Telecommunications and Travel Research Program

P U B L I C A T I O N S

Abstracts of Non-Refereed and Other Publications

How to obtain these documents

Documents that are not directly linked to the publication, on the previous page, may be ordered from the Institute of Transportation Studies for a nominal cost. For information on how to order, contact ITS-Davis at:
phone:        (530) 752-4909
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e-mail:        itspublications@ucdavis.edu

Non-Refereed Publications

NRP23 Residential Area Based Office Project: Final Report on Telecenter Operations. Bunkinger, Carol; Francisca Mar and Patricia Mokhtarian. ITS-Davis. August, 2004. UCD-ITS-RR-04-31.

NRP22 "The Travel and Urban Form Implications for Telecommunications Technology", by P.L. Mokhtarian. Paper presented at the Federal Highway Administration / Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Workshop on Metropolitan America in transition: Implications for Land Use and Transportation Planning, Washington DC, September 9-10, 1993
[abstract not available yet]

NRP21 "Telecommunications and Travel", by Patricia L. Mokhtarian. Millennium white paper prepared for the Transportation Research Board, 2000. Included in the Regional Futures Compendium of the Capital Region Institute (Valley Vision), Sacramento, California.

NRP20 "Travel for the Fun of it", by Patricia L. Mokhtarian and Ilan Salomon. Access (a publication of the University of California Transportation Center) 15 (Fall), 1999, 26-31.

NRP19 "Driven to Travel: The Identification of Mobility-Inclined Market Segments", by Ilan Salomon and Patricia L. Mokhtarian. Paper presented at the European Science Foundation/National Science Foundation Conference on Social Change and Sustainable Transport, Berkeley, Calif., March 10-13, 1999. Forthcoming in William R. Black and Peter Nijkamp, eds., Social Change and Sustainable Transport. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002. Included in the Regional Futures Compendium of the Capital Region Institute (Valley Vision), Sacramento, California.

NRP18 "At Issue: Will Encouraging Telecommuting Decrease Traffic Congestion?" (The 'No' Response), by Patricia L. Mokhtarian, The CQ (Congressional Quarterly) Researcher 8(30) (August14), 1998, 713.

NRP17 "Now That Travel Can be Virtual, Will Congestion Virtually Disappear?", by Patricia L. Mokhtarian. Scientific American Special Issue on Transportation, October, 1997.

NRP16 "Why Aren't You Telecommuting?", by Ilan Salomon and Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Access 10 (a publication of the University of California Transportation Center), Spring, 1997, 27-29.

NRP15 "More Women than Men Change Behavior to Avoid Congestion", by Patricia Mokhtarian. ITS Review 20(2) (February), 1997, 3.

NRP14 "The Influence of Gender and Occupation on Individual Perceptions of Telecommuting", by Michael N. Bagley, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Ilan Salomon, and Lisa Hulse, presented at the Second National Conference on Women's Travel Issues, Baltimore, Maryland, October 23-15, 1996.

NRP13 "The Information Highway: Looking Behind the Hype", Telecommuting Times 2(2), Second Quarter 1995, 6-7.

NRP12 "The Information Highway: Just Because We're on it Doesn't Mean We Know Where We're Going", by Patricia L. Mokhtarian. World Transport Policy and Practice 2(1/2), 1996, 24-28.

The potential of technology to solve human problems is often oversold, resulting in faulty "conventional wisdom" that comes to be accepted as truth. Several attributes that are characteristic of conventional wisdom are described. These attributes are then illustrated through questioning three commonly-held beliefs regarding the impacts of telecommunications on urban society: that telecom will reduce congestion and improve air quality, that it will make location irrelevant, and that it will stimulate economic development. Some research and policy issues relating to these beliefs are sketched.

