Get The Sickness!

Rush Hour Traffic

Sitting in traffic at rush hour does strange things to the brain. It makes you think about the alternatives. Does anyone really like to spend 4-8 hours a week commuting to work? How much money is spent on fuel to commute? How about the impact of depreciating your car quicker because of the added mileage. And then think about how much time that it takes away from spending time with the family and doing the things that you really want to do.

In the future, I see an opportunity for real estate developers to create "executive suites" for the rank & file. What if they built office buildings close to where people live and you could go to work in a "local" office 2-4 days a week and only have to commute into a central location one or two days? This could work if these "suites" were fully configured with the latest in technology, with complete desktop videoconferencing and couriers that went from location to location through the day transferring mails, supplies, documents, etc. Many people spend a good part of their work day at their desks, doing emails, working on documents & files, talking on the phone. Why do they need to drive 30-60 minutes to copy someone in the next office on an email.

Look at the economics of this. We would use less imported oil and cars and we would use more technology. Workers go to an office everyday in their neighborhood and work near their neighbors - not necessarily people working for the same company. How many people would accept a paycut or at least accept slower income growth if they could save more than that in commuting costs? Think about job retention as well. Are you going to change jobs to an employer that makes you incur the time and expensive of commuting after you have been in a neighborhood office suite? You would need a big raise to justify it.

It will happen. The time is ripe.

posted by Michael Sick @ 10:31 AM