Potential of telecommuting for different employees in the Indian context beyond COVID-19 lockdown

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Abstract

<p class="first" id="d841226e118">During the last decade, telecommuting has become quite popular whereas, in developing countries like India, this phenomenon is limited to a select group of employees due to various factors. The COVID-19 pandemic, the nationwide lockdown and the subsequent new normal scenario, has made the adoption of telecommuting by different type of employees indispensable thus giving us the opportunity to conduct empirical research towards understanding the factors influencing telecommuting adoption, productivity and activity-travel behaviour during telecommuting in India. The data used in this survey has been collected in two phases to capture the evolving situation of the pandemic. The analysis has been done based on revealed preference data considering three time periods i.e., before COVID-19, during COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, after the termination of the lockdown (after first wave) and for the post-COVID 19 scenario where stated preferences are considered. In the first step, telecommuting behaviour, activity-travel pattern during telecommuting and productivity is estimated based on aggregate sample data for various socio-economic groups for the period before and during COVID-19 (1. during lockdown 2. during new normal). Next, factors influencing telecommuting adoption and productivity are determined which has been used in our stated preference survey conducted in the second phase. A logistic regression model has been developed to test the association of existing telecommuting behaviour, activity-travel pattern, factors influencing productivity, socio-economic characteristics and occupation categories with future telecommuting adoption. The findings of this research can not only provide insights to urban planners and policymakers to design sustainable travel demand management strategies but can also help employers to design appropriate telecommuting strategies at the organization level which will help to attain the desired productivity levels. Our empirical analysis reveal two major findings, i.e., a large percentage of employees can achieve their desired productivity by working from home and the ‘rebound’ effect as identified in literature seems to have little impact in the Indian context. The novelty of this research lies in the comprehension of the adoption process, and the behavioural analysis including adoption, productivity, activity, and travel of telecommuters in the context of a developing country for the first time. </p>

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How COVID-19 and the Dutch ‘intelligent lockdown’ change activities, work and travel behaviour: Evidence from longitudinal data in the Netherlands

Mathijs P. de Haas, Roel Faber, Marije Hamersma (2020)

COVID-19 has massively affected the lives of people all over the world. This paper presents first insights in current and potential future effects of the virus and the Dutch government's ‘intelligent lockdown’ on people's activities and travel behaviour. Findings are based on a representative sample of about 2500 respondents from the Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN). We show that approximately 80% of people reduced their activities outdoors, with a stronger decrease for older people. 44% of workers started or increased the amount of hours working from home and 30% have more remote meetings. Most of these workers report positive experiences. Students and school pupils, however, are mostly not happy with following education from home. Furthermore, the amount of trips and distance travelled dropped by 55% and 68% respectively when compared to the fall of 2019. So-called ‘roundtrips’ (e.g. a walking or cycling tour) gained in popularity. People are currently more positive towards the car and far more negative towards public transport. Changes in outdoor activities seem to be temporal, with over 90% of people who currently reduced their outdoor activities not expecting to continue this behaviour in the future after corona. However, 27% of home-workers expect to work from home more often in the future. In addition, 20% of people expect to cycle and walk more and 20% expect to fly less in the future. These findings show that the coronavirus crisis might result in structural behavioural changes, although future longitudinal analyses are needed to observe these possible structural effects.

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How is COVID-19 reshaping activity-travel behavior? Evidence from a comprehensive survey in Chicago

Ali Shamshiripour, Ehsan Rahimi, Ramin Shabanpour … (2020)

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has caused upheaval around the world and has led to drastic changes in our daily routines. Long-established routines such as commuting to workplace and in-store shopping are being replaced by telecommuting and online shopping. Many of these shifts were already underway for a long time, but the pandemic has accelerated them remarkably. This research is an effort to investigate how and to what extent people's mobility-styles and habitual travel behaviors have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and to explore whether these changes will persist afterward or will bounce back to the pre-pandemic situation. To do so, a stated preference-revealed preference (SP-RP) survey is designed and implemented in the Chicago metropolitan area. The survey incorporates a comprehensive set of questions associated with individuals' travel behaviors, habits, and perceptions before and during the pandemic, as well as their expectations about the future. Analysis of the collected data reveals significant changes in various aspects of people's travel behavior. We also provide several insights for policymakers to be able to proactively plan for more equitable, sustainable, and resilient cities.

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Insights into the impact of COVID-19 on household travel and activities in Australia – The early days of easing restrictions

Matthew Beck, David Hensher (2020)

The COVID-19 disease continues to cause unparalleled disruption to life and the economy world over. This paper is the second in what will be an ongoing series of analyses of a longitudinal travel and activity survey. In this paper we examine data collected over a period of late May to early June in Australia, following four-to-six weeks of relatively flat new cases in COVID-19 after the initial nationwide outbreak, as many state jurisdictions have begun to slowly ease restrictions designed to limit the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We find that during this period, travel activity has started to slowly return, in particular by private car, and in particular for the purposes of shopping and social or recreational activities. Respondents indicate comfort with the idea of meeting friends or returning to shops, so authorities need to be aware of potential erosion of social distancing and appropriate COVID-safe behaviour in this regard. There is still a concern about using public transport, though it has diminished noticeably since the first wave of data collection. We see that working from home continues to be an important strategy in reducing travel and pressure on constrained transport networks, and a policy measure that if carried over to a post-pandemic world, will be an important step towards a more sustainable transport future. We find that work from home has been a generally positive experience with a significant number of respondents liking to work from home moving forward, with varying degrees of employer support, at a level above those seen before COVID-19. Thus, any investment to capitalise on current levels of work from home should be viewed as an investment in transport.