Assessment of Potential Effect on Travel of Telecommuting in Singapore

Author(s):  
Piotr Olszewski ◽  
Soi-Hoi Lam

Recently, there has been an increased interest in telecommuting in Singapore. A survey of 630 companies indicated that although only 1.7 percent have a formal telecommuting arrangement, 3.6 percent plan to introduce it in the near future and an additional 21.6 percent would like to explore the concept. Singapore has many of the prerequisites for telecommuting to become popular: a high and growing proportion of information workers, an excellent telecommunications infrastructure, and a large installed base of personal computers. To assess the potential effects of telecommuting, a stratified travel demand analysis was performed by using travel characteristics specific to different groups of information workers. The results indicate that a considerable reduction in vehicle trips to work can be achieved if telecommuting becomes more popular. The potential reduction is up to 4.9 percent in the year 2005 and up to 11.2 percent in 2010. The corresponding savings in distance traveled are in the range of 512 000 to 1 309 000 vehicle-km. Although these predictions have a high degree of uncertainty, they indicate that telecommuting has a potential to provide significant travel reduction benefits in Singapore and should be used as a travel demand management tool.

Author(s):  
Mark Burris ◽  
Chris Swenson

Congestion (or variable) pricing can be described as the charging of more for goods or services during periods of peak demand. In theory, this practice would prove beneficial as a travel demand management tool when setting fares on toll roads and bridges. However, in practice, it has proven extremely difficult to implement in the United States. Many of the planning issues and solutions found during the early phases of a variablepricing pilot study currently being conducted in Lee County, Florida, are examined. Also examined is the electronic toll collection system being implemented in conjunction with variable pricing. The planned variablepricing scheme is detailed, along with how this publicly and politically palatable pricing scheme was derived. Data collection efforts, which include origin-destination surveys, focus groups, mail-back surveys, videotaping of traffic, and detailed traffic counts are described to emphasize the substantial effort undertaken to obtain accurate and meaningful variable-pricing traffic behavioral data that can be applied across the country. A summary of work to date and an overview of the next steps toward implementation of the variable-pricing program in Lee County are presented.


Author(s):  
Kristina M. Currans ◽  
Gabriella Abou-Zeid ◽  
Nicole Iroz-Elardo

Although there exists a well-studied relationship between parking policies and automobile demand, conventional practices evaluating the transportation impacts of new land development tend to ignore this. In this paper, we: (a) explore literature linking parking policies and vehicle use (including vehicle trip generation, vehicle miles traveled [VMT], and trip length) through the lens of development-level evaluations (e.g., transportation impact analyses [TIA]); (b) develop a conceptual map linking development-level parking characteristics and vehicle use outcomes based on previously supported theory and frameworks; and (c) evaluate and discuss the conventional approach to identify the steps needed to operationalize this link, specifically for residential development. Our findings indicate a significant and noteworthy dearth of studies incorporating parking constraints into travel behavior studies—including, but not limited to: parking supply, costs or pricing, and travel demand management strategies such as the impacts of (un)bundled parking in housing costs. Disregarding parking in TIAs ignores a significant indicator in automobile use. Further, unconstrained parking may encourage increases in car ownership, vehicle trips, and VMT in areas with robust alternative-mode networks and accessibility, thus creating greater demand for vehicle travel than would otherwise occur. The conceptual map offers a means for operationalizing the links between: the built environment; socio-economic and demographic characteristics; fixed and variable travel costs; and vehicle use. Implications for practice and future research are explored.


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