Can Mobile Telecommunications Reduce Intra-city Work Travels? Empirical Evidence from a Third World City

Abstract

This research work examines the impact of mobile telecommunications on work related travels in one of the business districts of Lagos, Nigeria, with special focus on within-work travels. Results of the descriptive analysis show substantial variations in the frequency of trips among employees of different industry groups, while there is no marked variation in call interaction frequency. The partial correlation analysis (r : 0.87; P= 0.000) shows a strong positive correlation between call frequency and percentage of total trip rescheduled. However, the positive correlation coefficients (r = 0.4; P= 0.000) between call frequency and percentage reduction in trip frequency and trip distance (r =0.46; P= 0.000) are weak, indicating that mobile telephone helps more in rescheduling trips than eliminating them. Also, the effects of demographic and occupational characteristics show that people of certain occupations and age make more trips and calls during working hours than others. These findings have implications for targeting workers that have a potential for trip substitution.