Telecommuting could
ease traffic congestion

Last Sunday the Star-Bulletin's editorial section featured a comprehensive piece on how the two mayoral candidates would attack traffic congestion on Oahu. A plethora of solutions were proffered with one exception -- telecommuting.

Telecommuting in Hawaii is not a new idea. In 1989, the state funded a year-long telecommuting demonstration project at the Mililani Technology Park. This long-forgotten experiment (which included Bank of Hawaii, HMSA, IBM, Title Guaranty of Hawaii and Inter-Island Legal Services) demonstrated that telecommuting works. Times have changed dramatically since 1989. With the proliferation of home computers and ubiquitous high-speed access, the stage is set to implement this technology.

The advantages of telecommuting to the employer are obvious. It can help retain valuable employees, reduce turnover and training costs, save on parking, expand recruiting options, increase productivity and lower barriers to growth. For the employee, telecommuting means fewer office distractions and disruptions, increased productivity, savings on commuting costs, a better work/life balance and enhanced morale.

For the community at large, the returns would be less roadway congestion, reduced auto emissions and greater economic competitiveness.

According to a recent a national study by Dieringer Research Group, full-time tele- commuting shot up 41 percent last year to 12.4 million workers from 8.8 million. The total number of U.S. workers who telecommute from home at least one day per month is about 24.1 million (up from 23.5 million in 2003).

Telecommuting has been successfully implemented in Arizona where 16 percent of state workers (about 3,400 people) telecommute. In practical terms, thanks to telecommuting, state workers annually drive 3.2 million fewer miles, generate 86,133 fewer pounds of air pollution and spend 106,336 fewer hours in their cars.

Where does Hawaii stand in this picture?

Frankly, we don't look that good. Although the Aloha State permits telecommuting, a phone survey conducted in April 2002 by the Department of Human Services found only 19 state employees who actually telecommute. These statistics are embarrassingly low. Hawaii has more than 70,000 state and county workers who make a significant impact on our commuting patterns. If you consider that in 2002 there were more than 83,000 daily commutes in and out of East Oahu and that a significant number of these commuters are state workers, telecommuting could play a significant role in traffic reduction.

How do we effect change?

To get an expert opinion, I spoke with my colleague Rich Halverson, a high-tech entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in Communication and Information Sciences from UH and a candidate for House District 17 in Hawaii Kai. He has utilized telecommuting in his own firm and studied its application in Hawaii for years.

Halverson said the first step would be to establish guidelines regarding what categories of workers might be candidates for telecommuting. "Whether it's one day a month or four hours per day, it would only make sense for certain workers with certain job descriptions to take the plunge," he said.

However, guidelines are not enough. We also need to convince management at the state level to institute telecommuting and promote the concept to state workers. Rather than reinventing the wheel, it would make sense to contact Arizona state officials and see how they organized their efforts.

Telecommuting isn't for every employee, but with 70,000 state and county workers, Halverson believes there are plenty of individuals who would be both qualified and interested. If the program shows promise perhaps we can provide home office tax credits for telecommuters (since they would most likely be using their own computers and Internet access) and create incentives for private companies that deploy telecommuters.

Executives can lead way. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, on the mainland there are growing numbers of telecommuters from upper and middle management. I suspect Hawaii's executives mirror the mainland in this regard. If local executives from some of the larger publicly traded companies were willing to go public with this information they would be terrific role models.

Telecommuting is not the universal antidote to urban sprawl and traffic congestion but it's certainly part of the solution.