Integrated Land Use-Transport Model System with Dynamic Time-Dependent Activity-Travel Microsimulation

The development of integrated land use-transport model systems has long been of interest because of the complex interrelationships between land use, transport demand, and network supply. This paper describes the design and prototype implementation of an integrated model system that involves the microsimulation of location choices in the land use domain, activity-travel choices in the travel demand domain, and individual vehicles on networks in the network supply modeling domain. Although many previous applications of integrated transport demand-supply models have relied on a sequential coupling of the models, the system presented in this paper involves a dynamic integration of the activity-travel demand model and the dynamic traffic assignment and simulation model with appropriate feedback to the land use model system. The system has been fully implemented, and initial results of model system runs in a case study test application suggest that the proposed model design provides a robust behavioral framework for simulation of human activity-travel behavior in space, time, and networks. The paper provides a detailed description of the design, together with results from initial test runs

The COVID-19 pandemic and the future of telecommuting in the United States

This study focuses on an important transport-related long-term effect of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States: an increase in telecommuting. Analyzing a nationally representative panel survey of adults, we find that 40–50% of workers expect to telecommute at least a few times per month post-pandemic, up from 24% pre-COVID. If given the option, 90–95% of those who first telecommuted during the pandemic plan to continue the practice regularly. We also find that new telecommuters are demographically similar to pre-COVID telecommuters. Both pre- and post-COVID, higher educational attainment and income, together with certain job categories, largely determine whether workers have the option to telecommute. Despite growth in telecommuting, approximately half of workers expect to remain unable to telecommute and between 2/3 and 3/4 of workers expect their post-pandemic telecommuting patterns to be unchanged from their pre-COVID patterns. This limits the contribution telecommuting can make to reducing peak hour transport demand