Last Wednesday a handful of new laws went into effect in Georgia. Most notably, for commuters, was the $900 million transportation bill. Part of the bill increased the state gasoline tax to a straight 26 cents-per-gallon excise tax (29 cents for diesel), replacing the old gas tax structure. The increase should be around six cents per gallon for the average commuter. The increased revenue will be used to help repair Georgia’s roads and bridges and help alleviate the state’s and metro Atlanta’s every worsening traffic.
The new law reminded me of my personal solution to Atlanta’s traffic woes. My infamous “Mark Arum 5-5-5 Plan.” The plan, I think, can make traffic better without raising taxes and without major changes to our infrastructure and mass transit system.
The beauty of the plan is in its simplicity. I believe that we can stem and maybe even reverse the current gridlock on our roads in three easy steps. All we need is five percent of current commuters that don’t telecommute to start. We also need five percent of commuters that don’t work flex schedules to start. And finally we need five percent of commuters who don’t currently car pool, to start. Five, plus five, plus five. Fifteen percent of our commuters need to adjust the way they get to work and we would see a marked improvement on our roadways.
The key to this working is to get the five percent of the work force to telecommute. As an employee, would you be willing to take a five percent cut in pay if your employer allowed you to telecommute?
I posed that question on my Facebook page and the response was overwhelmingly positive. A vast majority of the people that responded would take a cut in pay if it meant not having to drive to work.
The question then is, would employers be willing to offer this trade-off? I would think that in these tough economic times employers would jump at the chance to slash some employee’s salaries by five percent. They would also enjoy a more productive work force.
The next step in my plan is to get five percent of the current work force to start flex scheduling. It’s very simple. Instead of working nine to five, work 10 to six. Or eight to four, or seven to three. A five percent reduction of traffic through flex scheduling would have a huge impact on both our morning and afternoon rush hours.
Lastly, we need a five percent bump in carpooling. With the recent increase in the gas tax, the savings of carpooling is greater than ever. Also, the folks at The Clean Air Campaign (cleanaircampaign.org) offer great monetary incentives for people that carpool. Check out their website for additional details.
Five percent telecommuters. Five percent flex schedulers. Five percent carpoolers. The Arum Five-Five-Five Plan. It would work, and more importantly, we can do it.
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