Abstract
This paper demonstrates the use of motif and sequence analysis in tandem to analyse differences and commonalities between telecommuters and usual commuters. In terms of substantive findings, telecommuters are by far more diverse in their allocation of time to places, activities, and travel. Approximately 20% of telecommuters stay at home all day during a workday, while only 8% of commuters do. Telecommuters that have at least one trip during their workday accrue more vehicle miles travelled and number of trips than their commuter counterparts. However, they travel less driving alone and tend to have more complex schedules visiting more locations. Within telecommuters and commuters, however, we have substantial variation in activity participation and travel captured by the combination of motifs and sequence analysis. As expected, a substantial proportion of commuters display morning and afternoon peaks of arriving at and departing from work, and telecommuters do not show this pattern. In addition, telecommuters do not only perform work tasks from home. Instead, during a day a high percentage travel to a variety of locations to either visit customers and/or use their spatio-temporal schedule flexibility to perform work tasks from locations other than home. In contrast, more than 80% of commuters perform work at their workplace. In addition, a slightly higher proportion of telecommuters function as the designated driver escorting other people to their activity locations.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 106-132 |
Number of pages | 27 |
Journal | Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice |
Volume | 147 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2021 |
Externally published | Yes |
Funding
Funding for the research here is provided by the United States DOT Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center. The authors have no conflict of interest in this research. The authors also appreciate the comments by the anonymous reviewers and the editor that improved this paper substantially. Any errors or omissions remain with the authors.
Keywords
- Human mobility
- Motif
- Sequence analysis
- Telecommuting