In April 2021, the ICLRD launched a new two-year action research programme, InPLACE: Investigating Place, Planning and Commuting.
COVID-19 has been a major disruptor in all our lives, since early 2020. The global pandemic has dramatically changed the activity patterns of individuals and families, transforming everyday geographies, and the scale at which we live our lives. The implications for places and communities are potentially profound. One of the areas where this is most clearly seen is the changing relationship between work and home.
The enforced switch to home working has significantly reduced commuting to work, which had become a prominent feature of life on the island of Ireland. Decades of development have generated a growing concentration of employment in larger urban areas, which in turn has resulted in greater volumes and distances of commuting, and a steady increase in time spent commuting. Despite this, there is a lack of Irish research on commuting, especially on questions relating to its impact on place, and place-based communities. Now, with the COVID-induced interruption in what had seemed an inexorable trend towards ever greater commuting, these questions about the relationships between commuting and community assume even greater significance.
This timely study sets out to address the gaps in our knowledge of this area, and to capture recent, and anticipated future, changes to commuting and telecommuting behaviors. In a context where the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the relationship between home and work, and consequently on communities and places, is only beginning to be understood, this study will capture the developing situation. Using a case study approach set within an island of Ireland context, the implications of commuting (pre-COVID) and telecommuting (during COVID) for individuals, their families and the communities in which they live will be critically examined. It is expected that the study’s findings will have relevance across a wide range of policy domains, many of which are within the remit of local authorities, and all of which directly influence local places, including health, housing, environment, community development, social policy, transportation and spatial planning.
Funders
The two-year study is currently supported by:
- the National Regional and Urban Planning Policy Section within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
- the Office for the Planning Regulator (OPR)
- the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA)
- Clare County Council.
- Department for Infrastructure (NI)
- Maryland Department of Transportation
Research Team
The InPLACE study represents a unique research collaboration between Maynooth University, Ulster University, University College Dublin, Mary Immaculate College Limerick and the University of Maryland in the US.
The research team are supported by an independent advisory group.
Setting the context
Commuting, as ‘the movement from suburban or rural locations to the place of work and back’ (Mayhew, 2009), had been continually growing prior to the coronavirus pandemic. Having emerged as a major phenomenon during the economic boom of the mid-1990s to mid-2000s, commuting volumes, distances and travel times decreased following the financial crisis and subsequent economic recession, but increased again with the economic recovery. Thus, in the Republic of Ireland, the number commuting for more than an hour and a half to work increased by 33% between 2011 and 2016 (CSO, 2017). In Northern Ireland, between 2010 and 2015, commutes of over two hours duration increased by 57% (TUC, 2016). Perhaps the most dramatic expressions of commuting in the Irish landscape have been the emergence of ever more extensive commuter belts around the major cities (Horner, 1999), the accompanying development of inter-urban transport infrastructures, particularly roads and motorways which have facilitated commuting, and the rapid increase in the population of commuter-based settlements (Kitchin et al., 2012). To a large extent, urbanisation in Ireland has been expressed in the growth of these commuter settlements. For example, of 32 towns that attained a population of over 10,000 population between 1966 and 2016, 15 are located in the Greater Dublin Area , and all but one of these can be classified as commuter towns (McCafferty, 2019). At the same time, there has been a hollowing-out of many rural towns as population has increased in their rural hinterlands which have become part of the commuter belts of the larger urban centres.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted these trends, by forcing a large section of the population to work from home, or ‘telecommute’, thereby reducing, suddenly and rather dramatically, the commuting volumes both on the national road and rail networks, and on urban streets . Recent research and policy documents identify a range of social, economic and environmental benefits associated with remote working (Government of Ireland, 2019, 2021a). These include: a better work-life balance for workers; increased labour market participation, especially among groups such as carers, older workers and those with disabilities; and reductions in traffic congestion and transport-related emissions. Potential benefits of telecommuting have also been identified in terms of community development, rural development and balanced regional development. The Irish Government’s rural development policy, Our Rural Future, notes that the switch to remote working, accelerated by the pandemic, has demonstrated the possibilities for reversing the long-standing trend of rural to urban migration among young people (Government of Ireland, 2021b). Accordingly, and in line with the national remote work strategy, it prioritises the improvement of digital connectivity in rural areas through a range of measures, including development of a national network of remote working hubs. Emerging housing market data already reveals a growing interest in rural properties , potentially indicating a greater value placed on proximity to natural assets over proximity to economic centres.
However, it is clear that there are also challenges associated with remote working, including longer working hours and potential mental and physical health impacts. In a context where research had already demonstrated the gendered impact of commuting on social networks and relationships (Nisic and Kley, 2019), new studies are emerging of the negative impacts of the switch to remote working on women . Furthermore, pre-COVID research raises questions about the magnitude of the environmental benefits from telecommuting, as reductions in work-related car travel may be offset by an increase in trips for other purposes (Budnitz, et al, 2020).
The current pivot to telecommuting may be temporary, and last only as long as the pandemic, or it may prompt longer term shifts in working and commuting patterns . Beyond the effects of the crisis on public health, a deep global economic recession now appears inevitable, and this may lead to a reduction in commuting, as was the experience in the crash of 2007-08. Recent analysis, for example, by the Regional Assemblies of Ireland identifies communities and sectors facing into significant economic disruption as a result of COVID-19. In the longer term, two quite different scenarios can be envisaged. First, if economic adjustment follows the path of the recovery from recession after 2008, the mismatch between the distributions of people and jobs will worsen, leading to increased commuting, in particular long duration commuting. The alternative, and perhaps more likely scenario, is that the economic shock and social dislocation induced by COVID-19, together with the growing realisation of the increasingly urgent need for climate action, may lead to a new, more economically, socially and environmentally sustainable economy. Whichever of these scenarios unfolds – whether a return to high volume, long duration commuting, or an attempt to build a new, more balanced, space economy – the findings from this study will be an invaluable guide to planners and policymakers.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of the study is to elucidate the impacts of pre- and post-COVID commuting on people and place. Taking a case study approach, and an island of Ireland perspective, the research examines the interplay between home, community and workplace across six towns that experience varying levels of (pre-COVID) out-commuting.
Its findings will have significance for a range of public policies, many of which are within the remit of local authorities, and all of which directly influence local communities, such as health, housing, environment, community development, social policy, transportation and spatial planning.
Project Phasing
The project will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will be rolled out over 12 months (April 2021-March 2022) and will focus on three case study towns, which have been identified on the basis of statistical profiling and in collaboration with strategic stakeholders in this project. The towns are:
- Case Study RoI: Newtownmountkennedy, County Wicklow
- Case Study NI: Dundrum, County Down
- Control Area: Ennistymon-Lahinch, County Clare
Phase 1 will include the selection of further towns for investigation during Phase 2
Further Details
For further information on this project, email:
Project Lead, Prof. Des McCafferty at office@iclrd.org
