Slowly coming out of COVID-19 restrictions in Australia: Implications for working from home and commuting trips by car and public transport

Abstract

With the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and the slow relaxing of many restrictions, it is imperative that we understand what this means for the performance of the transport network. In going from almost no commuting, except for essential workers, to a slow increase in travel activity with working from home (WFH) continuing to be both popular and preferred, this paper draws on two surveys, one in late March at the height of restrictions and one in late May as restrictions are starting to be partially relaxed, to develop models for WFH and weekly one-way commuting travel by car and public transport. We compare the findings as one way to inform us of the extent to which a sample of Australian residents have responded through changes in WFH and commuting. While it is early days to claim any sense of a new stable pattern of commuting activity, this paper sets the context for ongoing monitoring of adjustments in travel activity and WFH, which can inform changes required in the revision of strategic metropolitan transport models as well as more general perspectives on future transport and land use policy and planning.

Factors influencing home-based telework in Hanoi (Vietnam) during and after the COVID-19 era

“…Additionally, the sample’s bias toward some enterprises may contribute to the significant effects of factors related to companies. In contrast, since companies’ closure policies oriented toward protecting the health of all workers rather than specific groups divided based on individual characteristics, socio-demographic variables were not significant, which was in line with the findings in Beck et al ( 2020 ).…”

“…The respondent’s occupation was excluded for five reasons. First, this information has frequently been included in prior studies using representative samples of the population of employees working in a nation or region to investigate which occupations are suitable for HBT (Beck et al 2020 ; Haddad et al 2009 ; Mannering and Mokhtarian 1995 ; Sener and Reeder 2012 ; Singh et al 2013 ). In contrast, this study could not gather a representative sample; thus, it could not conclude persuasively which occupations were the most appropriate for HBT in the pandemic period.…”

“…In Model_2, the dependent variable was whether teleworkers agreed that HBT was a good solution during the COVID-19 period. 6 Besides being the same list of independent variables as Model_1, time of response was included because personal attitudes toward HBT may change when the pandemic revolutionized 7 (Beck et al 2020 ).…”

“…Using two datasets collected from March 30 to April 15 with 476 observations and from May 23 to June 15 with 705 observations in Australia, Beck et al ( 2020 ) estimated two ordered logit models for the frequency of HBT. They found the significant role of an employer in the number of times his/her employee teleworked for both waves.…”

COVID-19 and transport: Findings from a world-wide expert survey

“… 4 Examples include, Abdullah et al (2020) , Beck et al (2020) , Beck and Hensher (2020) , Borkowski et al (2020) , Bucsky (2020) , de Haas et al (2020) , De Vos (2020) , Jeneliu and Cebecauer ( 2020 ), Pawar et al (2020) , Saladié et al ( 2020 ), Shakibaei ET AL. (2020), Suau-Sanchez et al (2020) , and Teixeira and Lopes (2020) .…”