Whether weather causes contention: assessing the ongoing resilience opportunity of telecommuting

Hannah Budnitz*, Emmanouil Tranos, Lee Chapman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented overnight explosion in telecommuting. It has highlighted a new dependence on digital infrastructures and raised new questions regarding the resilience of internet connectivity as an alternative to travel. Pre-pandemic, we considered how telecommuting could offer an opportunity for resilience when travel was disrupted by weather extremes. We analysed five years’ of recorded broadband speed variation across England and Wales in order to quantify the changing demand for internet access during the working day under adverse weather conditions. Slower broadband speeds, also known as contention, are an indication of increased demand. Thus, during the working day, contention is an indication that external factors like weather can influence the choice to telecommute instead of travel. A multilevel regression model is estimated to investigate the relationship between contention during the working day and weather, whilst controlling for background spatial and demographic differences in internet services. Emergent patterns suggest that even before the pandemic, online connectivity was in greater demand when travel was disrupted or at risk of disruption. Our research provides insights into the roles that both the supply of and the demand for transport and digital technologies might play in increasing resilience and maintaining productivity during severe weather and other disruptions as experience of both types of working has become so widespread.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)613-638
Number of pages26
JournalGeoJournal
Volume88
Issue number1
Early online date30 Mar 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant number NE/M009009/1), and the Economic and Social Research Council, as part of the centre for doctoral training on Data, Risk, and Environmental Analytical Methods.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Keywords

  • Broadband speeds
  • Extreme weather
  • Resilience
  • Telecommuting

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development

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