Telework and Sustainable Travel During the COVID-19 Era
Open accessAbstract
This working paper explores how working from home (e.g. telework) may or may not have changed daily travel--both how and why you go places. This is of particular importance in light of mandated work from home events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While total driving and vehicle-miles-traveled may have declined slightly due to telework and shelter-in-place orders that reduced work-based trips, data illustrates an increase in total trips from 3.97 to 4.45 in total and that these additional 26% of trips have been induced by working from home. This means that while VMT and the share of driving may have declined, the number of trips and engine cold starts may have gone up. This provides a cautionary lesson to planners and engineers seeking to address climate and congestion goals through telework efforts and underscores the importance of thinking critically about the future of urban development, transit and behavioral strategies.
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Further unnecessary journeys can be avoided through the targeted promotion of teleworking.
“Further unnecessary journeys can be avoided through the targeted promotion of teleworking [94].”
From A National and Regional Greenhouse Gas Breakeven Assessment of EVs across North America (2023) · cites this paper as [94]
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- Authors
- Riggs, W.
- Affiliations
- California Polytechnic State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Riggs, William
- ORCID
- Riggs, William
- Venue
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3112376056
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 11
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- SSRN Electronic Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Transportation Planning and Optimization
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Transportation and Mobility Innovations
- Social Sciences › Transportation › Urban Transport and Accessibility
- Keywords
- remote work, working from home, sustainable tourism, COVID-19 pandemic, vehicle miles traveled, travel behavior, engine cold start, urban planning, transportation planning, climate change mitigation, congestion
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