Contemporary functional linkages and their relationships with the underlying settlement structure have been widely explored within polycentric urban configurations, but little attention has been paid to their adjacent rural regions. This paper examines the spatial patterns of commuting versus business travel in rural metro-adjacent regions to explain their reconfigured urban structures. These travel patterns are compared by considering workers’ education levels and occupations to investigate how rural metro-adjacent regions offer different opportunities for highly and non-highly skilled workers. Based on two surveys conducted by the authors in 2012, this work focuses on Castilla-La Mancha (CLM, Spain), a rural region under the influence of Madrid. The empirical results demonstrate the effectiveness of considering different functional linkages when explaining the underlying urban network. In particular, the results reinforce the idea of consolidating the polycentric spatial organization of urban centers in CLM, although this concentration is greater for commuting travel purposes and for highly skilled professionals. Conversely, the openness of CLM to other Spanish regions (including the adjacent metropolitan region) is greater for business travel than for commuting. The results also illustrate that the level of engagement, both in commuting and in business travel, increases with education. Finally, the results show that business travel occurs over longer distances than commuting does for all workers residing in rural metro-adjacent regions, regardless of education.

中文翻译：

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受教育程度和工作类型对郊区农村郊区与工作相关的出行方式的影响：以西班牙卡斯蒂利亚-拉曼恰为例

在多中心的城市格局中，人们广泛地探索了当代的功能联系及其与底层住区结构的关系，但很少关注邻近的农村地区。本文研究了郊区农村郊区通勤与商务旅行的空间格局，以解释其重构后的城市结构。通过考虑工人的教育水平和职业来比较这些出行方式，以调查邻近郊区的都市地区如何为高技能和非高技能工人提供不同的机会。根据作者在2012年进行的两次调查，这项工作的重点是受马德里影响的农村地区卡斯蒂利亚-拉曼恰（CLM，西班牙）。实证结果证明了在解释基本的城市网络时考虑不同功能联系的有效性。尤其是，结果强化了在CLM中巩固城市中心的多中心空间组织的想法，尽管这种集中度对于通勤旅行目的和高技能专业人员而言更大。相反，CLM对西班牙其他地区（包括邻近的都会区）的开放程度比通勤更大。结果还表明，通勤和商务旅行中的参与程度随教育程度的提高而增加。最后，结果表明，与居住在大都市郊区的所有工人相比，无论受过何种教育，商务旅行的距离都比通勤更长。