The Influence of Education on Work-Related Travel in Rural Metro-Adjacent Regions: The Case of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)

Abstract

This paper examines the spatial distribution of work related relationships in recently re-organized rural metro adjacent regions in order to understand their urban structure. Particularly, this research explores different travel purposes (commuting and business) and education levels (average working population and highly skilled professionals) in the Castilla-La Mancha rural region (Spain). The empirical results illustrate that: a) regardless of education level, regional cohesion was greater for commuting than for business travel and openness to other Spanish regions was greater for business trips than commuting; b) for highly-skilled professionals, metropolitan integration was greater for business travel than commuting; c) for the average working population, metropolitan integration was greater for commuting than for business purposes. Nonetheless, the outstanding level of interaction within the region (for both travel purposes and the overall working population), mainly among the main regional centralities, evidences an emerging intra-regional polycentric urban system. Finally, while it is concluded that the private car has a prevailing role in modal split both for commuting and business travel, differences are recorded in terms of travel purpose and education level. In this sense, findings reveal that high speed rail gets greater relevance among highly skilled professionals and for business trips.