WASHINGTON — When the Metrorail system was shut down last month, the commuting nightmare many feared didn’t materialize. Now, transportation planners have the data to explain why — telecommuters.
It was expected to be the commute from hell, but it was no worse than a normal Wednesday drive into work, said Robert Griffiths, director of planning for the region’s Transportation Planning Board.
“For Metrorail riders, about 40 percent of those have teleworking as an option. So when we had the shutdown, they took advantage of that,” Griffiths said after a transportation trends presentation to the board.
Transportation planners ran a model to simulate what commuters would experience in an event like the shutdown, Griffiths said. They finally got a chance to confirm suspicions about the role telecommuters play in the region’s transportation when Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefield decided to abruptly shutdown the rail system March 16 out of safety concerns.
“If we look at the growth in population and jobs in the last eight years, they’ve increased. But at the same time, our daily vehicle and transit ridership has remained flat. So that was a question,” Griffiths said.
But during those same eight years, those with the option to telework went from 19 percent to 27 percent.
Employers are increasingly offering the option for workers, both in the federal government and in the private sector. On any given day, five to 10 percent of commuters use the roads, rails or bus system, according to data presented to the TPB Wednesday.
But on a day when those with the option can plan for a difficult commute, such as a visit from the Pope or inclement weather, they can ease the strain by staying home.
“We could have 50 percent of our workers, particularly the downtown area, teleworking instead of traveling when we have some sort of special event in Washington,” Griffiths said.
He says that likely made for a much easier trip in and out of work the day the Metro stopped.
“The fact that they’re teleworking on those days provides more capacity for the rest of us,” he said.
