Telecommuting

From Richmond Times-Dispatch
http://tinyurl.com/5d8wt

Telecommuting gets ranked as security issue
In emergencies, it's better to keep people off roads, officials say

BY HEATHER GREENFIELD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Mar 30, 2005


WASHINGTON -- Telecommuting has long been touted as a way to save the environment and reduce traffic. But area politicians now say it's a way to preserve business operations -- and even save lives -- in an emergency.


dickboyd@aol.com

quote:

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Originally posted by rpulley
[br]I don't think I could telecomute. With my type of job it would be easy, but I would have to be at home all day with the wife and kids. I know that 10 times a day I would hear "since your home, can you do ....." and "since your home, can you watch the kids while I....". No thanks!

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An alternative was neighborhood communications centers. One day a week at the strip mall or shopping center rather than travelling downtown. Several companies offer temporary office space for meetings and the like.

dickboyd@aol.com

Although it may appear unrealistic I've given the following some thought in terms of relieving traffic and I wonder what others think of the idea. Here is a letter I've written many newspapers. Unfortunately, most newspapers are controlled by a handful of corporations and serve the powers that be and their shareholders. Most have ridiculous requirements such as 200 characters in a letter to the editor and many don't have a guest column and if they do it is reserved for hired writers. Tell me what you think.

Michael


Many people who work and/or live in Virginia have heard of
the widening of Route 81 in Virginia which is a major thoroughfare for truck traffic. Major Virginia cities Route 81 traverses through are Bristol, Roanoke, Harrisonburg and Winchester. The current widening project by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and our representatives will not solve the transportation problems it supposedly seeks to solve and will likely actually worsen them by increasing the truck volume on Route 81 and further exacerbating the need for additional truck parking spaces/rest areas. As always its
an issue of development feeding on development feeding on development feeding on development.


Presently, VDOT maintains there is no current widening project.
Technically, that is correct. However, it has discouraged any individual or group from publicly disseminating information about the project. On the website http://www.81-1.org it states, "At this point, any information that the media, groups or individuals may say they have acquired as part of the I-81 Corridor Improvement Study is unofficial and not valid. Opinions should not be formed on incomplete, preliminary information. Release and/or use of such information is unauthorized by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration and is not reliable for reporting or decision-making purposes. However, there is still public opposition to the "possible" widening of Route I-81 and there are many interrelated concerns.


According to VDOT researchers in a couple of years, Route I-81 will have an increasing depletion of commercial truck vehicle parking spaces. I discovered the deficiency is about 309 spaces but if no new parking spaces are provided, the number will increase to about 1,193 in 2010 and to 1,463 in 2020. Furthermore, I learned approximately 90% of the parking spaces are provided at private truck stops and truck drivers must use the private truck stops for long stops because of the 2-hour parking limit at the rest areas.

Bizarrely the researchers don't recommend at all shifting truck born
freight to rail. This was the purpose of the SJ 55 Study sponsored by
Senator John S. Edwards. The study requests the Secretary of Transportation to expand the scope of her study on the desirability and feasibility of establishing additional intermodal transfer facilities, pursuant to House Joint Resolution 704 (1999), to include the potential for shifting Virginia's highway traffic to railroads. This is already done in some places including in Virginia with Southern Norfolk but on a limited basis. Apparently the ball never bounced and current Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer has left it still. There has been official lip service to concomitant intermodal transfer of truck freight to rail but
this appears more than anything to be an effort to falsely placate those who have concerns about a possible widening of Route I-81.

Virginia Senator John Edwards has summed up some of the difficulties of transferring of truck freight to rail. He has
stated, "Furthermore, a rail component could be achieved years sooner and would be less costly than widening the highway and would be more environmentally sound. For these reasons, the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Transportation directed the competing plans for widening I-81 to include a rail component as part of any proposal."

As Senator Edwards mentions there are over a dozen rail projects being promoted but none of these projects can achieve much success unless substantial capital is invested in upgrading and improving the rail lines and the capital cost of upgrading existing lines of new lines is prohibitive for the railroads on their own. I agree with Senator Edwards it would be more environmentally sound but I think he has missed the bigger picture.

One of the crucial things I learned from VDOT project coordinator for I-81 Fred Atwizer was the possibility of widening Route I-81 was that in terms of shifting truck freight to rail Virginia can't handle it all alone. Route I-81 traverses through several states and even if Virginia did improve and create new rail lines for truck freight that would leave other states which Route I-81 travels
through largely unsupported by truck freight.

