In the half-century since World War II, the suburbanization of America has made us automobile addicts. Computers can't break that habit. But they can ease the dependence, along with the pain automobiles inflict on society.
From polluted air, to time wasted in traffic jams, to the tax money needed to build and maintain vast highway systems, the mobility cars offer to Americans comes at an increasingly high price.
Several trends are now combining to present some handy, high-tech solutions. One of these solutions -- telecommuting -- will be the subject of a Thursday session at the Maryland Information Technology Expo and Conference at the Baltimore Convention Center this week.
That session will help to demonstrate how modern telecommunications can change the way we work. Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend will join the discussion by way of an interactive video-conference link from Annapolis, while Raymond Ho of Maryland Public Television will participate through a hook-up from MPT's Owings Mills teleplex.
Teleconferencing, which has vast potential for cutting travel time for business meetings, may have more long-range implications for air travel. But telecommuting can have a significant day-to-day impact on driving habits -- an important factor for regions like Baltimore. The Federal Clean Air Act of 1990 requires companies with at least 100 employees to reduce driving by their workers by at least 25 percent by 1996.
Telecommuting takes advantage of telephones, faxes, modems and other forms of electronic communications to free workers to do their work in other locations. It can be as simple as hooking up a home computer with the office a day or two a week, or as organized as the telecommuting centers that provide employees with office amenities and computer hook-ups at sites many miles from their agency's offices.
Either way, employees save the time, expense and frustration of a longer commute. When questioned about the effect of telecommuting on their productivity, they invariably say it increases their output as well as the quality of their work. So far, managers are less willing to concede large improvements in productivity, but at least they do agree that the quantity and quality of work done by telecommuters not suffer.
Environment, economics, quality of life -- telecommuting has potential to improve the bottom line in all these areas.
In regard to the environment, even a slight decrease in the number of commutes driven each day can make a big difference. For instance, in 1984, when Olympic officials asked Los Angeles residents to cut back on driving during the games to protect athletes from smog, most of the spots that had been legendary for congestion were clear, despite the fact that the reduction in trips may have been no more than about 7 percent of commuter traffic.
Telecommuting also has economic advantages. A couple of years ago, Steve Whitney, a computer communications consultant in Takoma Park, noticed that a competitor was consistently outproducing him on a particular project, despite the fact that Mr. Whitney was more experienced and knowledgeable. He realized that his fellow contractor had an edge simply because he was working at home, making better use of his time by reducing his trips to the office. Telecommuting gave him a competitive advantage.
Then there is the potential to improve the quality of life -- not a minor factor in a world where commuting schedules disrupt everything from family life to participation in the volunteer activities that make communities good, safe places to live. In Montgomery County, a program to encourage telecommuting among county employees made it possible for an employee to work at home and save three hours on the roads each day, thus giving him more time to spend with an ailing father. Not surprisingly, his job performance also improved.
Like growing numbers of workers in urban areas, that Montgomery County employee had been a peripheral commuter, someone who travels around a beltway, rather than from a suburb to the city. Those commuters have little choice but to drive, since mass transportation doesn't service peripheral travel patterns. For many of them, telecommuting can be a partial solution.
Full-time telecommuting is not for everyone. Millions of workers depend on the water-cooler camaraderie of office life. But it doesn't have to be full-time. Federal workers in in Hagerstown and in St. Mary's County have found that using federal work centers in those areas even one or two days a week provides significant relief from the daily commute.
Like many other aspects of the information highway, telecommuting holds great potential. Used wisely, it can do more than make workers more productive. It can also give them time to tend to the rest of their lives as well.
Sara Engram is editorial-page director of The Evening Sun.