What is the impact of telecommuting on urban development?
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The Impact of Telecommuting on Urban Development
Telecommuting and Urban Sprawl
Telecommuting has a significant impact on urban sprawl. As telecommuting becomes more prevalent, it allows workers to live farther from their workplaces, reducing the need for daily commutes. This flexibility can lead to increased housing development in suburban and even rural areas, contributing to urban sprawl. Studies have shown that telecommuting can decrease automobile congestion, energy consumption, and air pollution in the short term by reducing the number of commuters on the road1. However, in the long term, it may enhance the spread of suburbia as it decreases constraints on household location, leading to more dispersed residential patterns1 3 4.
Multinucleated Urban Structures
The rise of telecommuting is also contributing to the development of multinucleated urban structures. These structures are characterized by multiple urban nodes that contain mixed business and residential land uses, located at some distance from the central urban core and along transportation corridors. This trend is driven by the ability of telecommuting to decentralize work locations, allowing businesses and households to relocate to these satellite nodes2. This shift can lead to a more distributed urban form, reducing the concentration of activities in central business districts and promoting growth in peripheral areas2 3.
Residential Location Choices
Telecommuting significantly influences residential location choices. With the flexibility to work from home, many workers opt to live in less densely populated areas, which can offer a higher quality of life, such as more space and lower housing costs. This trend is supported by discrete choice modeling studies, which show that telecommuting is a significant factor in residential choice models, encouraging moves towards outlying sites4. Consequently, urban policies need to adapt to these changing preferences to manage the resulting urban sprawl and ensure sustainable development3 4.
Environmental and Traffic Impacts
Telecommuting has the potential to reduce traffic congestion and improve environmental outcomes. By decreasing the number of daily commuters, telecommuting can lower vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and vehicle hours traveled (VHT), leading to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and particulate matter8. For instance, in scenarios where a significant portion of the workforce adopts telecommuting, there can be notable decreases in network congestion and vehicular emissions, particularly during rush hours8. This highlights the environmental benefits of telecommuting as a policy measure to mitigate urban traffic issues and pollution.
Centralization vs. Decentralization
Telecommuting exerts both centralizing and decentralizing forces on urban development. On one hand, it can lead to the decentralization of routine information-based activities to the periphery of metropolitan regions, as businesses take advantage of reduced need for physical proximity9. On the other hand, telecommuting can also contribute to the centralization of advanced business services in major urban centers, as these services benefit from agglomeration economies and face-to-face interactions9. This dual impact suggests a complex interplay between telecommuting and urban form, where different types of activities may either concentrate in central areas or disperse to suburban and rural locations5 9.
Conclusion
Telecommuting is reshaping urban development in multiple ways. It promotes urban sprawl by enabling workers to live farther from their workplaces, contributes to the formation of multinucleated urban structures, and influences residential location choices towards less dense areas. Additionally, telecommuting can reduce traffic congestion and improve environmental outcomes, although it also presents challenges for urban planning and policy. The centralizing and decentralizing effects of telecommuting highlight the need for adaptive urban policies to manage these evolving spatial dynamics effectively.
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Most relevant research papers on this topic
Telecommuting and urban sprawl: mitigator or inciter?
Telecommuting can improve jobs-housing balance in urban and suburban areas, but may also increase suburban sprawl by reducing constraints on household location.
Literature Review
Highly CitedThe effects of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems on urban development
Telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems lead to an increased trend towards multinucleated urban structures, with mixed business and residential land uses in satellite nodes along transportation corridors.
MODELLING THE IMPACT OF TELECOMMUTING ON FUTURE URBANISATION IN THE NETHERLANDS
Telecommuting is likely to accelerate urban decentralization and deconcentration in the Netherlands, causing new urban pressures and sprawling in attractive regions near large cities.
Impact of telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems on residential location choice
Telecommuting and intelligent transportation systems significantly impact residential location choices, reinforcing dispersed residential patterns and encouraging moves towards outlying sites.
Telecommuting and urban sprawl
Telecommuting can both centralize and decentralize urban activities, affecting city size, with productivity gains from telecommunications potentially boosting urban growth.
Telecommuting and the Demand for Urban Living: A Preliminary Look at White-collar Workers
Telecommuting is becoming more prevalent among white-collar workers, potentially leading to residential choices in smaller, lower-density, and more remote locations.
Highly CitedTelecommuting, traffic congestion, and agglomeration: a general equilibrium model
Telecommuting does not cause traffic congestion and contributes to agglomeration economies, while CBD workers contribute to agglomeration but cause congestion in commuting.
Analysis of telecommuting behavior and impacts on travel demand and the environment
Telecommuting can reduce network congestion and vehicular emissions, particularly during rush hours, by up to 0.69% and 2.09%, respectively.
Highly CitedTelecommunications, World Cities, and Urban Policy
Telecommunications technologies are leading to the centralization of business services in a few principal world cities, while simultaneously dispersing routine information-based activities to the periphery of metropolitan regions surrounding these cities.
Highly CitedImpact of Technological Developments on Urban Form and Travel Behaviour
Technological developments in cities are transforming urban form and travel behavior, with declining commuting distances and telecommuting becoming a reality for some occupations.
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