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Do Higher Gas Prices Mean More Mobile Productivity?
Web analytics trend service Compete is out with their latest report today comparing the change in gas prices with the change in Web traffic to sites related to public transportation. To build the report, Compete took the top 50 sites in the "Bus and Train" category and the average gas price for the week and compared the change over time. This report is only based on U.S. Web traffic and gas prices.
It’s pretty interesting to watch how directly correlated the two are. Yet as author Connor Caldwell notes, it seems like Americans are getting more comfortable with higher gas prices.
Are people (worldwide) more productive on public transportation than in their cars? The simple answer is yes but what this additional productivity means is that when a person arrives home, they perhaps have more time to spend with family and friends and not working because the normal after-dinner work was completed on the subway, train or bus. With more mobile devices offering real connectivity to the Internet, it could be that people may actually stick to transit if gas prices drop. Ok, I am dreaming I know.
Do you find that you get more done on the train or bus than in the car? For me, even on a short subway ride, I find that I am able to think about ideas rather than worrying about who just cut me off or how that idiot didn’t put their blinker on.
Don’t forget to check out our public transportation sister site, InsideTransit, which takes a fun and interesting look at trains, buses, and other means of transportation.
Update: WebWorkerDaily has a look at current telecommuting trends.
I live outside Philly and used to drive 3 days and take the train 2 days - now I drive 1 day and take the train 4 days. I work on the train using my cell phone and also get caught up with all of the news - I have found that when I get to work, I am more ready for the day than when I drive.
It’s a good bet that there’s a similar rise in people who won’t bother coming in as much and simply work from home, or from closer workspaces. If I ran a neighborhood cafe, I’d be buying a few more tables this year.
Definitely can be more focused on a train when commuting into work but with podcasts, services like JotSpot and conducting regular phone calls - i feel like my commute into work can be pretty productive. What I am waiting for is one of these services like Dixero or others that you have covered to really work easily with my iPod. If I can listen to a scan of my RSS feeds during my commute - that would be super useful.
This is so fascinating- thanks for sharing, Allen. As a daily customer of public transit here in Boston, I have definitely seen an increase in bodies on my bus and trains. And since I’m almost never “productive” on the bus/train (I consider it my time to unwind or listen to music, and can be productive at home since I live by myself and have no family responsibilities…), I observe others, who ARE productive. Very interesting trend!