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Large levels of working from home (WfH) were induced by social distancing and viral control measures undertaken to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic. Representing an unpredicted change in the way large amounts of people undertake their day to day work, it is expected that the legacy of this event, in terms of significant alterations to work and commuting patterns will have wide-ranging and long-lasting results. However, how persistent the current trends will be, remains an open question. Therefore, there is a need for a well-represented study of employees' preferences for the post-pandemic future and focus on white-collar workers and their well-established attitudes considering their flexibility in terms of workplace arrangements. This paper presents the results of a survey undertaken in Ireland in the summer of 2021 gauging the desire of office workers to WfH, the format that most appeals to them, the consideration of home relocation based on the ability to WfH, and the factors that may explain such preferences. Results indicate high levels of desire to WfH, either full time or partially, with increased desire to WfH positively correlated to pre-pandemic commute length, and to a perceived increase in work productivity and quality of non-work life as a result of time spent WfH. Additionally, a number of workers state that they may consider home relocation based upon the ability to WfH. These results should be interpreted as the desire to WfH or total addressable market that exists, rather than the likely levels of WfH that will be observed post-Covid.
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Energy and transport poverty have been postulated as conditions linked by overlapping causal factors such as structural economic inequality or housing stock and affecting overlapping demographics such as family size or income. The strength of the overlap of these conditions and their causal mechanisms has not been assessed across Ireland prior to this study. We apply and analyse existing and novel energy and transport poverty metrics in a survey of 1564 participants across Ireland and consider results from expenditure and consensual data examining causal mechanisms and correlations. We find that energy and transport poverty rates are broadly similar across Ireland at approximately 14% for energy poverty and 18% for transport poverty using the half-median metric, while participant knowledge of causal factors, such as lack of domestic energy efficiency and perceived desirability of potential poverty solutions, such as increased public transport provision, are low. Furthermore, we find that self-reported data concerning energy and transport expenditures and preferences do not correspond to expected outcomes. We thus conclude that ever refined targeting of individuals and households for support measures is not optimal for either decarbonisation or alleviation of energy and transport poverty conditions and suggest some salient policy implications.
RESUMEN
Since the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020 many workers around the world, that can, have begun to work remotely. Many studies have been completed on the success or otherwise of this new trend in remote working and postulate that this trend will continue beyond the pandemic. One of the other trends that has been spoken about significantly with this renewed interest in remote working is the development of remote working hubs (RWHs). These are locations outside of main cities that are used by workers from different companies to work remotely in a flexible way. The research conducted in this paper examines several of these RWHs that are located on the periphery of Dublin city centre. The motivation for the research was to establish the potential emissions and travel time savings for commuters using RWHs. The study collected survey data from 514 participants that are currently using RWHs and questioned them on their travel and work habits. The analysis showed that users of RWHs were driving on average 60 km less per day and the majority were able to depart for work later. In the sample, 34% would have driven to their normal place of work and whereas 12% drove to their RWH. The results also point to substantial travel time and emissions savings from using RWHs. The findings suggest that on average those that drive alone could save 1.126 tonnes of CO2 from working at a RWH 3 days a week for a year.
RESUMEN
BackgroundThe design, management and operation of transport systems is a complex activity and this has only been exacerbated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concern has been raised over the likelihood of the public transport sector surviving in some locations given the significant drops in patronage;this is especially so in rural environments where the existing provision was already limited. Furthermore, within the growing literature on the impact of COVID-19 on travel behaviour most of the focus is on urban areas with little documented experience of how rural travel behaviour has been impacted.PurposeThis paper investigates the impact of COVID-19 on the transport sector and travel behaviour in the rural periphery.MethodsDrawing on the work of the International Transport Forum (ITF) Working Group on Innovative Mobility for the Periphery, augmented by additional evidence and findings from the literature, this paper addresses three specific questions: Firstly, how COVID-19 has affected rural mobility. Secondly, how we can plan for sustainable rural transport solutions in the post-COVID world. Thirdly, the longer-term impacts of COVID-19 with implications for mobility.ResultsThere will be substantial impacts from COVID-19 on rural societies and while the short-term impacts have been negative, in the longer-term there may be opportunity for changed mobility behaviours (including in response to modified work and activity patterns). Evidence suggests that it would seem likely that there are opportunities to foster new rural mobility solutions to support sustainable mobility (including Mobility-as-a-Service) and counter the traditionally fragmented transport base;this will be important as we learn to live with COVID-19.ConclusionsWhile recognising the impact of changing funding priorities and the possible shift in economic activity as a result of the pandemic we conclude with suggestions for future rural transport policy.
