Telecommuting
Leveraging the Choice Not to Travel
The pandemic accelerated the growth of remote services and telecommuting. Now is the time for urban planners to leverage these new opportunities to reduce vehicle miles traveled.
D.C., San Francisco Lead Pandemic Work From Home Trend
Remote work increased threefold during the pandemic, but the numbers vary significantly from city to city and region to region. Almost half of D.C.-area employees, for example, worked from home in 2021, according to American Community Survey data.
D.C. Could Lead the Downtown Office Conversion Trend
Many urban cores around the country are faced with increasing office vacancies concurrently with a housing affordability crisis caused, at least in part, by a lack of supply. D.C. is particularly primed for a wave of adaptive reuse.
Surveying the Rising Trend of Office-to-Residential Conversions
With office vacancies climbing and a stubborn supply crunch driving up the cost of housing, some downtowns have emerged at the forefront of a new wave of adaptive reuse.
Transit Riders Skipping Mondays
The new commute normal includes far fewer transit rides on Mondays, reflecting new hybrid work schedules that gives workers the options of choosing days to come into the office.
Two Stories From 2020: Which Is True?
Have all cities lost people due to COVID-19, or just a few high-cost ones?
Teleworking From Paradise
Hawai'i is offering a remote-work program to attract workers from the mainland and help boost the local economy.
Plan Bay Area 2050 Proposes 60% Telecommute Rates for Office Workers
A drastic and unprecedented measure included in the draft Plan Bay Area 2050, released this summer, would require 60 percent of all workers in Bay Area office jobs to telecommute.
Using Artificial Intelligence to Map Telecommuting Prevalence
In the Philadelphia region, residents of wealthier neighborhoods will be more likely to work from home in the future, thus altering travel patterns and transit usage, according to a new mapping project powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Research on the Benefits and Limitations of Telecommuting to Inform a New Transportation Normal
If public transit suffers long-term consequences from the coronavirus, as many experts predict, telecommuting could be a key tool in reducing pollution and congestion, but it creates problems of its own and its effects aren't entirely clear.
Planning Work Continues (Remotely) Amid Pandemic
While cities may be shut down, city planners have not turned off the lights. Planning departments around California, which is mostly on lockdown, have resorted to working from home. Long-range planning could even benefit.
New Commute Data: Telecommuting on the Rise
The news from the most recent American Community Survey data isn't entirely bad for advocates hoping that Americans will switch to more efficient, less impactful forms of commuting.
Transportation 2019—Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Some thoughts on what we might have learned in 2018 and what it might mean going forward.
Census: Working From Home More Common Than Taking Transit to Work
A more sedentary approach to commuting is now more common than taking the bus or train to work, trailing only driving to work as the most common commute mode.
Telecommuting Trend Not Decreasing Traffic
Commuting statistics have held consistent, according to Census data, even as the number of people working from home continues to climb.
A National Day of Telecommuting
Companies and workers in the country of Japan are less likely to work from home than in the United States. The government hopes to increase the number of telecommuters during the 2020 Olympics, however.
Telecommuting Skews Affluent
Here's a reason to doubt telecommuting as a silver bullet for congestion in growing regions: most people don't have the option.
The Telemedicine Revolution That Still Hasn't Come
Health care advice can often be given through video or teleconferencing, which saves a great deal of time and money, but most patients still aren't eager to do it.
How the Pope's Visit Reduced Traffic in Washington, D.C.
Pope Francis' much-publicized visit to the capital in late September saw reductions in congestion and better travel times. Event-specific telecommuting policies and transit route changes appear responsible for the minor miracle.
More and More Americans Working From Home
In a pattern evident in communities all over the country, U.S. Census data shows more Americans are working from home. Researchers from the Brookings Institution are hoping that planners have noticed the trend.
Placer County
City of Morganton
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Dongguan Binhaiwan Bay Area Management Committee
City of Waukesha, WI
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Indiana Borough
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
