Staggered work hours won’t solve city’s traffic problems

By Huang Lanlan Source:Global Times Published: 2014-12-22 17:58:10

Traffic congestion has long been a problem in Shanghai. Commuters complain about it all the time. To reduce traffic during rush hours, the Shanghai government is considering introducing a staggered work hours system, the Oriental Morning Post reported earlier this month.

The goal of staggering work hours is to force commuters to go to work at different times, thereby spreading traffic across a greater portion of weekday mornings and evenings.

In 2010, Shanghai residents spent 47 minutes on average commuting to and from their workplaces, ranking third among 50 surveyed cities in China, according to the 2010 Report on China New Urbanization issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dealing with such long commutes, it is no wonder that nearly 500 of the 600 employees surveyed by the Jiefang Daily last week supported staggered work hours. "I believe that the metro won't be as crowded if the system is introduced," said a woman surnamed Lin, who takes the metro to work every day.

Although staggering work hours seems reasonable, I don't hold out much hope that the system can relieve the city's traffic congestion. In early 2011, Beijing experimented with staggered work hours to reduce traffic. It discovered that the system didn't work at all. The Global Times reported that the city's rush hours just got longer that year - by one hour in both the mornings and the evenings. Beijing's urban planners believe that the city's poor road planning was the major cause of the heavy traffic - not residents' work hours.

It's hard to know whether Shanghai will have the same problem if the government decides to stagger work hours. Nevertheless, the traffic congestion may not improve as much as people expect. First of all, the government doesn't have the authority to force every employer in the city to change its business hours.

The system may work for government departments and public institutions, the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission told local media Wednesday. However, government and public institution employees make up only a fraction of the city's population.

Still, staggering work hours would also disrupt the lives of many workers in the city. For example, people who want to apply for passports, medical insurance or property deeds will find that they have less common working hours with related government employees, and thus have to wait for longer periods to take care of their business.

Another potential inconvenience is that the system may disrupt people's schedules. A local resident surnamed Zhang, for instance, told the Jiefang Daily that he drives his child to school every day at 7:30 am before driving to work. Usually he starts to work at 9 am. Zhang said that the system might waste his time if he had to start his work at 10 am or later for it. "I still need to leave home at 7:30 am," he said. 

Shanghai is not the only city troubled by the heavy traffic. Along with staggering work hours, local transportation authorities have told media that they will pay more attention to developing the city's public transportation system over the next few years. The government might take a page from Chongqing, which added more bus lines to its downtown, or learn from Beijing's traffic restriction scheme.

Companies can also help ease traffic in the city. With the rapid development of modern communication technology, many people are now able to do their jobs without going to the office. Employers can therefore encourage more of their staff to work from home.

According to the UK's Office for National Statistics, more than 1.5 million people in London chose to work at home during the 2012 London Olympic Games - a choice that greatly reduced rush hour traffic during the event.

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