PP16: Proximate commuting

This should become part and parcel of a large companies yearly self-assessment. Proximate commuting involves simply sitting down and studying how far workers have to travel to get to work – and asks if they could not instead work at an office or store closer to home. For example a study in New York showed that only 4% of the cities fire-fighters actually worked at their nearest fire station. A simple reshuffle could cut down on commuter hours for the benefit of all. It really is not that difficult to do.

Of course there should be no law saying that an employee must work at the nearest available location because social and professional commitments may motivate a person to want to work at a particular place. Yet where possible the option should be there for an employee to take. Of course it might be the case that 96% of New York cities fire fighters all live in the same small suburb and they can’t obviously all work at the same suburban fire station.

But the idea is hardly unworkable and there are certainly savings to be made.