The Trouble with Commuting
January 22nd 2008 10:25
We live in a time of central business districts, industrial parks and hubs of every kind. These realities are now-a-days accepted uncritically, as if they were indispensable or had always been there. Yet, things were not always like this.
Today we get up early in the morning and either drive, take a bus, a train or a ferryboat to work. And then at the end of the day we reverse our steps. As a norm we do this all at the same time so that the pressure on the infrastructure is maximum.
The infrastructure we use is made up of roads, freeways, bridges, overpasses, train lines and train carriages and locomotives, train stations and thousands of workers to operate them. Councils and States’ expense commitments with regards to infrastructure are enormous, yet, traffic jams still happen, trains that run late are frequent and ferryboats that collide with other boats are a reality.
Most people get stressed just going to work. They then, after rushing through the working hours, go through the same dose of pain and stress to return to their homes. The costs of commuting to and from work, and they are the physical infrastructure, the financial costs of being late and stressed to work and also, increasingly, the mental health costs resulting from all this, are mind-boggling. Yet, we willingly go through this routine five days per week, painfully. Why do we do this?
Some cities are better than others at commuting: in Sydney it’s mostly ok to commute; in Lisbon, where I used to live, it was horrible. I remember arriving at work so completely exhausted to just then ask myself if I still had to work.
Central business districts as well as industrial parks and other hubs have a function: they aggregate people that do one kind of business and make it easy for the customer, the supplier and others to find them and their competition. From where commuting.
But in the middle ages up until the sixteenth century is wasn’t like this. Then, in Europe, many people, mostly weavers of wool, linen and cotton worked from home. The entrepreneur would visit them daily, pick up work in process and live new work. And people, not just in this kind of jobs, made a living from the peace and stress free of their cottages.
And industry then was powered mostly by renewable energies such as water and wind power and was dispersed throughout the country. It’s only when coal coke in the eighteen century becomes a standard source of energy that most industries gather around natural deposits of coal. From where the hub tendency that now plagues us.
For the people that now work in a CBD is there much of a problem if willing they did their work from home? To be honest I believe that most of that kind of work could be done from home. With all the technology we have today, we could well be doing it from home and just telecommuting.
The fears associated with telecommuting for the employer are that being unsupervised you would not perform. But I believe that if your tasks can be packaged, once you complete them you did you job, isn’t it?
Other problems affect the telecommuter: one is not enough socialisation. Most people value the social side of their employment and fear they would feel lonely at home. You could obviate this by networking with other telecommuters. Your spouse might also be at home, telecommuting or not. You could meet regularly with a group of people in your area or work. Or you could just go down to the pub and have a beer and a chat.
Another problem for the telecommuter is the prospect of getting too much work. This is a real worry, but if you can negotiate and package your work it should be all right. It’s just that people are not used to do that as yet.
Other worries for the telecommuter are never getting out of work. If telecommuting becomes generalised you would be able to find in your suburb a lot of cafes, pubs, restaurants, theatres and other business that would be open by night and you just would have to stroll to them. It would be better than staying home and watching boring TV.
There is so much to gain from getting out of a CBD and telecommuting.
Today we get up early in the morning and either drive, take a bus, a train or a ferryboat to work. And then at the end of the day we reverse our steps. As a norm we do this all at the same time so that the pressure on the infrastructure is maximum.
The infrastructure we use is made up of roads, freeways, bridges, overpasses, train lines and train carriages and locomotives, train stations and thousands of workers to operate them. Councils and States’ expense commitments with regards to infrastructure are enormous, yet, traffic jams still happen, trains that run late are frequent and ferryboats that collide with other boats are a reality.
Most people get stressed just going to work. They then, after rushing through the working hours, go through the same dose of pain and stress to return to their homes. The costs of commuting to and from work, and they are the physical infrastructure, the financial costs of being late and stressed to work and also, increasingly, the mental health costs resulting from all this, are mind-boggling. Yet, we willingly go through this routine five days per week, painfully. Why do we do this?
Some cities are better than others at commuting: in Sydney it’s mostly ok to commute; in Lisbon, where I used to live, it was horrible. I remember arriving at work so completely exhausted to just then ask myself if I still had to work.
Central business districts as well as industrial parks and other hubs have a function: they aggregate people that do one kind of business and make it easy for the customer, the supplier and others to find them and their competition. From where commuting.
But in the middle ages up until the sixteenth century is wasn’t like this. Then, in Europe, many people, mostly weavers of wool, linen and cotton worked from home. The entrepreneur would visit them daily, pick up work in process and live new work. And people, not just in this kind of jobs, made a living from the peace and stress free of their cottages.
And industry then was powered mostly by renewable energies such as water and wind power and was dispersed throughout the country. It’s only when coal coke in the eighteen century becomes a standard source of energy that most industries gather around natural deposits of coal. From where the hub tendency that now plagues us.
For the people that now work in a CBD is there much of a problem if willing they did their work from home? To be honest I believe that most of that kind of work could be done from home. With all the technology we have today, we could well be doing it from home and just telecommuting.
The fears associated with telecommuting for the employer are that being unsupervised you would not perform. But I believe that if your tasks can be packaged, once you complete them you did you job, isn’t it?
Other problems affect the telecommuter: one is not enough socialisation. Most people value the social side of their employment and fear they would feel lonely at home. You could obviate this by networking with other telecommuters. Your spouse might also be at home, telecommuting or not. You could meet regularly with a group of people in your area or work. Or you could just go down to the pub and have a beer and a chat.
Another problem for the telecommuter is the prospect of getting too much work. This is a real worry, but if you can negotiate and package your work it should be all right. It’s just that people are not used to do that as yet.
Other worries for the telecommuter are never getting out of work. If telecommuting becomes generalised you would be able to find in your suburb a lot of cafes, pubs, restaurants, theatres and other business that would be open by night and you just would have to stroll to them. It would be better than staying home and watching boring TV.
There is so much to gain from getting out of a CBD and telecommuting.
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