A space-time network for telecommuting versus commuting decision-making

In this article, we develop a theoretical framework for the study of telecommuting versus commuting decision-making over a fixed time horizon, such as a work week through the use of a space-time network to conceptualize the decision-makers’ choices over space and time. The decision-makers are multiclass and multicriteria ones and perceive the criteria of travel cost, travel time, and opportunity cost in an individual fashion. The model is a network equilibrium type and allows for the prediction of the equilibrium flows and, hence, the number of periods that members of each class of decision-makers will telecommute or commute. Qualitative properties of the equilibrium are obtained and an algorithm is given, along with convergence results, and applied to numerical examples. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2003