struggling to keep pace with the need for more schools, more roads, more everything. And eventually, when no more land is available and home prices have skyrocketed, the whole cycle starts again, another 15 minutes down the turnpike. "

—Rick Lyman, New York Times ^[3]

In Britain, there is very strict regulation about building on Greenfield sites, so planning in these areas is quite rare. Instead developers more increasingly find themselves building on Brownfield sites around British cities.

On Paradise Drive

In his book On Paradise Drive, conservative writer David Brooks commented on the massive growth of American exurbs in the 1990s and early 2000s, and noted that these communities are now dependent on industries contained in office parks in the suburbs rather than in the city center, producing (and attracting) populations with no connection to urban city life. On Paradise Drive is the second book written by moderate conservative New York Times commentator David Brooks, four years after his first book Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined David Brooks (born August 11, 1961) is a Canadian-American political and cultural commentator A business park or business estate is an area of land in which many Office buildings are grouped together Brooks attributes the victory of George W. Bush in the 2004 election to votes from exurbs and states his belief that the Democratic Party failed to connect with voters in exurbs. George Walker Bush ( born July 6 1946 is the forty-third and current President of the United States.

See also

• Boomburb
• Concentric zone model
• Demographic history
• Developed environments
• Edge city
• Hamlet
• Megalopolis
• Microdistrict
• Rural-urban fringe
• Travel to Work Area
• Types of inhabited localities in Russia
• Urban area

References

• Central City White Flight: Racial and Nonracial Causes
• Rybczynski, Witold (Nov. Boomburb is a Neologism for a large rapidly growing city that remains essentially suburban in character even as it reaches populations more typical of urban The Concentric ring model also known as the Burgess model was the first to explain distribution of Social groups within Urban areas Based on Chicago Developed environments ( Human settlements are environments in Geography. Edge city is an American term for a relatively new concentration of business shopping and entertainment outside a traditional Urban area in what had recently been A hamlet is (usually&mdashsee below a Rural community — that is a small settlement — which is too small to be considered a Village. A megalopolis (or megapolis) is defined as an extensive Metropolitan area or a long chain of roughly continuous metropolitan areas Microdistrict, or microraion (микрорайо́н is a residential compound—a primary structural element of the Residential area construction in the The rural-urban fringe also known as the outskirts or the urban hinterland, can be described as the "landscape interface between town and country" or alternatively A Travel to Work Area or TTWA is a statistical tool used by UK Government agencies and Local authorities, especially by the Department for Work and The classification system of the types of inhabited localities in Russia, the former Soviet Union, and some other post-Soviet states has certain peculiarities compared 7, 2005). "Suburban Despair". Slate. Slate is an English-language online current affairs and culture Magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael

Notes

External links

• Spectorsky, Auguste C. (1955). The Exurbanites. Lippincott, Philadelphia. OCLC 476943.  
• The New York Times: Living Large, by Design, in Middle of Nowhere article on Exurbs. (Registration required)
• Berube, A. , Singer, A. , Wilson, J. H. & Frey, W. H. (2006, October). Finding exurbia: America's fast-growing communities at the metropolitan fringe. The Brookings Institution. The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington D Retrieved December 23, 2006.