Working While Travelling

Working while travelling, or working commuters -- Still ThinkingOutLoud about this DonaldNoyes.20071010.20090902.20110322

With Television going Digital and Wide bands of spectrum thereby being opened up to expanded wireless connectivity, one can imagine the explosion of activity of persons and machines connected to a ContinuousWirelessNetwork?.

While one may laugh at the commercial running on television which shows a man seated at a desk, the wind whipping through his hair on top of a small automobile containing a half-dozen people, all of which are connected one way or another through wireless connections, be they phone, computers or faxes, in a crazy, seemingly unorganized mess, the scene may be one which has a serious, practical and useful overtone: When properly accessorized, people can be WorkingWhileTravelling. (see how it became real below)

Imagine instead a large van or small bus-type vehicle with seats and suitable work spaces with sound-insulated ceilings, walls, and floors and containing a hub which allows for a dozen or more wired connections and tied to a WideBand?, encrypted, ContinuousWirelessNetwork?. This could be a corporate or commercial vehicle which allows for work while commuting between a ParkAndRide? (Work while riding) and one or more centralized workplaces. The driver would be hired, not a worker whose only function would be to drive from point to point. The number of occupants (workers) could range from 4 to a dozen. The time of commute might be an hour or so, each way. Certain kinds of work one usually does at first when in the office, such as reading and responding to emails, reviewing schedules, or fine-tuning a presentation, completing a proposal, etc. could be finished in the formerly wasted commute time. In addition to this benefit, the reduction in fuel-consumption, and road space occupied by the commuters would be environmentally friendly, and politically correct. In the kinds of workplaces where interaction is important and WorkAtHome? is not possible, this is a good scenario.

In addition, the time one works at the job at the office could be reduced by the time of commute. Thus one might be found WorkingWhileTravelling for 2 to 3 hours, and working in the office from 5 to 6 hours. It would also have the effect of extending the number of hours for commuting by making the start time of travel to work later, and the travel to home earlier for those who are WorkingWhileTravelling. Imagine the same scenario for those commuters who would commute by properly equipped light-rail, conventional transit, train, bus or air:

This scenario is not only possible, but it is also both likely and necessary. It may take several years, but probably not a decade, for this VirtualModel?, and LocaleModel? to make a combination of work at home or NeighborhoodWorkCenters to change the way work is done, and where it it done.

Update 20080720 (repeated 20110322): With the recent high prices for fuel, the time-scale will most likely be more like one to three years for ChangeModels to make improvements in how much we work at home, as well as how we commute and use commute time. -- DonaldNoyes

Attitudes and resistance which began when gasoline prices reached $4.00 or more a gallon for regular Unleaded Gasoline, have resulted in what has come to be a persistent reduction in gasoline consumption, even though prices have been reduced a few pennies to a nickel per step. With the Financial Crisis and the massive federal intervention to rescue mismanaged institutions, prices continue the decline and demand continues to fall. Spot shortages which existed in the Tennessee/Georgia Area about this time brought out the worst in consumers and retailers, but proved to influence prices in the local market only. While some were paying $5.00 a gallon during the shortage, others half a continent away were paying just over $3.00 a gallon for gasoline. People have willingly moved to smaller and more efficient automobiles and are Parking or Selling their Third or Second cars, while driving with tanks half-full, leaving producers with storage tanks which are filling up. While this will affect supply/demand, other measures, like the one called for here, will lead to further efficiencies and lessening demand.

External Links

RealWorldApplication?:

In Johnson County Kansas a trial was conducted with commuters using free Wi-Fi on The Jo buses. This is one of the ChangeModels which will be continued as service expands in the future.

CategoryFuture

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