RESUMEN
COVID-19 has had a major impact on the transport systems around the world. Several transport-related policies were implemented in short period of time to contain the spread of the pandemic. These policies had a major influence on travel behavior and people's perception towards the safety of different modes of transport, especially public transport, thus affecting several sustainable mobility initiatives. To build a resilient and sustainable transport system and to rebuild trust in public transport, it is important to understand the role of mobility in the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The present study investigates the relationship between mobility and reported COVID-19 infections using data from Dublin city. Different modes of transport including traffic volume, bus passengers, pedestrians and cyclists were considered in the study during a forty week period. Multiple scenarios involving two-week lag and three-week lag of mobility data and COVID-19 infections were considered in building statistical models. Results showed that, 36.2% of the reported COVID-19 infections after a two-week lag and 33% of the infections after a three-week lag. Our research examines the links between movements and COVID-19 numbers, but clearly this was not the only reason for increased case numbers as many other events impacted on increased numbers. The study further discusses the policy implications and strategies for ensuring a resilient and sustainable transport system.
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Goal: The aim of the study herein reported was to review mobile health (mHealth) technologies and explore their use to monitor and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A Task Force was assembled by recruiting individuals with expertise in electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (ePRO), wearable sensors, and digital contact tracing technologies. Its members collected and discussed available information and summarized it in a series of reports. Results: The Task Force identified technologies that could be deployed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and would likely be suitable for future pandemics. Criteria for their evaluation were agreed upon and applied to these systems. Conclusions: mHealth technologies are viable options to monitor COVID-19 patients and be used to predict symptom escalation for earlier intervention. These technologies could also be utilized to monitor individuals who are presumed non-infected and enable prediction of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, thus facilitating the prioritization of diagnostic testing.
RESUMEN
Since late 2019, COVID-19 has devastated the global economy, with indirect implications for the environment. As governments' prioritized health and implemented measures such as the closure of non-essential businesses and social distancing, many workers have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or started working from home. Consequently, the world of work has drastically transformed and this period is likely to have major implications for mobility, transportation and the environment. This paper estimates the potential for people to engage in remote work and social distancing using O*NET data and Irish Census data and calculates the potential emission savings, by commuter type from a switch to remote working and occupational social distancing. The results show that while those who commute by car have a relatively high potential for remote work, they are less likely to be able to engage in social distancing in their workplace. While this may be negative for employment prospects in the short run, our analysis indicates that this pattern has the potential for positive environmental implications in the short and long run.
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Dublin, Ireland, like most other large cities has undergone lockdown due to the outbreak of the coronavirus. Ongoing physical distancing requirements, as cities reopens, has resulted in a collapse to transit’s capacity and ability to meet demand, forcing authorities to reimagine how people can travel in a pandemic/post-pandemic world. For Dublin, campaigns have focused on encouraging those who can walk or cycle to use active transport options if they are close enough to their place of employment, when the city fully reopens. The purpose of this is to ensure adequate physical distancing can occur while alleviating the pressure on public transport systems, thereby freeing up space for those who are unable to commute via active transport and for those beyond a range in which it is feasible. Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin (TCD) is located in the city centre of Ireland’s capital. Since less than 1% of staff drive to the campus and students arenot permitted to park on the campus, the University community has been working with Dublin City Council (DCC) to advance planning and built environment interventions to enable staff and students to safely return to work and education. This paper presents the results of the “Commuting to Trinity while Covid-19 Social Distancing is Required” Travel Survey for TCD students and staff, conducted in June and July 2020 (n = 2653). Conducted to determine how staff and students would like to travel to TCD, when the campus fully reopens, it identifies which factors influence their mode choice and choice of working locations. The Trinity University campus makes for an interesting case study as it allows us to understand how the reopening of a major employment, educational and cultural site within an urban area, which is primarily served by transit and active transport, can address physical distancing restrictions and decreased capacity of public transport.
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Health care has had to adapt rapidly to COVID-19, and this in turn has highlighted a pressing need for tools to facilitate remote visits and monitoring. Digital health technology, including body-worn devices, offers a solution using digital outcomes to measure and monitor disease status and provide outcomes meaningful to both patients and health care professionals. Remote monitoring of physical mobility is a prime example, because mobility is among the most advanced modalities that can be assessed digitally and remotely. Loss of mobility is also an important feature of many health conditions, providing a read-out of health as well as a target for intervention. Real-world, continuous digital measures of mobility (digital mobility outcomes or DMOs) provide an opportunity for novel insights into health care conditions complementing existing mobility measures. Accepted and approved DMOs are not yet widely available. The need for large collaborative efforts to tackle the critical steps to adoption is widely recognised. Mobilise-D is an example. It is a multidisciplinary consortium of 34 institutions from academia and industry funded through the European Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking. Members of Mobilise-D are collaborating to address the critical steps for DMOs to be adopted in clinical trials and ultimately health care. To achieve this, the consortium has developed a roadmap to inform the development, validation and approval of DMOs in Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and recovery from proximal femoral fracture. Here we aim to describe the proposed approach and provide a high-level view of the ongoing and planned work of the Mobilise-D consortium. Ultimately, Mobilise-D aims to stimulate widespread adoption of DMOs through the provision of device agnostic software, standards and robust validation in order to bring digital outcomes from concept to use in clinical trials and health care.