Suggested Citation:
Kim, Ilsu, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Giovanni Circella (2023)

What Is the New Normal? An Analysis of Post-COVID-19 Commute and Work Patterns

This study aims to understand the post-COVID work and commute patterns of Georgia (adult) workers and investigates how those patterns are related to the workers’ characteristics relevant to travel behavior and demand. An online survey was designed to gather information on attitudes on various topics, job characteristics, work and commute patterns, vehicle ownership status, residential location, and sociodemographic traits. The survey was distributed to (1) an online opinion panel (OP) managed by Qualtrics and (2) the Georgia respondents who consented to be contacted again for a future survey when they participated in the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and/or the survey administered for Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Research Project (RP) 16-31. (Trimmed) sample weights were developed and applied to the working dataset (N=1931) to make the sample as representative of Georgia workers as feasible with respect to key sociodemographic traits, employment status, working-from-home engagement, and residential location region. Key findings were obtained from the trimmed- weighted sample: (1) detailed work and commute patterns of Georgia workers and (2) comparisons among region and worker types with respect to many variables collected (e.g., attitudes, sociodemographic traits, commute distance/mode, vehicle ownership, residential location). The study concludes with potential uses of the collected data and policy implications.