Telework aims to reduce transit demand
With about 50,000 people working outside the county, telecommuting may be best traffic congestion reduction effort
by Tad Johnson
Dakota County Tribune
Based on recent statistics, it is estimated that about 50,000 people leave Dakota County each day to work in Minneapolis, St. Paul and in Twin Cities suburbs.
Nearly all in that parade of vehicles have destinations north of the Minnesota River, which leads to heavy congestion on the rush-hour commutes on interstates 35W and 35E and Highway 77.
Longtime Burnsville resident Adeel Lari, program director at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute, aims to ease that congestion by removing motorists from the road and planting them in a home office during the day (see related story on today’s cover).
Lari, who appeared on a recent episode of Thisweeklive the Show, is spearheading the eWorkPlace Telework Twin Cities program April 11-24 that encourages workers to sample telecommuting for at least one day a week during that time.
The hope is that workers and employers will like the arrangement so much they will permanently use teleworking.
The Dakota County Residential Survey found that over the period from 2006 to 2008 43-44 percent of residents commute outside the county for work.
The greatest percentage of those people traveled north, according to 2008 results, with about 18 percent ending in the cities of Minneapolis or St. Paul.
Those surveyed said their commute times increased from 2006 to 2008 as the percentage of those reporting commutes of 26 minutes or more increased from 31 to 33 percent.
Lari said he helped bring together the people who submitted a successful application for $133.3 million for federal Urban Partnership Agreement funds that leveraged another $50.2 million from the state.
The money was used to target 35W traffic congestion by creating new express bus routes from Lakeville to Minneapolis, add sections of additional lane capacity to 35W, create a MnPASS toll lane on 35W and fund a public information campaign to encourage telecommuting.
Lari views teleworking as the last leg of a stool that will lead to traffic congestion reductions in the Twin Cities.
“It is bad and we waste a huge amount of time and gas getting to work,” Lari said. “Looking forward I don’t see any major investment in infrastructure especially for going across the river.
“Unless we do something regarding demand side, we are going to be facing larger and larger problems in the future.”
There is plenty of potential for growth in telecommuting in Dakota County. According to the county’s survey, only 5 percent of people reported working from home in 2008.
Dakota County is consistent with the rest of the Twin Cities as Lari said the same percentage of Twin Cities residents telework.
Lari said it is estimated that 40 percent of the Twin Cities’ 1.8 million residents have the kinds of jobs that allow them to telecommute. That means about 700,000 people could stop using cars and buses to work from home.
“(Telecommuting) is crucial as this country moves away from production and manufacturing economy to more of a knowledge-based economy,” Lari said.
Lari said eWork has signed up an estimated 30 major employers, including Bloomington-based Best Buy Corporation and Hennepin County government, and 2,300 individuals.
He said those surveyed who are already participating reported they drove 33 percent less during the rush hour and 46 percent less overall when they telecommute.
“What we are finding is that it is a major impact and much greater impact than we ever imagined,” Lari said.
Lari emphasized that an average person who telecommutes does so only about half of his or her work week, which means he or she is still going into the office for meetings and can still connect with the social network in the office.
The kickback for the employer is that teleworkers provide a 20 percent increase in productivity after they start telecommuting.
Lari said telecommuting can not only reduce congestion, but it can have a significant positive affect on reducing the planet’s carbon footprint, 33 percent of which is attributed to transportation.
For more information about eWork Telework Twin Cities, go online at www.eworkplace-mn.com.
Tad Johnson is at
tad.johnson@ecm-inc.com.
