Public transportation of rural commuters: studies in Hungarian geography

Keresztes, László Lóránt (2008) Public transportation of rural commuters: studies in Hungarian geography. MODERN GEOGRÁFIA, 3 (4). pp. 1-11. ISSN 2062-1655

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Abstract

There was an oversupply of labour in the Hungarian agrarian sector at the beginning of the 19th century, which also made this sector employee-release. There are no available accurate data from the time preceding the First World War, but all the evidences refer to the fact that this time unemployment was higher in the agrarian sector than in the industry (DÖVÉNYI Z. – TOLNAI GY. 1993). It can also be realised that in the interwar period there were more unemployed in the agriculture than in other sectors (TÉSITS R. 2003). From the 1950s the demand for employees in the agrarian sector decreased due to industrialization. There was a general getaway from the sector as a consequence of collectivization and coercive appropriation. Thereby, the village was less able to ensure employment; its function remained a place for living. Masses of people crowded out from the agriculture tried to get a livelihood in the disproportionally improving industrial areas, thus a significant number of village people became daily commuters. The difference in commuting opportunities had a measurable impact on the formulation of settlement network, mainly because the inhabitants who got into a disadvantageous situation intended to move their residence to more advantageous areas (within their bounds of possibilities). Tracing back these events, they were the root cause of that dynamic intermigration which emerged in the county during the 1960s and 1970s. Significant number of people living in the peripheries moved to towns or to villages lying close to towns also to ease commuting. In the decades preceding the full construction of public transportation, beside the investments affecting a significant social-geographical mobility, public transportation differentiated the improvement of settlements to a higher extent than ever before (ERDŐSI F. 1985). This intermigration got moderated in the 1980s, but was still considerable.

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