Short- and Long-Term Impacts of Workplace Relocation: A Survey and Experience from the University of Luxembourg Relocation

Abstract

Workplace relocation can have a significant impact on commuting trips as well as on the location and number of activities scheduled within the home-work tour. This often exogenous, non-voluntary event affects the entire activity-travel behavior of the employees. As response, employees can adopt several short- and long-term adaptation strategies to cope with such change, the most obvious being commuting mode shifting, acquire new mobility resources (e.g., buying a car) or changing residential location. As workplace relocation can be consequence of national policies aimed at decongesting the city centers or to favor the development of new business areas, undesired macroscopic changes in modal shares and in land developments may be observed. While a decrease in the commuting time after a workplace relocation is, in some cases, observed, an increase in car use for the commuting trip may be observed as well. This paper aims at providing an in-depth understanding of the effect of workplace relocation on travel behavior by reviewing and selecting the relevant scientific literature on the topic, which has in the last years gained popularity. The findings and observations summarized by the literature review are then complemented with the specific example of the relocation of the University of Luxembourg employees. Finally, we indicate potential directions for research, which are currently underexplored.