With many of the stock exchanges now having a Virtual Trading Floor including the NYSE how will that hurt ridership on Metro-North? I also heard that before 911 the World Trade Center had a vacancy problem because many of its workers were now working from home.
Decentralisation may become a key issue here.
Instaed of one huge phallic tower headquarters many companys make go to smaller regional service centers located in suberban neighborhoods were district managers dole out work for workers to drive thru and pick up there work.
I heard that some large Enginnering firms are doing just that like Sargent & Lundy. Railfan & Railroad has a very small central office and most of its editors work from home. Also the same with Penton Publishing.
The cost of maintaining a office headquaters is in the 10s of millions of dollers
as well as the cost of Infrastructure in highways and parking garages. Perhaps
the goverment should pay people to stay home.
If there was ever a pointless topic, this is it.
Ya think? Doesn’t take a Detective_Cinderdick to figure that one out…
Did you know that gullible isn’t in the dictionary?
If I look it up to see if you’re right,does that make me gullible[?]?
Come on guys. It seems that anything that hurts your little veiw of the world such as trains being the Alpha and the Omega.
This is a real issue in urban planning and it should be given time on this forum
with regards to transport.
I forgot about all of the urban planners on this forum. What are we going to discuss? Let us see. Most people prefer to work from home. More people are working from home. Some people that would have commuted (and not just light rail) are not commuting. I think that just about sums it up.
Now if they would only remove insanity from the dictionary, I mean, from somewhere else.
Actually it doesn’t affect me in the least, but…
I’m all for telecommuting, whether it hurts commuter rail, airlines, cars, whatever…takes folks off the the highways, reduces overall congestion. If I had a job which would allow that, it would be great. Less money I spend commuting, more time I spend with my family and doing things I enjoy, makes me more productive for the stuff I’d have to get done for work.
Did you totally miss the last part of the 90’s and early 00’s???[xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(][xx(]
Telecommuting?
Ye betcha! Ive got dsl right now and Fiber Optic within a year. Several computers, printers etc… Have an office right here at my house.
I dont need to fight traffic 50 miles to work at 90+ mph paying 2.50 in gas. And I can simply get up at 7, fix breakfast and log into work at 8 sharp. No stress no problem. None of that 5 AM getting up stumbling to the car and trying to do everything but driving all that way. No sir.
As a driver I usually am asleep during commute hours at major cities. I do all my work at night when possible.
Railroads dont have passenger service worth anything here in Arkansas. They have a bit of Amtrack with the Texas Eagle several times a week into Little Rock. But there is no railroad for us people.
There is certainly room to build passenger trains for commuter service that will ALLOW us to log on to the internet and go to “work” when we are away from the office.
We have airlines who now charge you 30.00 for a Transpacific Internet service via satellite all the way from take off the landing.
The world is getting so connected… Whole librarys are becoming empty filled with moldy books no one wants to read any more. That is because the internet is getting all the content. Especially for college students.
I designed a rail network for Little Rock to the outlying suburbs on a peice of paper one time. Tore it up and threw it away. We havent had passenger service worthy of the name for decades. Why should we even worry about hurting a form of transport?
Log on from home, Simplify your life and manage your hours. You might actually save money on parking, day care, eat better and be less stressed at work. AND have your railroad go by over your computer desk from time to time as it travels…
If it’s “successful” what might really eliminate commuting and traffic congestion is the plan being studied to house 600 software developers from Asia on a cruise ship anchored just beyond the three-mile limit off Los Angeles.
A down side of telecommuting: While it’s very true that you never leave your home; conversely, it is also true that you never leave your place of employment!
Be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it.
Telecommuting is an intensely complex topic from the urban/suburban planning aspect (never mind from the corporate management psychology aspect…). It is quite true that if it were adopted on a large scale it might reduce overall commuter traffic; in some cities (New York is an example) it might reduce it significantly. However… not all planners are real enthusiastic about it or, if they are, are trying to figure out how to accomodate the whole concept without encouraging (or permitting) devastating suburban sprawl.
There is an old saying… ‘no good deed goes unpunished’ – and a related one: there are two edges to every sword.
Medical Journals are being published online as well some are free to any one who wants it. The Downside of Tellecommuting would be that we have less interaction with each other and we become more lonley human beings.
State University of New York has a 2 year online program called Empire State Collage. One could imgine online frat partys[8D], In the midwest and the rust belt many citys cores are dead zones. Columbus OH Lost its last department store last year. Passenger Rail works best when you have to carry large numbers of people to central downtown cores to do buisness. If People can teleconfrence and not have to work downtown anymore what future is there for Metroliner and high speed trains to get people downtown and by pass the Airports.