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The impact of telecommuting on personal vehicle usage and environmental sustainability
Zhu, P. & Mason, S.G.
Abstract
To understand whether telecommuting could be
part of the policy solutions for greenhouse gas (GHG)
reduction in the transportation sector, this study uses
instrumental variable Tobit models and data from 2001 and
2009 National Household Travel Surveys to explore whether
telecommuting reduces or increases the daily work and
non-work vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Our findings
suggest telecommuters have more VMT for both daily
work and non-work trips than non-telecommuters. Adding
the findings that telecommuting has no impact on other
non-working household member’s daily total (non-work)
trips, we can possibly argue that households with telecommuter(s) tend to have higher daily total VMT. Our
estimated marginal effect of telecommuting on worker’s
daily total trips indicates that a telecommuter on average
travels 38 vehicle miles more on a daily basis in 2001 and
45 vehicle miles more in 2009 compared with a non-telecommuter.
These increases in VMT translate into a rather
large increase in GHG emissions in the US equivalent to
adding 7,248,845 cars in 2001 and 8,808,165 in 2009 to the
road. Moreover, the difference of this marginal effect
between 2001 and 2009 suggests the impact of telecommuting
on worker’s daily total VMT had increased over
time. With the emerging work arrangements to work from
home, telecommuting has been welcomed in this changing
environment, not only by individual workers and employers
but also policymakers. But the outcomes seem to be
opposite to what policy makers may have expected for
GHG emission reductions.
Keywords
Greenhouse gas; Sustainability; Telecommuting; Vehicle miles traveled
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