NRP11 Telecommunications in Urban Planning: Selected North American Examples, by Patricia L. Mokhtarian. Proceedings of the Habitat II Global Workshop on Transport and Communication for Urban Development, Singapore, July 3-5, 1995, 198-221. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-95-11, July 1995.
This report offers a brief overview of selected North American examples of the innovative use of telecommunications-based strategies in urban planning contexts. The examples described herein are divided into the categories of infrastructure and applications. Under infrastructure we discuss teleports, statewide fiber optic networks, use of public rights of way for telecommunications networks, and incorporating telecommunications into residential and mixed use developments. Under applications we discuss telecommuting and telework centers, and community networks. A conclusions section briefly raises several policy considerations.

NRP10 "Unraveling the Complex Relationships between Telecommunications Options and Travel Behavior", Engineering Progress (a publication of the UC Davis College of Engineering), Fall 1994, 2-3.

NRP9 "Telecommuting: What's the Payoff?" Access (a publication of the University of California Transportation Center, UC Berkeley), Spring 1993.

NRP8 "Telecommuting in the United States: Letting Our Fingers Do the Commuting", TR News, January - February 1992.

NRP7 Guest editorial. Transportation, Special Issue on Telecommunications and Travel Behavior. Vol. 18, No. 4, 1991.

NRP6 "Environmental Impacts", by Robert L. Knight and Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Chapter 21 in Public Transportation, 2nd ed., edited by G. E. Gray and L. A. Hoel, 1991.

NRP5 Telecommuting: A Handbook to Help You Set Up a Program at Your Company, by E. Shirazi, J. Fink, J. Pratt, P. Mokhtarian, G. Gordon, P. Conroy, C. McKeever, D. Carter, and E. Schreffler, and Telecommuting: A Guide for Executives, by J. Pratt, P. Mokhtarian, G. Gordon, P. Conroy, D. Carter, E. Schreffler, and E. Shirazi. California Department of Transportation Office of Traffic Improvement, Sacramento, CA, September 1991.

NRP4 "An Evaluation of Telecommuting as a Trip Reduction Measure", by R. Kitamura, P. Mokhtarian, R. Pendyala, and K. Goulias. Proceedings of the 19th Annual Meeting of the Planning and Transport Research and Computation (PTRC), Education and Research Services Limited, University of Sussex, Brighton, England, September 1991, 69-80 (abstract refereed).
Telecommuting, which is the performance of work at home or at a center close to home using telecommunications, has attracted growing interest among planners and researchers as a strategy for reducing travel demand. This paper investigates the potential of telecommuting as a trip reduction measure, using data obtained from a telecommuting pilot project involving State of California government employees.
In this pilot project, a three-day trip diary was administered, before and after telecommuting began, to telecommuters, a control group, and driving-age household members of both groups. A sample of 219 "stayers" is analyzed in this paper. Findings include: telecommuting leads to a substantial reduction in trip generation, vehicle-miles traveled, peak period travel, car use, and freeway travel. It does not lead to an increase in non-work trips.

NRP3 "An Empirical Analysis of the Transportation Impacts of Telecommuting", Proceedings (Vol. 1), 6th International Conference on Travel Behavior, Quebec City, Quebec, May 22-24, 1991 (abstract refereed).
Travel behavior researchers have developed a number of hypotheses regarding the transportation impacts of telecommuting -- using telecommunications technology to work from home or another location remote from one's primary office. Until recently, there was little empirical data available to test these hypotheses. Now, however, a number of telecommuting projects are being evaluated with respect to changes in travel behavior. This paper reports work-in-progress on the transportation evaluation of four telecommuting projects in Southern California. The original findings from one of these projects are presented here, and related to previously reported results. The survey used in these projects obtains information on potential changes in mode choice, auto ownership, residential location, and activity patterns due to telecommuting.

NRP2 "The State of Telecommuting", ITS Review, Vol. 13, No. 4 (August), 1990, 4-8.

NRP1 "Telecommuting Gathers Speed as Traffic Slows Down", by Patricia L. Mokhtarian and Richard Spicer, Government Technology News, December 1987.

Selected Reports

R21Beyond Tele-Substitution: A Broader Empirical Look at Communication Impacts, by Patricia L. Mokhtarian and Ravikumar Meenakshisundaram. California PATH Working Paper UCB-ITS-PWP-98-33, prepared for Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways, University of California, under MOU 279, December 1998.

