Noisy and cramped conditions in trains, planes and airports are discouraging many commuters and business people from working while travelling, new research shows.
The most popular place to work was in vehicles in the car park, the study found.
In a paper in the journal Work, Employment and Society, sociologist Donald Hislop of the Loughborough University and psychologist Carolyn Axtell of the University of Sheffield, said "significant variations" in noise and lack of space "inhibited people's ability to work" on trains and planes.
The researchers found that 42 percent of respondents worked 'quite a lot' or a 'great deal' in trains. Around 29 percent did so at the airport, 13 percent on the planes, 44 percent in a car park and 22 percent in a service station building.
"An initial observation is that with the exception of time spent on board planes, where significant restrictions on technology use operate, business travellers worked extensively when travelling," said the researchers.
On the trains, 55 percent said they found lack of space as hindering them working, and 23 percent said noise hindered them.
At the airports, 47 percent said noise hindered them working, and 39 percent said it was lack of space.
At the motorway service station building, 38 percent said it was noise, and 23 percent lack of space.
Overall, these data highlight significant variations between journey stages in terms of the extent to which the factors examined inhibited people's ability to work.
"They highlight that the two journey stages during which business travellers were most likely to work extensively were when in train carriages and sitting in their cars in service station car parks," the researchers observed.
