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Using a highly detailed and disaggregated classification of job locations, this study aims at better describing the evolution of commuting distances and choices of transportation modes associated with new forms of employment distribution in the Montreal metropolitan region (poly-nucleation vs. dispersion). For this purpose, we use the 1998 and 2003 surveys conducted by the Montreal Metropolitan Transportation Agency. Our results clearly underline the fact that if poly-nucleation is associated with less sustainable forms of commuting, the use of a more detailed classification of employment zones, distinguishing between core and frame in the most important job centers, sheds light on the fact that this trend is to a large extent offset by new forms of employment diffusion around these job centers, which are associated with more sustainable forms of commuting. © 2008 Lavoisier, Paris. All rights reserved.