Telecommuting's implications on travel and travel patterns

Abstract: The subject field is within technology and social change, with focus particularly on telecommuting and the possible changes that arises in the travel patterns as a result of the telecommuting situation. When a person starts working from home once or twice a week instead of commuting back and forth to the main work place, a number of changes in the telecommuters' distribution of travel can and most probably will arise. The commute trip is often excluded, which leads to the so-called substitution effect. Non-work related trips might be generated and the mix of different types of trips as well as the trips temporal and modal choices is affected. On the aggregate. urban congestion may be reduced and the work form may contribute to the urban sprawl, which may lead to an increase in vehicle kilometres travelled. These and some other travel pattern changes due to telecommuting are the topics studied in the thesis. The comprehensive purpose is to: "Describe how telecommuting affects telecommuters' travel and travel patterns by exploring the work form's travel implications. their mutual interaction and explaining the consequent travel outcome".The thesis has confirmed the work forms net travel reducing effect. Commute trips obviously decreases when working from home, but telecommuting is also expected to lead to an increase in non-commute trips, which it does too, but the work form even reduces a number of non-commute trips, with the probable total outcome of a net travel reduction even for the non-commute trips. A discovery that makes the travel reduction less than initially believed however is the substantial amount of telecommuters frequently practising half-day telecommuting. Half-day telecommuting does in turn stimulate travel mode changes. with increased car usage for commuting in preference of public transportation. For non-commutes, the travel mode tends to shift from cars to non-motorised travel means, such as bicycles and walks instead.A conceptual model is constructed in order to increase the understanding of the underlying causes for the interrelations between telecommuting and travel and the accordingly travel effects. Further, the relations and connections between telecommuting and long distance telecommuting is contextually discussed with regards to how rural telecommutcrs travel pattern potentially differentiates from urban telecommuters. The discussion resulted in 18 hypothetical differences between urban and rural telecommuters' travel patterns, which provide a foundation on which to develop future studies.