Let Your Fingers Do the Driving: The Effects of Telecommuting on Travel and the Environment
I just noticed that there are no links to my dissertaion pages, so I’m fixing that now!
http://telecommuting.mporter.co.uk/
Abstract
Telecommuting, the elimination of journeys by working at home is likely become far more common in the first few years of this century. The technology to release workers from the office and let them work from home is getting cheaper every day. This change in lifestyle will have impacts on the environment and our travel behaviour.
This report measures some of the pressures that the switch to telecommuting hopes to relieve. It monitors the travel of a group of office workers in north London and charts the travel choices they make and their impact on the environment. Every journey made by the participants in one week was recorded and analysed.
The findings indicate that telecommuting does reduce emissions from travel beyond just the elimination of the commute to work, journeys for other reasons were also reduced. Environmental benefits beyond those that result from transportation, like a reduction of the land needed for each worker, has still to be taken advantage of. The most interesting finding is the change in the habits of those working from home. The added flexibility allowed telecommuters to organise their travel better, and so reduce the journeys they had to make. They also changed when they travelled so that they could avoid congestion. This is the most significant effect of telecommuting.
2 Responses to “Let Your Fingers Do the Driving: The Effects of Telecommuting on Travel and the Environment”
Comment from Complicated
Time Wed 29 August, 2007 at 22:15
dissertation! For a doctoral degree? wow!
Comment from Complicated
Time Wed 29 August, 2007 at 22:12
I love articles of this style!
I don’t know why..