The Impact of Flexible Work Hours on Trip Departure Time Choices in Metropolitan Miami

Flexible work hours (flextime) allow employees to choose their work start and end time, thus providing them with an opportunity to avoid traveling during morning and afternoon peak traffic periods. In order to test the effect of flextime in reducing morning peak-hour traffic, this study has built a multinomial logit model which divided morning departure times as pre-peak (0:00 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.), peak (6:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.) and post peak (8:30 a.m. to 12:00 a.m.). The results demonstrate a correlation between having flextime and traveling in post-peak hours, and also proved that commuters with different characteristics may react diversely to flextime. The result of the what-if analysis provides suggestions for future implementation of flextime in metropolitan Miami, that manufacturing, construction, maintenance, or farming workers and those working in high-density locations, such as central business districts (CBDs), should be seriously considered, as they are more sensitive to the program.