Project description

In this project motif and sequence analysis are used in tandem to analyze differences and commonalities between telecommuters and usual commuters. Telecommuters are by far more diverse in their allocation of time to places, activities, and travel. Approximately 20% of telecommuters stay at home all day during a workday, while only 8% of commuters do. Telecommuters that have at least one trip during their workday accrue more vehicle miles travelled and number of trips than their commuter counterparts. However, they drive alone less and tend to have more complex schedules visiting more locations. A substantial proportion of traditional commuters display morning and afternoon peaks of arriving at and departing from work, and telecommuters do not show this pattern. In addition, telecommuters during a day travel to a variety of locations to either visit customers and exploit their spatio-temporal schedule flexibility to perform work tasks from locations other than home or workplaces. Similarly, seniors (60 years and older) enjoy higher activity and travel flexibility due to seniority in jobs or retirement and use telecommuting in a variety of different ways. We find that 15 distinct motifs can capture 82.17% and 86% of the total senior respondents on workdays and non-workdays, respectively. Seniors are more likely to have simple motifs with three or fewer distinct locations on non-workdays, while they present more complex motifs during workdays.