This paper (Part 2 in the paper series), building on earlier studies examining the Australian response, extends on findings related to travel activity, commuting, and attitudes towards COVID-19 ...measures (Part 1 in the paper series). In this paper we focus in detail on the impact of, and experiences with, working from home (WFH), perhaps the largest of the positive unintended consequence of the pandemic, with respect to transport, and a key lens through which the changing patterns in travel activity and attitudes discussed in Part 1 need to be understood. We conclude that through the widespread adoption of WFH as a result of nationwide public health orders, there is evidence emerging that WFH is now seen as an appealing instrument of change by employees and employers, there is growing support to continue to support WFH into the future. This represents a significant potential contribution to the future management of the transport network, especially in larger metropolitan areas. We also discuss policy implications of this result and what the international community may take from the Australian experience.
Audit firms are organized as collections of geographically decentralized offices. Decentralization allows for increased proximity between offices and clients, improving the efficiency of auditors' ...interactions with client personnel. Yet decentralization also decreases the proximity between offices within each firm, potentially impeding auditors’ interactions with each other. We show that decreased proximity between offices reduces inter-office audit quality “spillovers” and that this effect is driven primarily by reduced monitoring and knowledge sharing. Our findings expand the “within office” view of audit production by demonstrating the importance of interactions between offices and the role of geographic proximity in facilitating them.
•Higher audit quality in large Big 4 offices “spills over” to smaller offices.•The spillover is strongly associated with the geographic proximity between the two offices.•The reduced costs of monitoring and knowledge sharing over shorter distances appear to explain this relationship.•The pricing of financial statement risk is an important part of the monitoring explanation.
•We introduce the concept ofCollaboration as a Service (CaaS), an extension of MaaS.•We provide lessons from the macro sector to better integrate the micro transport sector.•Airline style cooperation ...may be a template for cooperation in public transport.•We outline the potential for alliances and networks as a coordinative body.•Smart ticketing systems can form the technological basis to facilitate CaaS.
Integrated mobility aims to improve multimodal integration to make public transport an attractive alternative to private transport. This paper critically reviews extant literature and current public transport governance frameworks of transport operators across a macro and micro spectrum. Our aim is to extend the concept of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), a proposed coordination mechanism for public transport that is yet to prove its commercial viability and general acceptance. Drawing from avaition experiences, we propose that smart ticketing systems, providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) can be extended with governance and operational processes that enhance their ability to facilitate Collaboration-as-a-Service (CaaS) to offer a reimagined MaaS2.0 = CaaS + SaaS. Rather than using the traditional MaaS broker, CaaS incorporates operators more fully and utilises their commercial self-interest to deliver commercially viable and attractive integrated public transport solutions to consumers. This would also facilitate more collaboration of private sector operators into public transport across short and long distance with potentially new opportunities for taxi/rideshare/bikeshare operators and cross geographical transport providers (i.e. transnational multimodal operating companies) to integrate.
This paper draws on findings from an Australia-wide survey with data collected in three waves throughout 2020 to explore the impact of COVID-19 on public transport trends in metropolitan areas of ...Australia. Following consideration of the public transport sector response to the pandemic and the emerging literature context, we explore three principal questions: (i) How has weekly travel composition changed across the waves? (ii) How has level of concern with using public transport changed over the course of the pandemic given new bio-security concerns? and (iii) How has attitudes to risk been associated with the changes in PT use? A key finding is that concerns over bio-security issues around public transport are enduring, that concern about hygiene is significantly negatively related to public transport use and that those with higher concern about the hygiene of public transport also held higher concern about COVID-19 at work. Even as COVID-19 restrictions are eased, both concern about crowds and hygiene have a significant and negative correlation with public transport use. Concluding remarks are offered on what might need to happen for public transport patronage to start returning.
•New data on changing patterns of use and attitudes towards public transport, including biosecurity concern during COVID-19.•We investigate how has weekly travel composition changed since March 2020•The level of biosecurity concern with using public transport over the course of the pandemic is documented.•We identify the drivers for use of public transport over the course of the pandemic•The implications for public transport operations and policy are set out.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we go about our daily lives in ways that are unlikely to return to the pre-COVID-19 levels. A key feature of the COVID-19 era is likely to be a rethink of ...the way we work and the implications on commuting activity. Working from home (WFH) has been the ‘new normal’ during the period of lockdown, except for essential services that require commuting. In recognition of the new normal as represented by an increasing amount of WFH, this paper develops a model to identify the incidence of WFH and what impact this could have on the number of weekly commuting trips. Using data collected in eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and South Africa), we developed a Poisson regression model for the number of days individuals worked from home during the pandemic. Simulated scenarios quantify the impact of the different variables on the probability of WFH by country. The findings provide a reference point as we continue to undertake similar analysis at different points through time during the pandemic and after when restrictions are effectively removed.
There exists a substantial amount of research on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on significant changes in the location at which work takes place, especially working from home (WFH). ...There has been, however, very little systematic consideration given to the relationship between the substantial increase in WFH and the responses taken by organisations in reviewing their office (workspace) capacity needs in the future, including a switch of the mix of utilising workspace in the main office(s) and satellite office locations. The main aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which levels of working from home and increased use of rented satellite office space will be linked to changes in the amount of workspace required at the main office that was used pre-COVID-19. Using data from 459 businesses for three periods for pre-COVID-19, April 2022 (25 months after the outbreak of the pandemic) and stated intentions for 2023, we develop a random effects regression model for the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area in which we identify some of the influences on the downsizing or not of the main office(s) work space, and comment on what we see as the most likely scenario for WFH and work space in the main office and rented satellite office space under the ‘next normal’. The findings can be used to inform future commuting travel as well as changes in land use activity at specific locations, including possible reallocation of existing office space to other activity uses.
