Mitigating Congestion in the Region
    Recently released American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that Americans spent an average of 24.3 minutes commuting to work in 2003.  This adds up to more than 100 hours annually for the morning commute. New York reported the longest average commute-to-work time at 30.4 minutes (38.3 minutes in New York City), followed by Maryland at 28.5 minutes.  The ACS data showed that more than 4.7 million of New York’s 8.3 million workers, age 16 and over, drive alone to work, while 2.1 million commute to work using public transportation.  The data also showed that 655,866 used carpools; 423,630 walked to work; 278,761 worked at or from home; and 76,629 used other means.  In New York City, 5.6% of commuters reported spending more than 90 minutes commuting to work.  It is quite evident that congestion in the U.S. continues unabated, with single occupant vehicle commuting (as a percentage of all commuting in the U.S.) moving ever closer to 80%.  The only positive trend is in telecommuting which at 3.5% in 2003 is showing an increase from 3.2% in 2000.

  The new Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute shows that the cost of congestion in 85 of the largest urban areas in the U.S. reached $63.1 billion in 2003. The report showed that congestion caused 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and 2.3 billion gallons of wasted fuel.  This meant an increase of 79 million hours and 69 million gallons respectively over the year 2002.  The average annual delay per individual using motorized transportation grew from 16 hours in 1982 to 47 hours in 2003.  The report also found that if public transportation service was discontinued and riders traveled in private vehicles, delay would increase by an additional 27%, and congestion costs will increase by an additional $18 billion per year.  (See http://mobility.tamu.edu  for the 2005 Urban Mobility Report).

 The New York metropolitan area is intensively pre-occupied with tackling the congestion issue, in the effort to improve mobility and achieve desired air quality standards.  It is true that New York City’s bus system (the hub of the metropolitan area) has experienced significant increase in ridership over the last eight years, but the issues of reliability, delay, and slow bus speeds remain a challenge.  While the transit systems investigate mobility enhancement and improvements to address reliability and delay, they will rely on area employers to implement some TDM measures to help alleviate the congestion.  The Texas Transportation Institute has assembled summaries of demand management measures that can easily be implemented by area employers, two of which are reproduced here – Alternative Work Hours and Telecommuting.

A) Alternative Work Hours
Description
Flexible work hour programs allow employees to work a schedule within a range of time periods. For example, employees may be allowed to work an eight-hour shift starting between 6 AM and 9 AM and ending between 3 PM and 6 PM. Some programs allow participants to shift their schedule on a day to day basis, while other programs require that participants work a selected schedule on a routine basis. This flexibility allows employees to shift trips to and from work either before or after the peak hour. Staggered work hour programs vary the arrival and departure times of groups of employees within a company before and after the typical 8 AM to 5 PM schedule. The term ‘staggered’ indicates that employees arrive in different shifts at different times within a time period. Unlike flexible work hours, employees in a staggered work schedule may have no ability to choose which shift they work on. Compressed workweek schedules typically involve longer, but fewer, workdays (e.g., 10-hour, 4-day workweeks). Compressed workweeks are advantageous in two ways. Days of commuting and commute trips are eliminated and longer work days require the employees to arrive earlier and leave later, removing trips from the peak hours.

Target Market
An increasing number of businesses are candidates for alternate work hour strategies. As electronic communication technology improves and computers become more available at home and office, new segments of the economy have the possibility of using the flexibility they provide. Staggered work hours are advantageous for large companies or plants to alleviate onsite crowding at entrances/exits, parking areas, or elevators. Staggered work hours work well for assembly line type operations where the beginning and end of work shifts can be easily managed. Flexible work schedules work especially well for persons that work independently.

Benefits and Costs
In Bishop Ranch, California, 14,800 employees took part in a flextime program as part of a required trip reduction program. The percentage of employees arriving before 7 AM increased from 8 to 17 percent, while the percentage of employees arriving after 9 AM increased from 1 to 9 percent. The City of Berkeley reported that its flextime program reduced annual overtime costs by $18,000 and sick leave costs by $26,000. Similarly, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of San Francisco reported that its flextime program reduced sick leave costs by $20,000 and resulted in savings of $46,000 in decreased use of work time for personal business. Several studies in the 1970s in New York and Ottawa, Canada showed that staggered work hours can smooth out the peaking characteristics of arrivals and departures for work trips. The Ottawa study involved 33,000 government employees (47 percent of downtown employees) using a combination of staggered work hours and flexible work hours. A study showed the morning peak 15-minute arrivals were reduced by approximately 50 percent and the evening peak 15- minute departures were reduced by approximately 57 percent. In a 1992 study in Denver, a total of 9,000 federal employees in 42 agencies participated in a 4-day, 10-hour compressed work week program. The maximum percentage of arrivals in any one half-hour period decreased from 56 percent to 42 percent. The maximum percentage of departures in any one half-hour period decreased from 47 percent to 34 percent.

B. Telecommuting
Description
Telecommuting allows workers to either eliminate a commute trip all together by working from home or to reduce trip length by working from a satellite office. Telecommunications and computers have made it possible to reduce trips by performing a variety of trip purposes over the telecommunications network. For example, telecommuters can access work files and programs via the Internet from home. Teleconferencing allows workers at multiple locations to conduct meetings, shopping can now be done over the Internet, and banking transactions can be done over the Internet or at automated teller machines (ATMs). The capability of making electronic transactions either eliminates trips or reduces vehicle travel.

Target Market
Telecommuting is not an option in all work positions, but professional and managerial staffs tend to be the most applicable positions, while business services, wholesaling, and banking/finance tend to be the applicable industries. The costs of establishing a telecommuting program are usually minimal as many individuals have home computers and Internet access. Some telecommuters are able to do their work without the need for a computer.  Satellite worksites may be owned/operated by a single company or by multiple organizations.  These facilities are typically equipped with computers and modems to allow workers that would normally travel long distances to be connected electronically to their offices. While these facilities may be effective in reducing vehicle miles traveled, they are typically not effective in reducing emissions from cold starts and may actually increase vehicle trips as members of rideshare programs or transit may opt to drive alone to a nearby center.  The majority of telecommuters split time between the home and office. A 1991 US DOT survey of telecommuters showed that the average total time per week worked at home by telecommuters was 18.6 hours. Approximately 26 percent of the survey participants reported working at home an average less than eight hours per week.

Benefits and Costs
Improved productivity is one of the benefits cited as being associated with telecommuting programs. Control Data Corporation telecommuters estimated their productivity increased by 35 percent on telecommuting days, while their managers similarly estimated the productivity improvement at 30 percent. Pacific Bell managers estimated productivity improvements of 20 percent due to telecommuting in addition to office space savings. Reduced cold starts, emissions, and VMT are all benefits of telecommuting. A study of 400 State of California employees participating in a telecommuting program showed that on telecommuting days, participants reduced their cold starts by 39 percent, CO emissions by 64 percent, NOx emissions by 69 percent, particulate matter emissions by 78 percent, and total VMT by 77 percent.

As always, for more commute information, please contact us at the:
SMART COMMUTE Program at (914) 995-4444, or e-mail us at tvo1@westchestergov.com