When it comes to easing traffic delays in Atlanta, I think there is a way to make things better without raising taxes and without major changes to our infrastructure and mass transit system. I call it, with apologies to my colleague Herman Cain, the Arum 5-5-5 Plan.
Its beauty 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. I came up with an interesting theory Thursday night. 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.
Elham Shirazi, a recognized expert on teleworking says employer benefits include improved recruitment and retention of employees, increased productivity in the range of 10-20 percent, and a reduction in absenteeism by two to four days per teleworkers per year.
Shirazi also says that employees benefit from reduced stress and expenses associated with commuting, improved morale, improved work/life balance and saving two to three hours per day by not commuting.
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 gas prices still north of $3.50 in most areas, 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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