The Effect of Telecommuting on Residential Location Decisions

An increasing number of workers in The Netherlands telecommutes one or more days per week. An emerging issue is whether the increase in telecommuting leads to changes in location preferences and residential patterns. A potential effect could be that workers are willing to accept longer commute distances, and increasingly choose to live in rural green environments that are farther away from employment concentrations. Using the Dutch WBO database, alternative hypotheses with respect to residential preferences were tested. The analyses suggest that telecommuters do indeed have longer commute distances than commuters, and that the choice to telecommute is a deliberate choice made in combination with the residential location decision. In particular, reasons for actual or desired relocation do not change between commuters and telecommuters. Telecommuters’ residential preferences seem to differ slightly from commuters’ preferences, but are not uniform. Some telecommuters prefer living in central urban environments, whereas other have a preference for rural residential settings.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Muhammad, Saim
  • Ettema, Dick
  • Ottens, Henk
  • de Jong, Tom
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 27p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Choice models; City planning; Commuters; Decision making; Location theory; Public transit; Residential location; Rural areas; Telecommunications; Telecommuting; Transit operating agencies; Travel surveys; Trip length; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Commute travel
• Geographic Terms: Netherlands
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01047028
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-0863
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 8 2007 5:26PM