Telecommuting, which is the performance of work at home or at a neighbourhood work centre close to home using telecommunications equipment, has seen growing interest among planners and researchers as a strategy for reducing travel demand. This paper investigates the potential of telecommuting as a trip reduction measure using data obtained from the State of California Telecommuting Pilot Project. The evaluation of the impact of telecommuting on travel demand is a highly complex task. In the past, a number of hypotheses have been advanced on this issue and the question as to whether telecommuting substitutes or complements travel remains intriguing. The pilot project offered the first opportunity in the United States to gather non-proprietary data on household travel behaviour to assess the impact of telecommuting. In this pilot project a three-day diary was administered twice to 252 state employees and their driving age household members. During the first contact of the survey conducted in 1988, all employees were commuting conventionally to work and during the second contact conducted in 1989, 137 employees had started telecommuting while 115 employees still commuted to work conventionally. The first group constituted the telecommuters while the later group constituted the control group. The presence of the control group allows for the isolation of the effects of telecommuting on the telecommuters' travel demand. The travel data of both groups are analyzed to study how trip characteristics changed before and after telecommuting was introduced. The impact of telecommuting is evaluated in terms of changes in total trips, work trips, peak period trips, vehicle miles travelled, travel time, freeway use, mode choice, time expenditure for activity participation and spatial distribution of trip ends. Based on this before-and-after comparison, the positive and negative impacts of telecommuting on travel are determined, and the effectiveness of telecommuting as a trip reduction measure evaluated.
Abstract