R20 The Costs and Benefits of Home-Based Telecommuting, by Kevan Shafizadeh, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Debbie A. Niemeier, and Ilan Salomon. California PATH Research Report UCB-ITS-PRR-2000-xx, prepared for Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways, University of California, under MOU 278, October 2000.
This report evaluates the costs and benefits of home-based telecommuting. Combining empirical data from the literature with a Monte Carlo simulation technique, a distribution of cost-benefit ratios is produced from three perspectives: the employer, the telecommuter, and the public sector. The study develops a new framework that identifies costs and benefits associated with telecommuting. As part of this new framework, we allow the quantification of many of the uncertainties associated with telecommuting, such as air quality benefits or productivity benefits.
Depending on the underlying assumptions, the results indicate that telecommuter benefit-cost ratios are generally above one if the employer bears the majority of the equipment cost burden. If the telecommuter is required to purchase new equipment (i.e., a computer and software), it is probable for the telecommuter to experience benefit-cost ratios less than one ? the “break-even?point ?even when the telecommuter is faced with long commute distances.
For the employer, the cost-effectiveness of telecommuting is dependent largely on productivity benefits. Still, employers need only to experience a reasonable gain in total productivity ?approximately 15% or more on telecommuting days, for an employee earning $35,000 per year ?to balance the costs. Even when parking and office space benefits are included, productivity lies at the heart of the telecommuting cost-benefit analysis from the employer’s perspective, and in almost all cases, the employer’s case relies on some assumed maintenance or increase in productivity as the primary benefit. It is also shown that the potential for office and parking space benefits are high, although these benefits remain somewhat questionable.
Based on our analysis, we conclude that the public sector air quality and construction avoidance benefits remain somewhat questionable based on the current knowledge, and difficult to justify. The only plausible scenarios with significant public sector benefits occur 1) over a small, localized area (such as along a single transportation corridor) or 2) within a single non-attainment air quality basin where the air quality benefits can be aggregated and used toward meeting attainment goals. Still, given these conditions, the measurable public sector benefits are negligible because conservative input assumptions prevent the benefits from exceeding the losses caused by reduced fuel tax revenues.
This report identifies situations during which telecommuting is most attractive as a travel demand measure to its primary stakeholders: the telecommuter and the employer. Also included with this report is the TELESIMM (telecommuting economic simulation model) spreadsheet and program that can be used to perform Monte Carlo simulations on critical input values. The spreadsheet can be customized by individual users or modified by other researchers as better data become available.

R19The Costs and Benefits of Telecommuting: A Review and Evaluation of Micro-Scale Studies and Promotional Literature, by Kevan Shafizadeh, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Debbie A. Niemeier, and Ilan Salomon. California PATH Research Report UCB-ITS-PRR-2000-13, prepared for Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways, University of California, under MOU 278, August 2000.
This report was prepared to synthesize and assess previous small-scale economic evaluations of telecommuting. Four studies are examined to represent the state of practice with regard to methodology and assumptions. The discussion addresses the limitations and major findings of these works. This review identifies common inputs and discusses the critical assumptions that routinely affect the results. Finally, the major findings are presented and compared along with those claims found in promotional literature. Among the primary findings is the conclusion that few pilot evaluations contained cost-benefit results. More importantly, these reports furnish empirical values that can be used in improved cost-benefit analysis estimates.

