Visualising excess commuting to kindergartens

This study analyses and visualises excess commuting of preschool-aged children to kindergartens in Slovakia using a spatial optimisation framework. In the context of recent legislative changes increasing participation in pre-primary education, the research evaluates how observed commuting patterns deviate from theoretically minimal-distance allocations. Excess commuting is estimated by comparing observed inter-municipal flows with optimal capacity-constrained configurations. Results reveal regional variation in commuting efficiency. Although most children attend kindergartens in their municipality, inter-municipal commuting remains substantial and often exceeds minimum-distance expectations, especially in suburban and ethnolinguistically differentiated areas. These patterns reflect settlement structure, institutional constraints, and parental choice in matching between residences and facilities. A typology of commuting centres and excess commuting patterns is developed and visualised cartographically, enabling multi-scale identification of mechanisms underlying inefficiency. The study contributes to education geography and spatial interaction research by extending excess commuting analysis to non-work systems and demonstrating the value of optimisation and integration.