This study explores how an imposed (“disruption event”) workplace relocation from Subiaco to Perth's (Western Australia) City Centre in July-August 2021affected built environment professionals' employee general satisfaction with commuting (GSC). Four theories were examined: H1: Workers are usually content with their commuting; H2: Employees' GSC is impacted by office relocation; H3: Employees' commute modality is influenced by office relocation; and H4: GSC is influenced by weekly expenditure, commute duration, transport category, and commute distance. Survey findings suggest that GSC decreases with distance, except for the 6-10km group prior to relocation. GSC generally decreased as weekly commuting expenditure increased. Post-relocation car dependency sharply decreased and commute satisfaction increased. The study contributes to increasing cross-disciplinary dialogue and understanding in urban and community development, and transportation infrastructure planning and construction, and initiates an understanding of causative variables toward building generalisable theory.
TopIntroduction And Background Literature
As cities develop, grow, and become increasingly populated, commuting needs become increasingly critical. However, the amount of time spent commuting has, on average, increased over the world. In Perth, city sprawl, the increasing distance between the city centre and the suburban belt, has largely contributed to added commuting time to and from work (Committee for Perth, 2014). This has been met by an ever-increasing light rail service network, and high car dependency. The Western Australian government is “typically blamed in literature for not establishing effective urban regeneration strategies” fearing that current liveability standards might be compromised (Dodd & Ramanayaka, 2017, p. 1088). Given this, however, driving is still the most common mode of work-related commuting in Western Australia, and Australia generally, with train and a mix of train and bus travel being the most popular modes of public transportation (ABS, 2017). Yet, while these public transportation modes offer a more considered and sustainable mode of conveyance, they are 'passive' modes that do not assuage the significant health risk caused by their contribution to latency in an already sedentary world. Vehicular transportation of any kind typically includes extended periods of seating, which is known to have significant health consequences.
Thus, encouraging 'active' travel, which entails physical exercise, is critical from a health and wellness standpoint. According to prominent researchers whose work is central to understanding the significance of active travel, the impact of workplace modifications on commuting behaviour, and the positive health outcomes associated with active commuting, such as Jones and Ogilvie (2012, p. 2), “active commuting” is “commuting solely by walking or cycling; or by walking or cycling in combination with motorised modes of travel.” Zarabi and Lord (2018) further attest that work-related travel is a habitual activity that may be disturbed when one of the behavioural settings, the workplace, is modified, persuading people to reassess their travel habits and the potential for the adoption of alternate modes of transportation. Their study assessed the effects of a forced workplace relocation on the commuting behaviour of affected employees to discover motives and constraints to adopting sustainable modes of commute travel.
Foley et al. (2015, p. 1); Wanner et al. (2012, p. 3); and Hamer and Chida (2008, pp. 9–13) highlight that “active commuting leads to healthy activity and positive mortality and cardiovascular outcomes.” Kitchen, Williams, and Chowhan (2011), and Oja et al. (2012) all support this viewpoint. Furthermore, the study highlights a link between instilling positivity towards active commuting and leisure and overall physical activity. Nevertheless, to identify and design initiatives that can promote greater active commuting, more cross-disciplinary research on work-related transportation modes is imperative. This study specifically aims to fill this crucial gap and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in this area.
Existing research in the field is broad. For example, Abrahamse et al. (2009) and Lowe et al. (2018) investigated the relationship between urbanisation and impact on transport and associated infrastructure development, while Chatterjee et al. (2019) undertook a critical review of commuting and wellbeing, both during and immediately following the commute, and the benefits over the long term. Saelens and Handy (2008), Frank et al. (2006), Chatman (2009), Cao, Mokhtarian and Handy (2009), and Jones and Ogilvie (2012) suggest that moving may be a powerful precursor to changing travel behaviours because of the associations and relationships we form with the built environment. However, there is little research in the Australian and, particularly, Western Australian contexts to evaluate change of commuting habits; it is also paramount to understand how change of commuting habits influences general satisfaction of commuting. Thus, the current study uses a case study to evaluate the effect of change of transport modes and attributes (for example, spending and commute time) on general satisfaction of commuting (GSC), in the event of an office relocation.