Teleworking to Play or Playing to Telework? A Latent Segmentation Approach to Exploring the Relationship Between Telework and Nonwork Travel

Technology has evolved at a tremendous pace over the past decade, permeating into our everyday existence and affecting literally every aspect of our lives. Our activity-travel choices have been no exception in this regard, as we make continuous and joint decisions about which activities we can and want to undertake (either in-person or virtually). Add to this the pandemic’s upheaval of habits and behaviors, and there emerges a critical and renewed need to understand the activity-travel choices and decisions of individuals within a new landscape of transportation, technology, and pandemic-altered lifestyles. In this study, the research team explores the causal direction/jointness issue underlying the interplay of teleworking choice and nonwork travel, within the context of the telework landscape in the aftermath of the pandemic. In particular, the team models the telework frequency, maintenance stop frequency, and leisure stop frequency decision-making process as a package choice to account for unobserved factors, as well as use a latent segmentation approach to recognize the two possible and distinct causal behavioral directions that may be at play. The methodology combines an ordinal choice model for telework adoption/intensity with weekly count models for the number of maintenance and leisure stops. The data for the analysis is drawn from a 2021-2022 weekly travel diary and survey of Minnesotan workers.

• Record URL:
  • https://tbd.ctr.utexas.edu/research-product/teleworking-to-play-or-playing-to-telework-a-latent-segmentation-approach-to-exploring-the-relationship-between-telework-and-nonwork-travel/
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Final report: https://tbd.ctr.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/TBD_Year1_UT_Final_Project_Report_Nonwork_Travel_and_Telework.pdf

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $150,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552344815

  69A3552348320

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Understanding Future of Travel Behavior and Demand

  University of Texas
  Austin, TX  United States 
• Project Managers:

  Bhat, Chandra

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Texas at Austin

  Austin, TX  United States  78712
• Principal Investigators:

  Bhat, Chandra

• Start Date: 20230901
• Expected Completion Date: 20240531
• Actual Completion Date: 20240531
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Choice models; COVID-19; Telecommuting; Travel behavior; Travel surveys
• Geographic Terms: Minnesota
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01948180
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Understanding Future of Travel Behavior and Demand
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552344815, 69A3552348320
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Mar 8 2025 11:28AM