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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses Accounting 5-2015 Labor Force Commute Mode Preferences and the Natural Environment Brandon Killen University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/acctuht Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons Recommended Citation Killen, Brandon, "Labor Force Commute Mode Preferences and the Natural Environment" (2015). Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses. 16. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/acctuht/16 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Accounting at ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact scholar@uark.edu, ccmiddle@uark.edu. Labor Force Commute Mode Preferences and the Natural Environment By Brandon Killen Advisor: Susan E. Bristow An Honors Thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Accounting Sam M. Walton College of Business University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas December 11, 2014 Abstract In commuting to work, commuters select from a limited variety of transportation modes, including alternative modes like cycling and walking, based on needs and preferences. Understanding these needs and preferences, and how the conditions of the immediate environment can influence them can benefit both businesses and local governments in their efforts to accommodate the commute needs of their workers and better serve their communities. Though the body of commute preference research has grown significantly over recent decades, the study of the effects of the natural environment has remained mostly overlooked. In my research, I examined the relationships between selected weather conditions of the natural environment and the percentage of the labor force that cycled or walked to work in large U.S. cities. To explore these relationships, I employed multicollinaerity and multiple linear regression analysis of the percentage of the labor force that commuted by cycling or walking in the two largest cities of each state with eight observed conditions of the natural environment in each city: the mean daily maximum temperature; the mean daily minimum temperature; the number of days per year in which fog limited visibility to less than or equal to one-quarter mile; the number of days per year with thunderstorms; the mean wind speed; the total water equivalent precipitation; the total amount of snow, ice, pellets, and hail; and the total number of days with snowfall greater than or equal to one inch. The results of my statistical analysis revealed that only two variables (the number of days per year with thunderstorms and the total water equivalent precipitation) exhibited significant relationships with the percentage of work commuters who cycled or walked. Furthermore, the number of days per year with thunderstorms exhibited a strong inverse relationship, meaning that thunderstorms deterred workers from cycling or walking to work. These relationships confirmed the significant influence that precipitation, as a condition of the natural environment, can bear on commute preferences. Based on these findings, businesses can better understand their employees and improve their productivity and reputations within their communities by accommodating the differences in commute mode preferences across varying climatological regions. Acknowledgments Throughout the completion of my honors thesis, I met and received invaluable guidance and assistance from a collection of knowledgeable individuals within the faculty of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and the University of Arkansas Library. First, I would like to express my appreciation to Dr. Susan Bristow for her commitment and continual encouragement as my thesis advisor. With her counsel, I developed exponentially my research acumen, and gained substantial experience in the process. Additionally, I would like to thank JaLynn Thomas for her auxiliary perusal and consideration of my research. For their considerable assistance during the preliminary diagnostics and statistical analysis procedures of my methodology, I would like to thank Dr. Christina Serrano and Ruba Aljafari. I would also like to thank Mark Minton of the Walton College Writing Center for offering additional guidance in the writing of my research. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Donna Daniels of the University of Arkansas Library for providing me with numerous resources which, in turn, provided momentum in the completion of my literature review. As a former data analysis and scholastic research novice, I have a sincere and deep appreciation for all of the enthusiastic and considerate experts to whom I have been introduced throughout this process. Table of Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................6 Literature Review.................................................................................................................8 History of Commute ................................................................................................8 Current Research on Work Commute ......................................................................9 Driving ...................................................................................................................10 Carpooling..............................................................................................................11 Cycling ...................................................................................................................12 Determinants of Commute Mode Preference ........................................................13 Health and the Benefits of Alternative Commute Modes ......................................14 The Built Environment and Its Effects on Commute.............................................16 The Natural Environment ......................................................................................17 Business Perspectives and Responses ....................................................................18 Description of Research .....................................................................................................20 Hypothesis..............................................................................................................20 Data and Methodology...........................................................................................21 Statistical Analysis .................................................................................................22 Results of Research ............................................................................................................29 Discussion of Research ......................................................................................................34 