ONSIDER THIS--Inasmuch as local, state, and federal government continues to figure out how human beings ought to behave, it's both fascinating and uplifting to learn that people will fight to improve their own lives when given the opportunity to do so.
We all know how awful traffic is, and yet (in particular) our City and County governments don't do the obvious of rewarding staggered work schedules to minimize the impacts of rush hour, don't take into consideration the cut-through residential traffic that occurs as a result of overdevelopment and desperate/innovative drivers trying to get to school and/or work, and don't require trucks to avoid freeways during peak traffic flow.
All this in an increasingly 24-7 work environment that encourages people to be on the road when others are at home...and, by extension, encourages people to stay at home when others are on the road.
According to a new infographic from Highfive, the happiest people are those who can set their work hours, and can do so at home to be available for their family without wasting time in traffic.
As per this infographic, we're seeing professionals make better money and be willing to work longer hours, enjoy less stress, and achieve greater productivity. Both employers and employees appear to be favoring this trend, and it cannot be presumed that this change in work habits will end any time soon.
Even if only part-time work can be performed at home, with some in-office presence required to perform the functions of a given job, the ability to coordinate traffic and improve the lives of others is very real and open to boundless new opportunities.
Of course, the metrics for City traffic studies and Metro Long Range Transportation Planning probably don't take enough of this into account, but the impacts on our economy, environment and quality of life are undeniable.
Can the City and County of Los Angeles find tax and other incentives to work off-peak hours, and/or work more from home?
Can the City and County of Los Angeles use major rail stations and adjacent commercial corridors to encourage "virtual" work sites for remote communications and employer-monitored/subsidized computer stations?
Can the City and County tax code be rewritten to encourage more deductions and other incentives to work from home?
Of course--and a "Silicon Beach" economy promoted by LA City Councilmember Mike Bonin and other local pols should be part and parcel of this effort. If Los Angeles is the link to both Asia, the rest of the nation and even Europe, shouldn't a rethinking of "rush hour" and "9-5 work hours" be linked to modern technology?
None of this is that terribly innovative, of course--but in a society and reality where LA City and County meetings are too often held during the day time when most of us are at work (and, of course, therefore, unlikely to attend these public meetings), the options of work, jury duty and public/civic meetings should finally be open to greater reconsideration.
No one is realistically asking for 3 a.m. work hours, but for those willing to work outside of peak hours and/or at home, the need to think in a 20th century mode isn't one we need adhere to.
And if the rest of us can figure this out all by ourselves, it's only a question of time and common sense before LA City and County government can get on board and increase both productivity AND happiness among the working people of Los Angeles.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
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