Work Trip Characteristics Folowing the Gulf Crisis: The Experience in Amman, Jordan

Abstract

This paper investigates the home to work trip characteristics following the Gulf crisis and the huge influx of Gulf returnees (mainly from Kuwait). These characteristics are measured through specifying and estimating three disaggregate models. These models represent the commuters' home to work trip duration, the frequency increase with which commuters arrived late at work, and the delay duration increase following the Gulf crisis. The specified models were estimated through the use of a random commuter survey carried out in Amman, Jordan's capital. The results show that, on average, commuters now arrive late at work three times a week compared with about once a week before the crisis. Furthermore, there is a clear shift in commuters' departure time. More commuters are departing earlier now (following the crisis) to compensate for the effect of traffic congestion. This clearly demonstrate the impact of the Gulf crisis and inability of the current transportation services to handle the new demand. Estimation results clearly suggest that commuters' household location, home to work mode choice, home departure time, work location, and the socioeconomic characteristics influence greatly the home to work trip characteristics. Elasticity estimates show that only the work trip length has an elasticity greater than one. Thus, the likelihood of arriving late at work and the delay duration are dominated by the level of congestion faced by commuters.