TeleWorkInsights
teleworkinsights.bsky.social
TeleWorkInsights
@teleworkinsights.bsky.social
Insights on telework based on scientific research. Exploring the impacts of telework on mobility, cities, and lifestyles. Account managed by Benjamin Motte-Baumvol, Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi - SAFIR Research Institute
📚 Studies by Motte-Baumvol & Schwanen (2024), Güven (2024), and Conway & Zhang (2023) confirm: hybrid work reshapes the timing, not the volume, of road traffic. Without structural reforms, the net gain remains limited.
#TeleworkPolicy #SmartMobility #UrbanPlanning
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
5️⃣ Teleworkers are still a minority. Their reduced presence on roads is often offset by others: essential staff, delivery workers, gig economy drivers. Traffic is a shared system; shifts by a few don’t ease conditions for all.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
4️⃣ Urban rhythms constrain everyone. School starts at 8:00, stores open at 9:00, and appointments cluster mid-morning. Even teleworkers fall back into these patterns, making full peak-hour avoidance difficult.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
3️⃣ Time saved from commuting is often reallocated to other trips. School drop-offs, gym, errands, and café stops all happen around the same peak periods. The road gets no rest—just different users.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
2️⃣ Hybrid workers still go to work—just less often. Commuting 2–3 days per week reduces total trips, but unless many people stay home on the same days, peak-hour relief remains marginal. Timing shifts are fragmented, not coordinated.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🔍 Why does telework shift commute timing but not reduce travel?

1️⃣ Flexible schedules defer, not cancel, travel. Teleworkers often gain autonomy over when they travel—but not if they do. In-person meetings, site visits, or hybrid requirements keep them on the road, just at later hours.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📌 Wilson & Boateng (2018), Koźlak & Wach (2018), Odeleye & Umar (2021), and Yu & Xie (2024) all highlight the potential of integrating telework into smart mobility strategies and land use planning. But the institutional architecture is still lacking.
#RemoteWork #TransportPolicy #UrbanFutures
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📍The research shows potential. But we need scale, planning, and complementary policies to activate it.
🛠️ Many authors nonetheless see telework as a promising policy lever to ease congestion—if used intentionally. It is not yet effective by itself, but it could complement broader transport reforms.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🧠 So what do we conclude? Most studies show only weak signs of traffic relief. Often, there is no impact. Sometimes, the rush hour is stretched.
🚦Overall, hybrid work doesn’t radically change traffic patterns. But telework remains a useful tool—as long as it's part of an integrated transport policy.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🌆 Chen (2023) compares congestion to disease spread: collective shifts matter. Hybrid work delays congestion, but doesn’t remove it unless widely adopted.
10.54254/2755-2721/2/20220557
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📊 Zheng (2023) shows that non-commuting trips—like school and leisure—continue to generate pressure during peak hours. These compensate for fewer commuters.
10.54254/2754-1169/54/20230920
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📡 El-Sersy & El‐Sayed (2016) develop congestion detection algorithms and warn that timing shifts alone don’t cut volumes. Congestion persists unless the number of cars drops.
10.21608/iceeng.2016.30297
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🏙️ Koźlak & Wach (2018) remind us that congestion is rooted in land use and institutional design. Telework helps only if combined with coordinated urban transport policy.
10.1051/shsconf/20185701019
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📉 Anbaroglu et al. (2016) show how irregular travel volumes reduce the reliability of congestion detection. Unless remote work reduces trips, the system adapts poorly.
10.5194/isprsarchives-xli-b2-159-2016
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📍 Yu & Xie (2024) stress that traffic predictions only improve when telework displaces trips—not when it just delays them. Behavior change matters more than timing alone.
10.23977/ftte.2024.040101
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📡 Odeleye & Umar (2021) recommend ICT-supported congestion alerts. But these need to be aligned with widespread telework to generate real system-wide improvements.
10.4314/njt.v40i1.1
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🧠 Wilson & Boateng (2018) suggest that smarter routing systems must integrate telework patterns to truly ease flow. Flexible work changes when—not always how—people move.
10.4314/gjs.v59i1.1
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🚗 Li et al. (2023) find that WFH reduces car congestion only if it's accompanied by a shift away from cars. Otherwise, the impact on volumes is negligible.
10.54097/h2n1l8wc
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📆 The same study finds limited signs of peak avoidance for commuting—but not for errands or leisure. Teleworkers still travel at rush hour, just for different reasons.
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
📉 Motte-Baumvol & Schwanen (2024) show that English teleworkers travel more overall than non-teleworkers. Their work trips are longer, and non-work travel during peak hours remains high.
10.1016/j.tbs.2023.100668
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🔢 Kushwaha et al. (2024) simulate Indian cities: traffic relief only appears when more than 50% of workers telework. Below this threshold, effects are minimal.
10.47392/irjaeh.2024.0102
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🛣️ Güven (2024) shows that in Istanbul, hybrid telework flattens the morning peak but stretches it through the morning. Full-time WFH reduces volumes more clearly, but few adopt it.
10.1177/03611981241236786
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
🚦Conway & Zhang (2023) analyze US metros and find that telework shifts commute times later but doesn’t eliminate travel. The 8AM peak becomes a "rush hour-and-a-half". Total volumes stay high.
10.1371/journal.pone.0290534
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 AM
💡 Bottom line: public transport systems must rethink service models, revenue strategies, and spatial priorities in light of widespread telework adoption.

#HybridWork #MobilityShift #UrbanTransport #FareRevenue #CommutingPatterns #FlexibleWork #TransitFunding #Telecommuting
May 30, 2025 at 6:31 AM