This commentary reflects on the pandemic commute and its significance for, on one hand, engaging with the problematic category of essential work, and on the other, future geographical research on transport and mobilities. Drawing on essential workers' contributions to the ‘Not working from home’ public engagement project, I outline some experiences of commuting during the COVID-19 pandemic. I illustrate the role of pandemic commuting in defining, and wrestling with, what the category of essential work might mean. I then discuss the ways in which attending to pandemic commutes may extend and reshape existing research on unequal mobilities. Some of the future research directions made more urgent by a focus on pandemic commutes include critical engagements with: first, intersectional inequalities in the journey to work; second, the category of ‘essential journeys’ as used in transport policy and practice; third, the positionality of academic researchers who work on the topic of commuting; and finally, the treatment of commuting time as an integral part of working time.

中文翻译：

---

重要工人的流行病流动性和通勤意义的变化


这篇评论反映了大流行通勤及其重要性，一方面，参与有问题的基本工作类别，另一方面，未来关于交通和流动性的地理研究。借鉴重要工作人员对“不在家工作”公众参与项目的贡献，我概述了 COVID-19 大流行期间的一些通勤经验。我阐述了流行病通勤在定义和探讨基本工作类别可能意味着什么方面的作用。然后，我讨论了应对大流行病通勤可能扩展和重塑现有关于不平等流动性的研究的方式。由于对流行病通勤的关注，未来的一些研究方向变得更加紧迫，包括以下方面的关键参与：首先，上班途中的交叉不平等；其次，交通政策和实践中使用的“必要旅程”类别；第三，研究通勤主题的学术研究人员的立场；最后，将通勤时间视为工作时间的一个组成部分。