At a time when the rails have federally nationally been hit hard there is a desperate need for substantial federal capital for a national infrastructure for improved and creating new rail lines and one of the benefits to this would be the ability to nationally, not just in Virginia, create more intermodal stations where increasing truck freight can be transferred to rail. Furthermore, Mr. Atwizer has informed me to the best of his knowledge there is nothing which earmarks Route I-81 in the pending federal transportation bill, let alone creating a national infrastructure bill for rail which can handle truck freight.

It's possible other states could collaborate with other states in improving and creating new rail for intermodal truck freight to rail but states are very independent and have limited budgets. No, this is just not a state problem and issue but a federal one as
well.

The steps to the possible widening and reconstruction of Route 81 has already occurred as SJ 251 Study sponsored by Virginia Senator Emmet W. Hanger proposed Interstate Route 81 reconstruction and widening. The study establishes a 15-member advisory commission to serve as an institutional link between the Department of Transportation and affected communities, businesses,
and citizens during any reconstruction and widening of Interstate Route 81. The panel is to report to the Governor and the 2001 Session of the General Assembly. This was approximately four years ago and the major plan still seems to still be the reconstruction and widening of Route I-81 in terms of looking at the 323 mile road which goes through Virginia.

I learned a study conducted by the Trucking Research Institute in 1996 concluded that I-81 was one of the top 10 interstate highways with serious truck parking shortfalls. The current average annual daily traffic on this route is 150,000, and up to 40% of the vehicles in the traffic stream are trucks. Crash data show that approximately 35% of fatal crashes on I-81 involve a truck. So based on this data it is understandable why the Commonwealth of Virginia would want to do something to try to relieve this traffic volume and make it smoother running into interchanges. The question is whether the possible widening of Route 81 into several more
lanes is the appropriate solution.

Researchers for VDOT propose a new method and recommend building more
numerous public truck stops. However, if Route 81 is already overloaded with truck volume traffic widening it will only increase more truck traffic and I don't see how building more public truck stops will compensate for the current deadly and unproductive situation. Again, development feeds upon itself. And as there is more commercial/retail development along Route I-81 this will increase diametrically the level of truck freight on the new
lanes.

Why hasn't the Virginia Secretary of Transportation Pierce Homer and Virginia executive branch expanded their scope of the study on the desirability and feasibility of establishing additional intermodal transfer facilities, pursuant to House Joint Resolution 704
(1999), to include the potential for shifting Virginia's highway trafficto railroads? Have they approached different effected states with any proposals or put pressure on the federal government?
Must states continue to be lackey's and suffer for the omissions of our federal government?

There is a lot of behind the scenes politics going on here and Virginians deserve forthright answers and not a whitewash. The website www.I-81.org does provide factual and valuable information but it is devoid of the political complexities of this possible project. In the long run which politicians often have a terminal aversion to, switching more to intermodal transfer of truck freight to rail would more than pay for itself and prevent less volume traffic and deaths on Route 81, preserve land as well as a more pleasant experience for truck drivers and non-commercial drivers as well.

Another issue is if there is a conflict between the Teamsters and the American Trucking Association and the idea of creating more intermodal truck freight transfer to rail. I know the trucking industry makes the majority of its bread and butter off the highway and I know the American Trucking Association is opposed to the idea of intermodal transfer of truck freight to rail. I would assume the Teamsters are as well. So we have at least two very big special interests who are opposed to the transfer of truck freight to rail.

However, with proven federal and state dedicated funding streams for improving and creating new rail lines several intermodal truck freight to rail transfer, the widening of Route I-81 could
be expanded beyond Virginia and the net effect would be less truck volume traffic on Route I-81, less aggressive dangerous driving, and less truck involved fatalities. It would also put less stress on
citizens, businesses, the environment, etc. effected by such a current proposed widening. It would also to a large extent ultimately minimize the plans of VDOT to possibly build many more public rest stop stations and parking spaces. Clearly, more are needed now but if the widening and reconstruction of Route I-81 takes place without state and substantial federal funding for improved and new rail lines and several intermodal truck freight to rail transfer than this will likely exacerbate the problem of continued shortage of public truck stop parking spaces and rest areas.

It's time for our state and federally elected and appointed officials to wake up. But they will only slightly stir from their silence if enough citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia and in other states contact them and voice their complaints and various organizations make it part of their agenda.

Route I-81 is not a "Virginia problem" but a national problem with other clogged arteries of truck freight on highways. If you care about your children and their children and don't want to see much of the natural American landscape disappear amidst a frenzy of development, rubbernecking in traffic, more pollutants in the atmosphere and increased psychological agitation of the American people, then contact your state and federal representatives and urge them that substantial national funding is necessary for improved and new rail lines to handle transfer of truck freight to rail.