Commuter town

A commuter town is a town whose residents normally work elsewhere, although they live and sleep in these neighborhoods. The name also suggests that these communities have little commercial or industrial activity beyond a small amount of retail, oriented toward serving the residents.

Names

A commuter town may also be known as an exurb (short for "extra-urban"), or a bedroom community (Canada and northeastern U.S. usage), bedroom town or bedroom suburb (U.S. usage), a dormitory town or dormitory suburb (UK Commonwealth and Ireland usage also sometimes Canadian), or less commonly a dormitory village (UK Commonwealth Ireland and sometimes Canadian as well). The phrase "bedroom town" has also been adopted into the Japanese wasei-eigo word bed town (ベッドタウン, beddotaun).

Distinction between suburbs and commuter towns

Suburbs and commuter towns are often the same place, but sometimes not. As with college town, resort town, and mill town, the term commuter town describes the place's predominant economic function. 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. Some suburbs, for example Teterboro, New Jersey and Emeryville, California remained industrial when they became surrounded by commuter towns. Many commuters work in such industrial suburbs but few reside; hence, they are not commuter towns.