The travel behavior, attitude, and sociodemographic characteristics of the teleworkers in post-pandemic era

ABSTRACT

Teleworking (i.e., working from home), with the aid of teleworking technologies, became widespread over the world as an impact of COVID-19. The long-term impact of teleworking in the future on commuting and social equity is discussed by the experts. However, less attention has been paid to the factors that are associated with people's choice to start teleworking for the first time or existing teleworkers' choice to increase the current frequency. This study investigates the changes in preference for teleworking frequency in the post-pandemic era. From a survey of 301 respondents in New York City, respondents are split into three categories. These are (1) previous teleworkers who do not want to increase their teleworking frequency, (2) previous teleworker who want to increase their frequency (i.e., extended teleworker), and (3) previous non-teleworker who wants to start teleworking (i.e., prospective teleworker) as the city reopens. A multinomial logit model is used to predict these categories with the help of several sociodemographic, household, geographic, travel behavioral, and attitudinal characteristics of the respondents. The model suggests that younger people and non-Hispanic people are more likely to extend or start teleworking than their counterparts. Females, Blacks, low-income people, and people with a child under five years are more likely to start teleworking while their counterparts (i.e., males, non-Blacks, high-income people, and people with a child under five) are more inclined towards extending teleworking. More work-trip makers and public transit users (for grocery) have less probability to extend teleworking. People with more pro-street and pro-out-migration attitudes and less pro-safety attitudes are more interested in starting or extending teleworking. The findings help targeted investment for post-pandemic accessibility, travel demand management, and energy efficiency.