Asking the right questions about telecommuting: Avoiding pitfalls in surveying homebased work

In designing travel behavior surveys, the problem is to define “work,” “home,” and similar words that are commonly used in our language but which have acquired a plethora of associated meanings. The difficulty has not been resolved by the many new terms coined to describe non-traditional ways to work. Such words as “telecommuting,” “teleworking,” “at-home work,” “hoteling,” “homebased business,” “road warriors” and “mobile workers,” lack any agreed-upon definitions yet they are used in common parlance as if they did. These new workstyles are of interest to travel planners because they may involve trip reduction. To forecast just how much trip reduction will occur, behavior needs to be measured by objective criteria. To avoid definitional traps, we recommend phrasing questions in terms of measurable variables such as the place of work and the time in days and hours spent at each location. That approach leaves researchers the option of applying their own definitions that fit the context of their analyses. Thus, rather than ask “How many days a week do you telecommute?” the more precise question can be asked: “How many days last week did you work at home instead of going to your usual work location?” This approach has the advantage that information gathered over years can be used unambiguously in various contexts. Definitions can be applied at the point of analysis. This paper illustrates errors and confusion that can arise from casually worded surveys using examples from private and public surveys. The author proposes a set of core questions with four levels of priority for consideration in designing future surveys of travel behavior.