Distance working has only marginal impact on work-related traffic

(Helsinki 18.06.2003 – Juhani Artto) A new study indicates that distance working has only marginally reduced work-related traffic and the consequent burden on the environment. This conflicts with the expectations that were entertained when job structure changes and new technologies began to create conditions for distance working.

The study, based on interviews with 19,000 working people, exposes that in 2001 only about five per cent of those in work were engaged in distance working. Experts suggest that the potential for distance working is much larger than this, and could rise to as much as 40 per cent of all jobs.

This wide discrepancy between actual and potential distance working was not the most surprising discovery of the study, however. It was even more important to note that people engaged in distance working visited their workplaces at enterprises almost daily.

Only when the distance between home and work exceeded 80 kilometres (50 miles) did distance working begin to reduce the number of workplace visits significantly. The corresponding dividing line in terms of travelling time was 1.5 hours. Fewer than one per cent of workers not based entirely at home spent at least one day working at home each week.

Well-educated employees with higher salaries also had the largest proportion of distance working. These employees mostly lived in urban areas and had workplaces some 10 to 20 kilometres from their homes.

The authors of the study propose that instead of speaking of distance working we should refer to flexible working. The research was prepared by several government organisations in association with the City of Helsinki and the University of Helsinki.

This article was first published in
.