The impact of night and evening shift work on social exclusion, family travel, and mobilities of care

Night and evening shift workers play critical roles in the modern economy, yet the mobility implications of working at these times is understudied. Shift workers’ schedules are mis-aligned with the schedules of their families and most of society, complicating their contribution to household-serving travel and their participation in social activities. This study models the effects of working nights and evenings on household-serving and social trips, including social trips with other householders. I apply binary logistic and Poisson regression with block bootstrapping to a large household travel survey to test for effects. Night and evening shift workers are less likely to make a trip for recreation, visiting others, or eating out, on days that they work. People working evening shifts are also less likely to make a trip for community or religious purposes. Evening shift workers are also less likely to conduct household-serving trips on days that they work, and this effect is amplified for women with regards to errands and shopping. When people work impacts what activities they can participate in and whether they participate in some social activities with other householders. These impacts hold negative implications for the mental health and wellbeing of shift workers.