Telecommuting
Telecommuting Strategy Critical for Proper Regional Travel Planning
Telecommuting and alternative and/or modified work schedules have potential significant impacts on a region’s travel demand and traffic congestions, especially during specific times of day. Argonne researchers have recently conducted a study in the Austin metropolitan area, which demonstrated that high levels of telecommuting (25% of workers telecommuting on a given day) would reduce the peak-period commute trips by 20% and overall out-of-home travel by 6%, compared to the baseline of 11% of workers telecommuting. Consequently, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) were reduced by 9% and passenger hour travel (PHT) by 11% - two critical metrics of transportation system performance.
In terms of non-work activity participation, variations are observed between morning AM and evening PM peaks. Analysis suggests that high telecommuting increases non-work activity participation in the morning peak period. However, such trips decrease during the evening peak period, compared to baseline. This might indicate that telecommuting increases commuters’ tendency to avoid evening rush hours and participate in non-work activities in the morning, since they have flexibilities in their work activity start time.
Argonne findings emphasize the importance of considering telecommuting changes and their impacts on regional travel demand. While creating demand management policies and strategies, decision-makers could consider the impacts of telecommuting on travel demand and the environment. Planners and policymakers could also provide incentives for telecommuting were it would potentially contribute to lower network congestion and transportation emission in the network.
Auld, J., de Souza, F., Gurumurthy, K. M., Verbas, O., Olcay, S., Freyermuth, V., and Rousseau, A. (2023). “Multi-Regional Analysis of Near-Term Smart Mobility Scenarios using the POLARIS Modeling Workflow”. Presented in the 102nd Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, USA, January 8-12, 2023.