•Main office workspace needs in the ‘next normal’.•Downsizing of office capacity in presence of working from home.•Role of Working from home and growth in satellite office space rental on main office needs.•New empirical evidence in Sydney, Australia.•Contrasts between pre-COVID-19, April 2022 and the future works space.
•Understand underlying attitudes in the decision to WFH or to commute during COVID.•Two latent variables: concern towards the use of PT and attitude towards WFH.•Occupation or income have a high ...influence on WFH, relative to travel times.•PT concern is moderated by regular and reliable services.•Balance between WFH and office is preferred.
The decision to work from home (WFH) or to commute during COVID-19 is having a major structural impact on individuals’ travel, work and lifestyle. There are many possible factors influencing this non-marginal change, some of which are captured by objective variables while others are best represented by a number of underlying latent traits captured by attitudes towards WFH and the use of specific modes of transport for the commute that have a bio-security risk such as public transport (PT). We develop and implement a hybrid choice model to investigate the sources of influence, accounting for the endogenous nature of latent soft variables for workers in metropolitan areas in New South Wales and Queensland. The data was collected between September-October 2020, during a period of no lockdown and relatively minor restrictions on workplaces and public gatherings. The results show that one of the most important attributes defining the WFH loving attitude is the workplace policy towards WFH, with workers that can decide where to work having a higher probability of WFH, followed by those that are being directed to, relative to other workplace policies. The bio-security concern with using shared modes such as public transport is a key driver of WFH and choosing to commute via the safer environment of the private car.
Ruminants evolved in diverse landscapes of which they utilized, by choice, a diverse arrangement of plants (grasses, forbs, and trees) for food. These plants provide them with both primary ...(carbohydrates, protein, etc.) and secondary (phenolics, terpenes, etc.) compounds (PPC and PSC, respectively). As no one plant could possibly constitute a "balanced-diet," ruminants mix diets so that they can exploit arrangements of PPC to meet their individual requirements. Diet mixing also allows for ruminants to ingest PSC at levels, acquiring their benefits such as antioxidants and reduced gastrointestinal parasites, without overstepping thresholds of toxicity. Meeting dietary requirements is assumed to provide satisfaction through achieving positive internal status and comfort, thereby a sense of hedonic (happiness through pleasure) well-being. Furthermore, choice including dietary choice is a factor influencing well-being of ruminants in a manner akin to that in humans. Choice may facilitate eudaimonic (happiness through pursuit of purpose) well-being in livestock. Nutritional status plays an integral role in oxidative stress, which is linked with illness. Several diseases in livestock have been directly linked to oxidative stress. Mastitis, metritis, hypocalcaemia, and retained placenta occur in animals transitioning from dry to lactating and have been linked to oxidative stress and such a stress has likewise been linked to diseases that occur in growing livestock as well, such as bovine respiratory disease. The link between physiological stress and oxidative stress is not well-defined in livestock but is evident in humans. As dietary diversity allows animals to select more adequately balanced diets (improved nutrition), take advantage of PSC (natural antioxidants), and allows for choice (improved animal well-being) there is a strong possibility for ruminants to improve their oxidative status and thus health, well-being, and therefor production. The purposes of this review are to first, provide an introduction to oxidative and physiological stress, and nutritional status as effected by dietary diversity, with special attention to providing support and on answering the "how." Second, to provide evidence of how these stresses are connected and influence each other, and finally discuss how dietary diversity provides a beneficial link to all three and enhances both eudaimonic and hedonic well-being.
Since the start of 2020, we have seen major changes in the way communities operate. Mobility behaviour has been drastically impacted by work from home (WFH) and by lockdowns and restrictions in ...different jurisdictions. This study investigates the influence of WFH and different lockdown patterns on commuting and non-commuting trips in Australia by workers between early 2020 and late 2021. The data includes three waves of data collection to represent different lockdown periods. A multiple discrete–continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model is estimated to represent the number of one-way trips undertaken weekly with different purposes (commuting, work-related, education, shopping, personal business/social recreation), and by different modes (car, public transport, active modes). Explanatory variables include socioeconomic characteristics, location, the time period during the pandemic (i.e., waves). In addition, latent variables were included representing underlying attitudes such as satisfaction towards life or concern about the use of public transport – which might certainly play an important role in understanding individual weekly travel behaviour decisions. The model structure has the advantage that it estimates commuting and non-commuting activity together, allowing for a substitution effect between them. The results suggest that across all waves and jurisdictions, respondents who WFH more are more likely to have a higher number of shopping trips and personal business/social recreation trips, perhaps substituting these trips in replacement of their lesser commuting trips. Interestingly, all other influences held constant, individuals who are more concerned about the use of public transport are more likely to undertake commuting trips by all modes, more likely to do shopping trips, and less likely to undertake personal business/social recreation trips – suggesting they are prioritising essential trips rather than social/personal trips and perceive the risk of COVID-19 to be higher due to this travel.
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