The impact of COVID-19 on teleworking and commuting behavior—A literature review

Teleworking increased tremendously during the peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. This period opened new research opportunities for scientists to improve their understanding of teleworking and its relationship with travel behavior. This chapter provides a literature review to explore whether the determinants that explain teleworking and commuting behavior have changed during the pandemic and what this means for future policy. Literature on teleworking in the period before COVID-19 shows that job sector and job function are the most dominant factors in explaining the probability of workers to telework. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the probability of teleworking increased especially among office workers, contributing to a drastic decrease in the number of commuting trips and distance traveled. The literature review shows that employer's policies and employees’ experiences during the pandemic were two key factors that influenced the increase in teleworking. Although most studies found that most employees intend to telework more often after COVID-19 compared to the period before COVID-19, more research on the structural and long-term effects is needed. This provides a better insight into the relationship between teleworking and commuting behavior, and more realistic estimations of the impact on the number of commuting and non-commuting trips, substitution effects and changes in mode choice for commuting.