A group of city officials and county transportation officials have brought to the company’s notice that the company’s workforce has tremendous impact on the city’s traffic. Thousands of employees drive to work everyday leading to traffic congestions and slow moving traffic. As a first step to designing a solution to this issue, we have collected the data on the transportation habits and attitudes of the workforce. The survey captured data on four parameters: employee carpool habits, use of public transportation, effect of potential improvements to public transportation, and if telecommuting is an option. The 43,500 employees of the company participated in this study. A summary of the findings is presented herewith:
Figure 1: Employee Carpool Habits
Figure 2: Use of Public Transportation
Figure 3: Effect on Potential Improvements to Public Transportation
A subgroup consisting of people (41% of workforce or 17,915 workers) who had never used public transport to get to work or only infrequently used public transport were asked what measures did they think would change their view about using public transport to commute to work. Members of this group were given a set of options and were allowed to mark more than one option in response to the question.
It is clear from the figure that the two greatest motivators for willing workers would be 1) perceivable reduction in their daily commute times and 2) subsidized fares. However 46% or 8,240 workers still do not see a reason to use public transport.
Figure 4: Is telecommuting an option?
Finally employees were asked whether, keeping in mind the nature of their work, they thought they had a realistic chance of becoming telecommuters or work-from-home employees. From the figure it is clear that due to the nature of work 42% or 18,601 workers cannot become telecommuters but the remaining 58% are able to work from home on most or all days every week.
Based on the data collected during the survey and in view of the alternatives offered by the company CEO to find a sustainable solution to the traffic issue caused by our workforce’s commuting habits, the following two solutions are suggested:
Solution 1: Incentivize public transportation and carpooling/ Design a company bus service.
Based on the data in Figure 2, it is clear that 54 percent of the employees (23,556) already use public transportation. As an incentive to encourage infrequent users of public transportation (including those who cannot telecommute at all), all workers who are public transport users and those who wish to use public transport in future shall be given company sponsored bus and train passes. For those employees who are unable to use public transport but are willing to carpool, company shall provide monthly fuel allowance of up to $200. This will mean that close to 70% of the employees shall not commute in individual vehicles which will ease traffic problems significantly.
In answer to the question in Figure 3, 41% respondents felt that they would take public transport only if there was significant reduction in commute times. Also 46% respondents still did not want to use public transport. Based on this and in the interests of both company expenditure and the ultimate aim of reducing traffic impact, the company should formulate a company bus service that will allow employees to be picked up from various points in the city and county. The bus service, which maybe company-owned or contracted, can be staggered both for the morning pick-up schedule and the evening drop schedule.
Solution 2: Encourage telecommuting
