IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v166y2022icp62-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What happens when post-secondary programmes go virtual for COVID-19? Effects of forced telecommuting on travel demand of post-secondary students during the pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Kaili
  • Hossain, Sanjana
  • Nurul Habib, Khandker

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads globally, disrupting every aspect of everyday activities. Countermeasures during the pandemic, such as remote working and learning, proliferated tele-activities worldwide during the COVID −19 pandemic. The prevalence of telecommuting could lead to new activity-travel patterns. It is in the interest of transport demand modellers to capture this developing trend of telecommuting using state-of-art travel demand forecasting techniques. This study develops a modelling framework using activity-based and agent-based microsimulation to forecast activity-travel demand considering telecommuting and the pandemic. For empirical application, the modelling framework investigates changes in travel behaviours in post-secondary students when all major post-secondary institutions in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Canada, decided to go virtual during the pandemic. The empirical investigation reveals that enforced telecommuting and the pandemic caused significant mobility drops and shifts in students' trip starting time patterns. While only considering the influence of telecommuting, the empirical exercise reveals noteworthy dynamics between telecommuting and the overall travel demand. Telecommuting could simultaneously reduce the need to commute but also induce discretionary travel. When telecommuting is enforced, students' overall trip rates drop by 14.2%, despite increasing trip rates for all discretionary activities except shopping/market. Moreover, the study demonstrates that it is beneficial to model at-home productive and maintenance episodes when telecommuting is prominent.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Kaili & Hossain, Sanjana & Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2022. "What happens when post-secondary programmes go virtual for COVID-19? Effects of forced telecommuting on travel demand of post-secondary students during the pandemic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 62-85.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:62-85
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2022.10.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856422002622
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2022.10.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lavieri, Patrícia S. & Dai, Qichun & Bhat, Chandra R., 2018. "Using virtual accessibility and physical accessibility as joint predictors of activity-travel behavior," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 527-544.
    2. Khandker M. Nurul Habib & Vivian Hui, 2017. "An activity-based approach of investigating travel behaviour of older people," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 555-573, May.
    3. Patricia L Mokhtarian & Gustavo O Collantes & Carsten Gertz, 2004. "Telecommuting, Residential Location, and Commute-Distance Traveled: Evidence from State of California Employees," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(10), pages 1877-1897, October.
    4. Mouratidis, Kostas & Peters, Sebastian, 2022. "COVID-19 impact on teleactivities: Role of built environment and implications for mobility," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 251-270.
    5. Sangho Choo & Patricia Mokhtarian & Ilan Salomon, 2005. "Does telecommuting reduce vehicle-miles traveled? An aggregate time series analysis for the U.S," Transportation, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 37-64, January.
    6. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521747387.
    7. Nurul Habib, Khandker, 2018. "Modelling the choice and timing of acquiring a driver’s license: Revelations from a hazard model applied to the University students in Toronto," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 374-386.
    8. Roorda, Matthew J. & Miller, Eric J. & Habib, Khandker M.N., 2008. "Validation of TASHA: A 24-h activity scheduling microsimulation model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 360-375, February.
    9. Budnitz, Hannah & Tranos, Emmanouil & Chapman, Lee, 2020. "Telecommuting and other trips: an English case study," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Wang, Kaili & Liu, Yicong & Mashrur, Sk Md & Loa, Patrick & Habib, Khandker Nurul, 2021. "COVid-19 influenced households’ Interrupted Travel Schedules (COVHITS) survey: Lessons from the fall 2020 cycle," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 43-62.
    11. Kim, Seung-Nam & Choo, Sangho & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2015. "Home-based telecommuting and intra-household interactions in work and non-work travel: A seemingly unrelated censored regression approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 197-214.
    12. Patricia L. Mokhtarian, 1998. "A Synthetic Approach to Estimating the Impacts of Telecommuting on Travel," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(2), pages 215-241, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. van Wee, Bert, 2022. "Accessibility and equity: A conceptual framework and research agenda," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    2. Pengyu Zhu & Liping Wang & Yanpeng Jiang & Jiangping Zhou, 2018. "Metropolitan size and the impacts of telecommuting on personal travel," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 385-414, March.
    3. Khandker Nurul Habib & Ph. D. & PEng, 2020. "On the Factors Influencing the Choices of Weekly Telecommuting Frequencies of Post-secondary Students in Toronto," Papers 2004.04683, arXiv.org.
    4. Pengyu Zhu, 2013. "Telecommuting, Household Commute and Location Choice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(12), pages 2441-2459, September.
    5. Ozbilen, Basar & Wang, Kailai & Akar, Gulsah, 2021. "Revisiting the impacts of virtual mobility on travel behavior: An exploration of daily travel time expenditures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 49-62.
    6. Beck, Matthew J. & Hensher, David A., 2022. "Working from home in Australia in 2020: Positives, negatives and the potential for future benefits to transport and society," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 271-284.
    7. Georges A. Tanguay & Ugo Lachapelle, 2019. "Potential Impacts of Telecommuting on Transportation Behaviours, Health and Hours Worked in Québec," CIRANO Project Reports 2019rp-07, CIRANO.
    8. Nicholas S. Caros & Jinhua Zhao, 2022. "Preparing urban mobility for the future of work," Papers 2201.01321, arXiv.org.
    9. Andrew Hook & Victor Court & Benjamin K Sovacool & Steven Sorrell, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Energy and Climate Impacts of Teleworking," Working Papers hal-03192905, HAL.
    10. Melo, Patrícia C. & de Abreu e Silva, João, 2017. "Home telework and household commuting patterns in Great Britain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 1-24.
    11. Pengyu Zhu, 2012. "Are telecommuting and personal travel complements or substitutes?," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 48(2), pages 619-639, April.
    12. Patricia L Mokhtarian & Gustavo O Collantes & Carsten Gertz, 2004. "Telecommuting, Residential Location, and Commute-Distance Traveled: Evidence from State of California Employees," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(10), pages 1877-1897, October.
    13. Kunbo Shi & Long Cheng & Jonas De Vos & Yongchun Yang & Wanpeng Cao & Frank Witlox, 2021. "How does purchasing intangible services online influence the travel to consume these services? A focus on a Chinese context," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2605-2625, October.
    14. Ben-Elia, Eran & Alexander, Bayarma & Hubers, Christa & Ettema, Dick, 2014. "Activity fragmentation, ICT and travel: An exploratory Path Analysis of spatiotemporal interrelationships," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 56-74.
    15. Bing Bai & Neena Gopalan & Nicholas Beutell & Fang Ren, 2021. "Impact of Absolute and Relative Commute Time on Work–Family Conflict: Work Schedule Control, Child Care Hours, and Life Satisfaction," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(4), pages 586-600, December.
    16. Kim, Seung-Nam & Choo, Sangho & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2015. "Home-based telecommuting and intra-household interactions in work and non-work travel: A seemingly unrelated censored regression approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 197-214.
    17. Choo, Sangho & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2007. "Telecommunications and travel demand and supply: Aggregate structural equation models for the US," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 4-18, January.
    18. Patricia Mokhtarian & Ilan Salomon & Sangho Choo, 2005. "Measuring the Measurable: Why can’t we Agree on the Number of Telecommuters in the U.S.?," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 39(4), pages 423-452, August.
    19. Ali Najmi & Taha H. Rashidi & Eric J. Miller, 2019. "A novel approach for systematically calibrating transport planning model systems," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1915-1950, October.
    20. Elldér, Erik, 2020. "Telework and daily travel: New evidence from Sweden," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:62-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.