please empty your brain below
Very interesting, Cambridge seems to be influenced by the M11 and rail links, whereas next door Huntingdon is self contained, but not like super local Corby, and the surprising isolation of the 'Birkenhead area' opposite Liverpool, in spite of the rail, road and ferries - perhaps it's the concentration of them all at one end.

Still Anon | 18.01.20 - 7:42 a.m. | #

The interactive map link is fascinating, since they have also created TTWA maps according to age, qualifications, mode of transport etc. As you might imagine, the 'London' TTWA for those travelling by train covers most of SE England.

Alan | 18.01.20 - 8:06 a.m. | #

Using TTWA boundaries as a factor in determining LA boundaries makes a certain amount of sense - but less so if the number (and thus shape and position) of TTWAs is going to change as radically in future decades as it has in past ones.

And it will be interesting to see how far future infrastructure changes - crossrail, HS2 as well as more local schemes - will be directly detectable in future maps.

marek | 18.01.20 - 8:34 a.m. | #

This sort of stuff is highly relevant to the endlessly-quoted figure for transport spending per head in London. Transport investment in London benefits far more people than those who actually live within its borders, and the “per head” figure should reflect this. But since the argument is based on politics rather than facts, I can’t see this changing any time soon.

Baldassaro | 18.01.20 - 8:44 a.m. | #

Thank-you, DG. I could stare at these maps for ages. The full-time vs. part-time employment map is particularly interesting, given the quite significant changes that take place. And as noted above, the "commute by rail" map that swallows up most of south-east England is amusing - if unsurprising.

Chz | 18.01.20 - 9:30 a.m. | #

Thanks indeed from someone who loves it when stats-make-maps. I find the car passenger map particularly interesting in how London is almost uniquely shattered into tiny shards that are outposts from areas all over the country. Of particular note is Area 45 that ties the Cairngorms area with Ruislip.

dg quotes: "Unlike for the main TTWA map, a secondary process to ensure the areas are contiguous has not been carried out for the alternative boundaries due to the high level of resources it would have required. Our advice is to focus on the more prominent areas and disregard the occasional fragments."

NickW | 18.01.20 - 11:06 a.m. | #

Does this mean, to quote your example of Surbiton, with its fast and direct trains to the London TTWA, that 75% of the population, neverthless, work in the Slough/Heathrow TTWA?

I appreciate that this might mean just up the road or a few miles from where you live. But I find it so surprising (statistics often are), that I wonder if there is something I haven't properly understood?

dg writes: TTWAs tell you nothing about individual locations within the TTWA.

Martin | 18.01.20 - 2:13 p.m. | #

Martin. TTWA are only saying that at least 75% of the working population who reside within that particular boundary also work there.

There will always be cases where an area within that larger zone will have less than 75% of workers working there, but this will be balanced by another area where the value will be much much higher than 75%.

With regards to Surbiton. You can see from this map that there may be these smaller areas where less than 75% of the working population work in 'Slough and Heathrow', but it's not a lot under (workers with no fixed place get assigned to their residential address). So those who live near Surbiton Railway Station but work in central London may be the more likely destination for some of these smaller areas, but they become the exception when they are amalgamated to become TTWAs. It's also with pointing out that this map uses a different statistical geography compared to those used to create TTWA - but it gives you an idea of what the 2011 Census recorded.

Geo | 18.01.20 - 3:09 p.m. | #

I work in Chessington and a good proportion of the staff come from the west, very few come from the East. I have noticed this trend with my previous employer as well. Very interesting and thanks for posting this DG. Anyone care to design a flag for Slough and Heathrow?

Eric | 18.01.20 - 7:11 p.m. | #

Very interesting! I grew up in East Hampshire, and the TTWA map confirms what I knew anecdotally: that we stood at the watershed of five different regions centred on Basingstoke, Guildford, Portsmouth, Chichester and Southampton. Local services would often assign us into different regions, so we had a Guildford postcode but were in the church diocese of Portsmouth.

Mike P-J | Homepage | 18.01.20 - 8:44 p.m. | #











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