The contribution of teleworking to travel demand management

Continuously increasing demand for travel is contributing to increasing congestion oil roads, especially within the urban settings. The cost of congestion is projected to rise if left unchallenged. Transport planners havee limited options to tackle this situation. While exploring the various impacts of teleworking, this thesis has investigated its potential for travel demand management during the peak periods. By doing so, it seeks to increase the range of policy options to support transport policy objective(s). Teleworking has been studied from various perspectives in the past; however, its impact on commute travel has not been modelled. This thesis has applied a policy analysis based methodology to the study of teleworking impacts. The methodology required bespoke data to estimate an SP model of teleworking adoptin and frequeny, for which a survey was carried out on car commuters to the city centre of Leeds. The survey also explored the employees' attitudes towards teleworking and its other impacts. The result from these aspects of the survey have been presented and analysed. A bespoke demand model of teleworking adoption and frequency has also been estimated from the collected data to predict the teleworking impacts. This model uses telework as a policy measure and evaluates its performance relative to three indicators: reduction in work-based travel, levels of overall car use and car use during the peak. Within an extended framework, the demand model has also been linked to a congestion response function to analyse the system-wide impacts of teleworking. The use of the methodology has shown that it is possible to model telework as a TDNI measure and use it to support transport policy objective(s). The results of the analysis indicate teleworking impact on work-based travel, car use and system performance. The extent of the impacts would depend on the nature of the telework policy, which needs to be clear and well- communicated. Further, the employers also need to address the issue of teleworkability through job redesigns. The study findings show the inadequacy of current teleworking policy and legislation, highlight the need for making telework formally available by the firms to the eligible employees and emphasise the regulator's role in this regard.