The Impact of Telecommuting on Households’ Travel Behaviour, Expenditures and Emissions

The demand of individuals for travel increases steadily. As a consequence, traffic increases as well, especially by car. Due to the negative side-effects of traffic on the environment, e.g. air quality, a change in travel behaviour is required. Innovative concepts are called for. Recently emerging information technologies offer chances to replace to a certain extent physical by virtual travel and therefore reduce traffic induced emissions.

The research project presented here examines an option that was developed for work-related travel: telecommuting. The objective of this project is to analyse the effect telecommuting has on travel behaviour of telecommuters and their household members, the households’ expenditures in money and time and traffic-induced emissions.

To determine the effects of telecommuting, a pre- and post-treatment survey was carried out using detailed travel diaries and questionnaires. Analysis of the survey leads to the following results: telecommuting changes the distribution of trips over the day. Peak hour traffic is avoided, and the total number of trips and distance travelled decrease. Expenditures in time and money change accordingly. The amount of traffic-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants decreases.