Knowledge-workers and the sustainable city: the travel consequences of car-related job-perks

Attracting firms in knowledge and technology intensive (KTI) sectors is highly sought by national and regional policy makers as a powerful engine of economic growth. Due to fierce competition in the KTI sector, KTI firms often attract employees by offering car-related job perks in addition to wage. This study analyzes the impact of company-cars and car-allowance on the travel behavior of knowledge-workers. The importance of this issue derives from the tendency of knowledge-based economy to concentrate in highly populated metropolitan regions. The analyzed data comprise 750 observations, retrieved from a revealed-preferences survey among KTI workers in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan region in Israel. Results show that car-related job perks are associated with (i) high annual kilometrage, (ii) high propensity of using the car as main commute mode, (iii) long commute distances and travel times, (iv) high trip chaining frequency in commuting trips, and (v) high frequency of long-distance weekend leisure trips. The results suggest that the development of sustainable knowledge-based cities should consider (i) the replacement of car-related job perks by other incentives, (ii) the provision of pedestrian and cyclist friendly infrastructures, and (iii) public transport improvements.