Employer Attitudes to Peak Hour Avoidance

This papers will explore employer attitudes toward rewarding car drivers for rush hour avoidance (RHA). Many countries face congestion on their road network during peak hours. In the Dutch Peak Hour Avoidance experiment (“Spitsmijden”) the effects of reward schemes for peak hour avoidance on the travel behavior of car drivers were tested. Peak hour avoidance implies driving by car before or after peak hours or choosing an alternative for driving by car (other transport modes, carpooling, and teleworking). In the experiment driving before peak hours was the most chosen alternative. Employers play can play an important role in Peak Hour Avoidance (PHA) by providing alternatives for driving in peak hours through flexible working conditions. Furthermore, as peak hour traffic primarily consists of commuters, the target group can be addressed through employers. Another key role for employers is that they could invest in the rewarding scheme. This paper investigates the employer attitudes towards Peak Hour Avoidance. Previous studies have shown that employers do not really seem to actively support mobility management measures. This paper examines if this also holds for Peak Hour Avoidance. A web questionnaire was distributed among large employers (>100 employees) from different sectors in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. In total 103 completed questionnaires were collected. Questions were asked on flexible working conditions, mobility management, PHA and the main reasons for supporting or not supporting these latter two measures. The results of the questionnaire showed that half of the respondents are personally positive on PHA. Reasons for this include the contribution of the measure to the reduction of congestion and the benefits it offers employees. 34% of the respondents expect their organization to be willing to support Peak Hour Avoidance. The insights the paper provides can be used for a more targeted approach of employers. It is expected that the involvement of employers in PHA can be increased as not all employers that are currently willing to support PHA do so. In fact, 30% of the respondents were not yet familiar with this measure.

• Record URL:
  • https://aetransport.org/past-etc-papers/conference-papers-pre-2009/conference-papers-2009
• Corporate Authors:

  Association for European Transport (AET)

  1 Vernon Mews, Vernon Street, West Kensington
  London W14 0RL,    
• Authors:
  • Vonk Noordegraaf, Diana
  • Annema, Jan Anne
• Conference:
  • European Transport Conference, 2009
  • Location: Leiden Leeuwenhorst Conference Centre , Netherlands
  • Date: 2009-10-5 to 2009-10-7
• Publication Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: European Transport Conference, 2009 Proceedings

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Employers; Flexible hours; Mobility; Peak hour traffic; Traffic congestion; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: Netherlands
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01345848
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 29 2011 7:45AM