Initially, it was proposed as a potential solution to reduce the number of trips to alleviate traffic congestion and improve air quality ( Bernardino et al., 1993 Mokhtarian, 1991a). WFH, telecommuting or e-working, as an alternative working style supported by ICT, has emerged since the 1970s ( Loo, 2012 Mokhtarian, 1991b). When the work arrangements change, people's travel activities and the road traffic pattern can change substantially. Notably, several companies (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) have already introduced permanent WFH policies ( Ian, 2020). Though face-to-face working style is still the mainstream in the following COVID period, it is expected that WFH arrangement would become more widely practised in the longer term, rather than just being a stop-gap measure ( Bonacini et al., 2021 Jain et al., 2022). During COVID-19, the sudden increase in WFH was mainly associated with government- or employer-imposed measures of closing down work places or restricting employees to work at regular work places.
In this paper, WFH workers are defined loosely as full-time or part-time workers who have designated work places but are not working at these places for a substantial portion of their working hours ( Gajendran & Harrison, 2007 Gray et al., 1996 Loo, 2012 Martin & MacDonnell, 2012). Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of WFH workers, e-workers or teleworkers has soared to an unprecedented level under various lockdown or confinement measures ( Katherine & Isabel, 2020 Milasi et al., 2020). With COVID-19, human mobility and activity patterns have been severely disrupted. The practice, however, was not widely adopted until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the development of information communications technology (ICT), working from home (WFH) has been seen as a technically feasible alternative solution in relieving the urban commuting peaks ( Loo & Wang, 2018 Nilles et al., 1976).
The stress associated with severe traffic congestion can affect the wellbeing of the urban population and understanding the geographical pattern of congestion is important for formulating effective policies ( Zhao & Hu, 2019). Despite various measures to enhance network capacity and to reduce traffic demand, commuting peak traffic congestion is still persistent and causes unsustainable externalities ( Sutton, 2015). Traffic congestion has been studied as a common problem in cities worldwide ( Arnott et al., 2005 Hamilton et al., 2013). While the WFH arrangement has potentials to ease commuting congestion, future e-working and transport measures need to take spatial and temporal dimensions into account.
This paper has significant implications for urban planners in creating more sustainable cities that duly consider the commuting needs of residents, and cautions against the optimism that WFH can relieve urban transport problems despite jobs-housing imbalance. Spatially, significant drops in CI were found not only in the central business district and urban cores but also in some new town areas. Within a day, morning peak congestion was more relieved. Results show that under WFH arrangement, peak-hour congestion has been alleviated. In this study, we analysed the congestion index (CI) at peak hours, when commuting-related congestion is typically most serious, throughout different waves of the pandemic in Hong Kong. However, changes in congestion patterns within a city have not been studied in-depth. Under these circumstances, it was reported that traffic congestion has been alleviated in many cities. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, WFH arrangement has been encouraged or enforced to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Theoretically, commuting-related congestion can be relieved by promoting working from home (WFH). Traffic congestion has been a persistent problem in cities globally.
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