The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted day-to-day business and triggered massive changes in travel behavior for work and other activities. Due to social distance and travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic, teleworking has become much more prominent: a survey estimated that between February and May 2020, over one-third of the American labor force switched from in-person work to telework. The Census Pulse Survey (2020-2021) reported that 40% of households in California indicated that at least one household member substituted in-person work with telework (compared to the US national average of 37%). The pandemic provides a unique opportunity to examine the potential impacts of teleworking on travel and measure the potential effectiveness of this work arrangement as a travel demand and environmental management tool.

This study examines changes in telecommuting and the resulting activity-travel behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particular focus on California. A geographical approach was taken to “zoom in” to the county level and to major regions in California and to “zoom out” to comparable states (New York, Texas, Florida). Nearly one-third of the domestic workforce worked from home during the pandemic, a rate almost six times higher than the pre-pandemic level. At least one member from 35 percent of U.S. households replaced in-person work with telework; these individuals tended to belong to higher income, White, and Asian households. Workplace visits have continued to remain below pre-pandemic levels, but visits to non-work locations initially declined but gradually increased over the first nine months of the pandemic. During this period, the total number of trips in all distance categories except long-distance travel decreased considerably. Among the selected states, California experienced a higher reduction in both work and non-workplace visits and the State’s urban counties had higher reductions in workplace visits than rural counties. The findings of this study provide insights to improve understanding of the impact of telecommuting on travel behavior during the pandemic.

Forced by the COVID-19 pandemic and enabled by technology improvements, telework has received a big boost over the past 15 months. In addition to reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), decreasing energy use, and lowering emissions of both air pollutants and of greenhouse gases, telecommuting has numerous potential co-benefits, including saving time (from commuting) and money (on gas and parking), increasing schedule flexibility, potentially improving work-life balance, and reducing stress (Gajendran and Harrison, 2007). To understand the extent to which telecommuting could increase because of the pandemic, this project will analyze a unique dataset on commuting and telework collected during a May-June 2021 random survey of Californians conducted by IPSOS. In addition, the research will quantify changes in VMT and in the resulting emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Quantifying recent changes in telecommuting is important to update sustainable community strategies and for understanding the likely contribution of telecommuting in meeting California’s GHG reduction targets.