Summary ................................................................................................................34 Limitations of Methodology ..................................................................................35 Implications............................................................................................................36 Future Research .....................................................................................................37 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................39 Introduction Workers select from a limited variety of transportation modes to decide how they will commute to their places of work every day. Though the automobile is often the sole practical option for long-distance work commuters, modes such as walking and cycling provide alternatives for those with different commute needs and preferences. Understanding these needs and preferences, particularly how they interact with the various conditions of the immediate environment, is crucial not only for infrastructural and urban planning in cities with large populations, but for businesses seeking to assimilate into their environments and intuitively attract and retain employees as well. I elected to research the relationship between the share of the labor force that commuted by walking or cycling with the conditions of the natural environment in large cities throughout the United States to better understand commuter preferences and discover ways to benefit businesses’ interactions with their employees and host communities in different climatological regions. The advent of the information age, in concurrence with the current trend of increasing globalization, warrants that businesses adopt more intuitive approaches to not only recognize, but better satisfy non-financial stakeholders like host communities, local governments, customers, and particularly employees. Information about worker preferences and a holistic understanding of a firm’s immediate surroundings provide opportunities for the firm to improve hiring and retention, and strengthen its reputation. Understanding the interactions between the conditions of the natural environment and labor force preferences provides just such activities for businesses operating throughout the various climatological regions of the United States. Examining commute mode preferences cannot be accomplished with a singular focus, but instead requires a multi-faceted approach that considers all relevant conditions. With my 6 research, I seek to explore the mostly overlooked effects of the natural environment and contribute to a growing abundance of research in the broader study of work commute preferences. This thesis attempts to review the existent research of work commute preferences, define the relationship between work commute preferences and the natural environment, and provide insights that will aid businesses in responding to their environmental conditions, accommodating their employees and communities, and improving their financial performance. 7 Literature Review History of Commute In the late 19th century, private developers with extensive, but sprawled real estate holdings created America’s first transit-oriented communities by constructing trolley lines that reached from more densely populated areas to the significantly less-populated outskirts (Cervero, 1996). These “streetcar suburbs” laid the foundation for the emergence of the American suburb in the 1940s and its explosive growth in tandem with the major postwar infrastructure developments of the 1950s and 1960s. The steady decentralization of concentrated metropolitan areas to low-density suburbs dispersed large populations and, therefore, increased the travel distances between homes and frequented destinations (Committee, 2005). As a result, the private automobile became the primary mode of transport for residents of suburbs. Despite the continued dominance of the private automobile as a transport mode, alternative modes have achieved moderate success and gained considerable legitimacy over the past 60 years. Carpooling first emerged in U.S. policy during World War II, in the midst of national oil and rubber shortages, and reappeared in public policy as a response to growing shortages during the OPEC oil crisis in the mid-1970s (Ferguson, 1997). As a major form of commute, cycling emerged in city planning in the 1970s and has since experienced renewed interest in public policy and rising popularity beginning in the mid-to-late 1990s with the construction of expansive new, interconnected bicycle infrastructure, including bike paths and street lanes (Buehler, Hamre, Sonenklar, & Goger, 2011a; Buehler & Pucher, 2011b). The population cycling to work increased by 60% over the last decade alone, though the current size is merely 786,000 people. In addition, walking to work has recovered from a decline in popularity in the 1990s and stabilized at a mere 3% (Tracy, 2014). 8 These modest successes in alternative modes of transportation, though promising areas for development in the coming decades, are minuscule in comparison to the trend of increasing single-person car drivers. Between 1970 and 1990, the population driving alone increased while carpooling decreased, and since 1980, the number of miles that Americans drive has grown three times faster than the U.S. population (DeLoach & Tiemann, 2010; Ewing, Bartholomew, Winkelman, Walters, & Chen). These findings corroborate the trend of accelerating suburbanization of populations and jobs throughout the 1990s, and the current dominance of driving alone over carpooling, public transit, cycling, walking, and other modes of transport (Lawson, 1997). Current Research on Work Commute Modern research has employed U.S. Census data and American Community Survey findings to explore new subject areas with the potential for discussion in public policy, such as the national distribution and international comparisons of commute preferences. According to an analysis by McKenzie & Rapino (2011) of the 2009 American Community Survey, over threefourths of the American labor force drove to work alone with an average trip duration of 25.1 minutes. In examining the distribution by commute mode of the U.S. labor force, this study also confirms the dominance of driving personal vehicles (86.1%) and, more specifically, driving alone as a mode of transport (76.1%), and provides insight into the gradual growth of alternative transportation modes. These findings confirm the analysis of data from the 2000 U.S. Census by Handy, Boarnet, Ewing, & Killingsworth (2002), in which 86.5% of all commute trips were in personal vehicles, 5.3% were on public transit, and 3.9% were walking. Modern research on the 9