Do Telecommuters Make Fewer Trips? An Analysis of Telecommuting Travel Behavior in Urban and Rural Communities in the USA

Abstract

Many believe that telecommuting could be a solution for some of the significant adverse impacts of our transportation systems, e.g., traffic congestion, greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions, and energy consumption. Observations may have further strengthened this belief during the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, where streets were deserted and clean air and wildlife returned to urban areas. Accordingly, this study investigates the legitimacy of this belief. The NHTS 2017 data set was used to examine the travel activity of commuting workers against telecommuters. Workers were classified into one of five telecommute classes based on primary work location, telecommute engagement, logged trips, and option to telecommute: home-based workers (those who work predominantly from home), primary and ancillary telecommuters (those who telecommute), passive telecommuters (those who have the option to telecommute), and non-telecommuters. The various forms of telecommuting were found to significantly impact average daily trip counts and average daily trip miles produced in both urban and rural contexts. Contrary to the possibly traditional belief, telecommuters made more trips per day and traveled longer distances per day compared to non-telecommuters. Additionally, the study investigated the differences in trip rates by trip purpose for each of the five telecommuting classes. The analysis revealed that while home-based work (HBW) trips for primary telecommuters decreased significantly, all other trip purposes increased (in number and distance) and in a higher manner than the decrease of the HBW trips. These findings indicate that telecommuting is likely to increase total VMT and associated negative impacts and should inform relevant transportation policies.

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