A Paradox of Telecommuting and Staggered Work Hours in the Bottleneck Model

Takara Sakai (), Takashi Akamatsu () and Koki Satsukawa ()
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Takara Sakai: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
Takashi Akamatsu: Graduate School of Information Sciences, Tohoku University, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan
Koki Satsukawa: Institute of Transdisciplinary Sciences for Innovation, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa 920-1192, Japan

Transportation Science, 2024, vol. 58, issue 6, 1335-1351

Abstract: We study the long- and short-term effects of telecommuting (TLC), staggered work hours (SWH), and their combined scheme on peak-period congestion and location patterns. In order to enable a unified comparison of the schemes’ long- and short-term effects, we develop a novel equilibrium analysis approach that consistently synthesizes the long-term equilibrium (location and percentage of telecommuting choice) and short-term equilibrium (preferred arrival time and departure time choice). By exploiting their special mathematical structures similar to optimal transport problems, we derive the closed-form solution to the long- and short-term equilibrium while explicitly considering their interaction. These closed-form solutions elucidate the discrepancies between the effects of each scheme and uncover a paradoxical finding: the introduction of SWH, in conjunction with TLC, may increase the total commuting costs compared with the scenario with only TLC, without yielding any improvement in worker utility.

Keywords: bottleneck model; corridor network; telecommuting; staggered work hours; departure time choice; location choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:58:y:2024:i:6:p:1335-1351

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