Transport – Apr 24

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Group touts telecommuting’s green benefits
Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle
An estimated 1.35 billion gallons of gasoline could be conserved annually if every U.S. worker with the ability to telecommute did so 1.6 days per week, according to a report released today by the American Electronics Association.

“Fewer commuters on the roads means reduced fuel consumption, traffic congestion and air pollution,” said Christopher Hansen, president of the association, the nation’s largest high-tech trade group.

And, he said, “It is a win for workers, who can reduce long commute times and strike a better life-work balance.”

The report suggests that 45 million Americans already telecommute at least one day a week.
(22 April 2008)

Not Guzzling Quite So Much Gas
Christopher Palmeri, Business Week
For 20 years now, workers in Palm Beach County, Fla., have been counting cars with sensors at strategic points along the county’s 4,000 miles of roads. And as sure as the tide flows in the nearby Atlantic, nearly every year traffic volume has climbed at least 2%.

But in 2007 there was a slight decline in the number of vehicles on the roads. And this year, traffic is down 7.5% through March. “We’re seeing a very significant change,” says county engineer George Webb. “We’re having a good time speculating why.”

It’s not just Palm Beach. Traffic levels are trending downward nationwide. Preliminary figures from the Federal Highway Administration show it falling 1.4% last year. Now, with nationwide gasoline prices having recently passed the inflation-adjusted record of $3.40 a gallon set back in 1981, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is predicting gas consumption will actually fall 0.3% this year. That would be the first annual decline since 1991. Others believe the falloff in consumption is actually steeper than the government’s numbers show.
(23 April 2008)