500 mile limit on telework commutes proposed

[Stan Suchan]

What’s proposed?

Restrict individuals from logging telework trips on their calendar for distances of greater than 500 miles.

Who is proposing this change?

Participants in yesterday’s network administrator meeting.

What problem is this intended to solve?

On rare occasions individuals log trips on their calendar indicating that they commuted via telework over very long distances, e.g. Boston-Eugene. These extremely long distance trips affect network achievements like miles saved, gallons of fuel saved and greenhouse gas emmissions reduced. Some network administrators expressed concern that these savings are misprepresentations because the commuter is working remotely rather than teleworking in lieu of driving to work. Continuing the example, these commuters would not drive between Boston and Eugene as a daily commute if they couldn’t work remotely.  

Why is action recommended?

While this problem is rare, when it occurs it can notably skew network data. This can undermine the credibility of our data.

Why is this approach recommended?

This approach is in alignment with the approach we take with other modes. For example, there are limits on people’s ability to log extremely long commute trips via walking, bicycling, bus, carpooling, vanpooling, etc. This approach has worked well for other modes based upon feedback from network administrators and our system support team at King County Metro. It is easy to implement and, if necessary, revise in the future.

What’s next?

We will engage each other in conversation and discuss this proposal during the next few weeks. We hope to make a decision on this proposal at the December 12 administrators meeting.

Do you have additional questions? Comments? Do you support or oppose this idea?

[Jef Lucero]

One issue I see is that we currently have no way to capture business-trip data in the calendar. Anecdotally, when I've gone on business trips, I log them as telework days, because I've no other way to accurately portray what I'm doing. Since I'm working on those days – and remotely at that – I feel that's the closest I can get.

Right now, the only other option in the calendar is, well, exactly that: the "Other" option. I think that until we better define and capture business trips in the calendar, we're likely to see people log them as telework days.

[Stan Suchan]

You can report business travel on the calendar for all modes except telework, compressed work week, vanpool and did not work. Go to the calendar, click on a mode icon and a box pops open. A drop down menu indicates commute as the default trip purpose. You can change the trip purpose to Work Related - Non Commute (e.g. business trips) or Personal.

[Jef Lucero]

I should've added the word "intuitive" to the first sentence: "...we currently have no intuitive way to capture..." that data. I'm not sure our users instinctively know to reflect business-related travel that way. I also don't think most users are necessarily aware that, by logging those trips another way (i.e., as telework trips), they are skewing the data.

This is a great subject for both our conference call and a blog piece for the network content section!

[Tracy Ellis]

Can you tell me what has happened with this discussion?  Are we any closer to a resolution?