Traffic and the 24-hour workday

Shifting gears: Gearing shifts to cut down peak-hour commutes

Did you know that the continued boom in Silicon Valley is predicted to add more than 100,000 jobs over the next three years? How do we meet the increased traffic demand? Here is my idea, inspired by a Metropolitan Transportation Commission study.

In 2014, the MTC, our regional transportation agency, published a study called “Make Every Day Columbus Day in the Bay Area.” The study found traffic demand is 3 to 5 percent lower on that October holiday, resulting in a 50 to 70 percent drop in deMy lays. Drivers experience the same “Columbus Day effect” during the spring and summer school breaks. So how do we make every day a holiday on our highways?

The secret lies in re-creating our workweek. Simply put, we need a minimum of 5 percent of our workforce to work nights and weekends. With such scheduling, traffic would be minimized during peak hours. What company could not accommodate 5 percent? Potentially, some companies would reschedule more then 5 percent of their workforce. The more, the better!

solution would require that a minimum of 5 percent of the Silicon Valley workforce work weekend, evening or night assignments, at all major companies. We need to change the standard workweek from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

An alternate workweek might be Friday through Tuesday.

Alternate work hours could be noon to 9 p.m. Indeed, the alternatives are endless.

This is not flex time or four-10hour-day weeks. This new schedule must be structured and its effects measurable. Businesses would be modeling their work patterns after our police, fire and many other respected institutions that consider the 24/7 work schedule standard practice. Employees are looking for alternative work hours, rather then suffer through daily two- to threehour nonproductive commutes.

In Silicon Valley’s current work culture, many employees pay their dues for a few years, then search for jobs elsewhere, seeking more affordable homes and a better quality of life. Businesses are having difficulty hiring first-choice recruits. Retention is an issue.

Just picture all those empty office buildings when driving at night: A 24-hour workday would be a better use of facilities, parking and resources. Work desks could be managed like hotel spaces, because for most workers, everything is in their laptop computer. The need to invest in additional buildings could be re-evaluated, based on optimum use of existing structures.

Land resources limit our ability to add more traffic lanes. Redistributing the workforce is the only solution left.

In addition, everyone is aware of our region’s severe housing shortage. Yet efforts to address this shortage are met with resistance — in large part due to our inability to solve the traffic crisis.

Every measure on the ballot, every traffic survey and every new idea under discussion requires that taxpayers carry the financial burden. The best part of my idea is that taxpayers would not have to open their wallets.

There is no silver bullet to solving our traffic crisis. Driverless cars, additional bridges and Elon Musk’s Hyperloop System are 10 or more years away. We need a solution that will carry us through this decade. Nontraditional solutions, in concert with many other conventional measures, are the key to success.

The continued growth and economic prosperity of California effectively hinges on our ability to solve this transportation dilemma.

I welcome your comments on how to perfect this idea!

Getty Images

Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle 2017 Traffic across the Bay Bridge and throughout the Bay Area is congested because workers must travel far from their homes to work. Changing work schedules to off hours or weekends would go a long way toward reducing traffic.