Masters Theses

Date of Award

5-2003

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Geography

Major Professor

Shih-Lung Shaw

Abstract

This study examined Atlanta, Georgia's 13-county metropolitan area, a region currently plagued by traffic congestion and air pollution. Two alternative transportation options, namely telework and carpool, were evaluated in respect to their current status and future potential as a method to assist Atlanta in achieving a sustainable transportation system. A telework survey was conducted including 118 area commuters with access to telework programs, and a portion of the Atlanta Regional Commission's Commute Connections' carpool database was acquired in order to examine the pattern of telework and carpool participation, participants' socio-economic and demographic characteristics, and telework and carpool's significance in mitigating traffic congestion and air pollution. Furthermore, strategies to increase telework and carpool participation were explored. These data were examined using both spatial and statistical analyses, with results including geographic locations and typical socio-economic and demographic descriptions of teleworkers, non-teleworkers, and carpoolers. Teleworkers appeared to reside in a more dispersed pattern than non-teleworkers, while also living farther from their respective employers than their non-teleworking counterparts. Carpoolers reported residences in the immediate outskirts of downtown Atlanta as well as in its suburbs. Teleworkers were determined generally to be females earning incomes in excess of $60,000, while non-teleworkers were most often males earning $30,000-$45,000 annually. Teleworkers also reported information-related job functions compatible with telework, as non-teleworkers cited job functions more focused on a central workplace. Carpooler characteristics gathered from literature resulted in a typical description of such V commuters as those with low incomes and low vehicle access. Carpoolers were also suspected to populate job functions more focused on a central workplace. The locations of teleworkers and carpoolers with such socio-economic and demographic descriptions were compared with appropriate census tract data to assess such data's strength in determining regions of telework and carpool potential. The comparisons revealed that teleworkers were not residing in census tracts reporting high median incomes and large female populations. In contrast, carpoolers were residing in census tracts with low median incomes and low numbers of information and professional, scientific, and technical workers. Therefore, mapping census data served to be a more reliable method for identifying carpool potential than for identifying telework potential. In fact, this study suggests that job function may be more appropriate for detecting telework potential. Both telework and carpool were quantitatively characterized as significant to mitigating trafficrelated problems by decreasing vehicle miles traveled and the number of single occupancy vehicles on the highways. Finally, commuters' comments collected in the telework survey were synthesized, resulting in suggested strategies to increase telework and carpool participation. These strategies include providing personal telework and/or carpool experience to the commuter, as well as marketing telework and carpool as avenues of saving money and time.

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