Why commuters stay stuck in drive

"People who won't take the bus might have a similar objection to being controlled by computers in a caravan of cars," says Richard Hart, a science author and former co-host of the Discovery Channel's "The Next Step," who has been tracking technology for decades.

That issue of personal control, of course, has extended into the workplace. And that could help.

"We're shifting in a dramatic way to a knowledge-based workforce where it is increasingly less important where you work," says Ed Potter, president of the Employment Policy Foundation in Washington. There are now 21 million telecommuters, by some estimates.

According to Mr. Potter, the real future of telecommuting is not just an explosion in the number of people who work from home (more than one-third of the workforce by 2030, he says), but also the elimination of corporate centers.

Potter and other experts recommend building pods within walking distance of residential areas. Workers could stop for e-mail or teleconferences.

"It's going to take an evolution of how work is done, how workers are socialized," Potter concedes.

There are, of course, more traditional ways to get people to leave their cars at home. After a steady decline since the 1960s, mass-transit ridership has been increasing for the past three years, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Experts maintain railroad and subway systems have yet to reach their full potential. But until service improves - as commuters like Jones-Shin attest - most cities won't see a real exodus from highways.

Nor is the urban commute the sole choke point. The most common commute today, in fact, is between suburbs.

That's problematic, because most city transit systems have been designed to carry people from the suburbs to the urban core, says Roger Stough, a professor at George Mason University's Center for Transportation Policy and Logistics, in Fairfax, Va.

That's also why many of the experts calling for disincentives on cars are also the ones generating buzz around "smart growth." The concept can take the form of "new urbanism," planned communities (where ad-hoc growth is restricted in favor of a master blueprint), or modest measures like Washington's initiatives to concentrate development along transit lines.

It's a long-term plan to create cities and towns where people don't need a car to rent a video, let alone get to work.

Vukan Vuchic, a transportation professer at the University of Pennsylvania, likes to contrast American cities with pedestrian-friendly ones in Europe - laid out before cars, but zoned to limit automobiles today.

He, like others, favors baby steps. It wouldn't take much, Dr. Vuchic argues, to enhance mobility. "We could greatly increase the number of kids walking to school all over the country," he says, "with minute efforts at sidewalk-building."

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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