Telecommunications-Transportation-Energy Interaction: The Potential for Telecommuting to Reduce Urban Network-Wide Fuel Consumption

Telecommuting has achieved recognition in several states and foreign countries as a means to reduce trip-making during the peak period. Evidence to date suggests that telecommuting can effectively eliminate commute trips without creating new travel. If true, telecommuting holds vast potential to mitigate urban traffic congestion. Decreased network fuel consumption and improved air quality are two primary benefits associated with reduced automobile use. In light of Federal Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990 standards, telecommuting has been mentioned in legislative policy as a transportation demand management (TOM) strategy in nonattainment areas. Where firms are required to reduce peak hour commuting by its employees, telecommuting is an effective strategy, along with staggered work start times, the four day work week, and other programs. This development in the legislative arena lends an urgency to all aspects of telecommuting research. The literature on telcommuting is evolving away from broad theoretical work based on a technological substitution perspective toward a system of behavioral models with better represent the compound decisions involving employer adoption, employee participation, tripmaking effects, and long-term location decisions. Researchers will have a better idea to what extent telecommuting is occurring at present as definitional issues are resolved. The vast literature on factors affecting adoption and participation decisions has fostered attempts to model these complex phenomena, utilizing stated preference techniques. Pilot studies have provided valuable insight into the necessary ingredients to a successful telecommuting experience. The first indications of the impact of telecommuting on tripmaking have been reported recently. Observations of ongoing projects will be helpful in identifying longterm effects on auto ownership. residential location, and office location that constrain broad implications for land use and transportation networks. The first satellite telecommuting experiments have begun in Washington and Califomia, promising a better understanding of the costs, benefits, management of. and transportation impact of satellite work centers. This study presents a model of network fuel consumption savings due to telecommuting that incorporates the direct effect of removing vehicles from the network and the indirect effect of their removal on vehicles remaining in the network. The indirect effect is present only during the peak performance and along arterial streets where benefits are derived from increased average speeds up to about 40 MPH. The model's primary inputs are system supply and demand assumptions, two-fluid model parameters, fuel consumption characteristics, and current estimates of the effect