Evaluation of Direct and Indirect Effects of Teleworking on Mobility: The Case of Paris

Abstract

This paper investigates how and to what extent changes in user behavior may mitigate the benefits of teleworking on commuting distance and time, a phenomenon often referred to as a “rebound effect.” The direct effect of teleworking is to reduce the number of commuting trips ( work travel effect). This may trigger behavioral changes among transport users: teleworkers may carry out additional trips for other purposes ( non-work travel effect), and may change their residential/job location, leading to longer commuting distances ( residential location effect). In addition, the improvement in travel conditions consequent to the work travel effect might result in greater mobility by non-teleworkers ( induced demand). Considering the Paris region as a case study, this paper applies a four-step travel demand model to evaluate several teleworking scenarios and quantify the rebound effects. We complete the analysis with an economic evaluation of the scenarios, focusing on mobility effects. The overall rebound effect is found to be substantial, cancelling out 62%–68% of the gains in travel distance and 74%–85% of travel time savings. Nonetheless, the social benefits of teleworking remain significant, amounting to 1.4% of the social cost of road transport in the region. This suggests that teleworking may be able to contribute significantly to a policy mix aimed at reducing travel demand.