R18 The Costs and Benefits of Telecommuting: An Evaluation of Macro-Scale Literature, by Kevan Shafizadeh, Debbie A. Niemeier, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, and Ilan Salomon. California PATH Working Paper UCB-ITS-PWP-98-5, prepared for Partners for Advanced Transit and Highways, University of California, under MOU 278. Paper presented at the 8th Meeting of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research, Austin, TX, September 21-25, 1997.
This literature review has been prepared to synthesize and assess previous large-scale evaluations of telecommuting. First, a conceptual framework is proposed to organize the inputs and outputs of a macro-scale telecommuting benefit-cost analysis. Then, four federal, state, and regional reports are examined in terms of methodology, assumptions, economic approach, and major findings. This review identifies common inputs and discusses the critical assumptions that routinely affect the results. Finally, the economic approaches and major findings are presented and compared.
R17 Telecommuting Centers in California: 1991 - 1997 , by Carol Buckinger, Francisca Mar, Patricia Mokhtarian, and John Wright. Prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation Office of Traffic Improvement. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-97-16, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, 1997.
R16 Residential Area-Based Offices Project: Final Report on the Evaluation of Impacts, by Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Chaang-Iuan Ho, Shun W. Hung, Toan B. Lam, Elizabeth A. Raney, Lothlorien S. Redmond, David M. Stanek, Krishna V. Varma. Prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation Office of Traffic Improvement. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-97-17, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, September 1997.
R15 Residential Area-Based Offices Project: Interim Findings Report on the Evaluation of Impacts, by Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Narayan Balepur, Michelle Derr, Chaang-Iua n Ho, David M. Stanek, and Krishna Varma. Prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation Office of Traffic Improvement. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-96-11, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, November 1996.
R14 Modeling the Preference for Telecommuting: Measuring Attitudes and Other Variables, by Patricia L. Mokhtarian and Ilan Salomon. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-95-17, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, July 1995.
R13 "Adoption of Telecommuting in Two California State Agencies", by Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Ilan Salomon, Somitra Saxena, Srikanth Sampath, Peter Cheung, Kate Le, and Michael Bagley. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-96-5, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, July 1995.
R12 Status Tracking for Existing and Planned Telecenters in California, by Dennis Henderson and Patricia Mokhtarian. Prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation. December 1993.
R11 Modeling Perceptions and Preference of Home-Based and Center-Based Telecommuting, by David M. Stanek. Master's Thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-95-12, December 1995.
R10 Binary and Multinomial Logit Models of the Preference for Center-Based Telecommuting, by Michael N. Bagley. Master's Thesis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-95-16, September 1995.
R9 Travel Diary-Based Emissions Analysis of Telecommuting for the Puget Sound Demonstration Project, by Dennis K. Henderson, Brett E. Koenig, and Patricia L. Mokhtarian. Prepared for the Washington State Energy Office. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-94-26, November 1994.
R8 Telecommuting Centers and Related Concepts: A Review of Practice, by Michael N. Bagley, Jill S. Mannering, and Patricia L. Mokhtarian. Prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation Office of Traffic Improvement. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-94-4, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, March 1994. 250 pages, including a 40-page summary.
A self-extracting WP 5.1 version of this report is available here.
R7 Evaluating the Travel and Communication Impacts of Advanced Residential Telecommunications Services: Lessons from the Literature, by S. Handy and P. Mokhtarian. Prepared for the California Department of Transportation. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-93-23, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, August 1993.
A self-extracting WP 5.1 version of the report is available here.
R6 Technical Memo 4: Future Levels of Telecommuting in California: Factors, Policies, Modeling Issues, and Research Needs, by S. Handy and P. L. Mokhtarian, prepared for the California Energy Commission. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-93-17, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, August 1993.
R5 Technical Memo 3: Base Case Estimates and Forecasts of Telecommuting in California, by S. Handy and P. L. Mokhtarian, prepared for the California Energy Commission. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-93-16, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, August 1993.
R4 Technical Memo 2: Travel and Energy Impacts of Telecommuting, by S. Handy and P. L. Mokhtarian, prepared for the California Energy Commission. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-93-15, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, August 1993.
R3 Technical Memo 1: Current Levels of Telecommuting in California, by S. Handy and P. L. Mokhtarian, prepared for the California Energy Commission. Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-93-14, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, August 1993.
R2 The Transportation Impacts of Telecommuting in Two San Diego Pilot Programs. University of California, Davis, Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Report No. UCD-ITS-RR-91-12, October 1991.

R1 Evaluation Report: Telecommuting Pilot Project, by Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Tom Brady, Kathy Yates, Waldo Lopez, and Nedra Bickel. Southern California Association of Governments and the Central City Association. Los Angeles, August 1988.