From the Star:
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Time is money
Jan. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM
TONY WONG
BUSINESS REPORTER
Joseph Heath thinks it's an extraordinary sight when he drives on Toronto's Don Valley Parkway at rush hour and sees what he describes as a preponderance of expensive automobiles all stuck in gridlock.
Many of those vehicles are headed to the Bay Street offices that populate Canada's financial heartland.
"It's kind of crazy to think that you have all these Mercedes and Lexuses going downtown, and you think to yourself `why are all these lawyers and stockbrokers sitting in traffic with the rest of us, since presumably their time is worth money?'" says Heath, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto.
"How is it with all of their wealth, they have not yet managed to organize their lives in such a way as to avoid sitting in traffic for an hour or more each day?"
Heath's question is as fundamental as it gets. Whether they're caught in traffic jams on our roads or watching passing subway trains that are so crowded they can't hold another passenger, commuters are losing time that adds up to lost productivity and competitiveness.
According to the preliminary findings of a Transport Canada report, traffic congestion alone saps at least $3.7 billion out of the nation's economy annually. The study, which adds up the cost of lost productivity due to increased travel times and use of gasoline, looks at nine major cities, including Toronto.
"Lateness can be a significant source of stress and reduced productivity," says Stéphane Côté, assistant professor at the U of T's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. "The later you get into work the less you get done, and it all adds up."
Multiply that by the thousandsof people affected by a major train or traffic delay and the effect on the economy can be huge.
"One missed business meeting can potentially be a huge monetary loss," Côté says. "And there are less direct effects. The uncertainty created in being late creates stress which can impact not just yourself, but your boss who may be depending on you, so there is a ripple effect in the workplace."
With an aging road system and an old transit system, Toronto is at a crucial crossroads. As the city grows larger with urban sprawl, lobbyists for roads are locked against advocates for transit, each trying to get a shrinking piece of the government largesse.
The result is an unhappy medium where neither road nor transit user comes out on top. Businesses end up being the big loser as they depend on workers to put in their time in the office, not the subway.
"Dealing with lateness is an inevitability for managers," says human resources consultant Daphne Lyons. "When you have chronic lateness because of a poor transportation system, it can really add to the bottom line."
On Wednesday, the TTC budgeted $5 million in improvements to service to give passengers a little more room.
According to internal staff reports, 62 routes are in serious danger of overcrowding.
Some subway stops and streetcars are so overcrowded that transit users frequently have to wait for the next car, making them late for work. The new Toronto Transit Commission initiative is aimed at tackling problems at the crucial rush hour, although the system still has a $13.1 million budget shortfall.
But some say that much more is needed to overhaul the TTC before it becomes a further drag on the economy.
Gord Perks calls his daily TTC streetcar ride his "morning mosh pit."
"The TTC as a business is fraught with dangers. What other business can increase their price and reduce their service and still expect to stay in business?" asks Perks, the founder of Rocket Riders, a transit advocacy group.
While his 15-minute ride remains relatively unchanged, the wait times to get a streetcar have gone from as little as five minutes to as much as 20 minutes."That's unacceptable, especially when you consider that Toronto is the economic engine of Canada," Perks says. "The delays end up costing everyone."
And there is another problem with lateness. The unpredictability of roads and transit means that it creates far more down time in the system than most people would think.
"You would be crazy to leave for the Toronto airport at rush hour because you're not sure you're going to make the plane on time. So you go earlier and you end up wasting time in the airport lounge," says Heath. "There is no way to figure out exactly how long trips are going to take."
Managers can deal with lateness by ensuring there is more flexibility in work policy, says Rotman's Côté.
"It's not seen necessarily as a negative to come in later, given the kinds of traffic we have on the roads, as long as there is the understanding that the employee will make up the time. You don't punish people for being late to create that additional stress as long as the work is done."
In many cases employees are still putting in the hours, but their leisure time suffers because of congestion and leaving work earlier or later to avoid bottlenecks.
"This all creates additional stress which may come back to hamper productivity," Côté says. If this becomes chronic, stress can also lead to illness and time off from work.
Some businesses have tried to fight the problem by relocating their offices to where people live. "If you're not a big financial institution and you don't need your headquarters downtown, then maybe it's cheaper to move to the suburbs where your workers already are," Lyons says.
Heath has a more radical, and unpopular solution to cure traffic congestion. He advocates placing tolls on highways such as the Don Valley Parkway.
"Roads are congested because they are free. If we gave away cheese for free, too many people would eat cheese," Heath says.
"You have to change the psychology of driving. Once you're aware of how much something costs, it really changes your habits. The problem with the TTC is that it's up against something that is perceived as free."
Despite pondering about traffic and other issues as a philosopher, he actually finds himself in a rather cheery scenario.
Heath doesn't have to worry about traffic because he walks to the University of Toronto campus from his downtown home.
But this is not necessarily the answer to relieving stress from being late at work. Not everyone can work in the same neighbourhood as their spouse, and living downtown can be extremely costly.
"It's not the solution for everybody, because you end up having to pay an astounding price for a house downtown instead of being late and having a lower-cost home in the suburbs," Heath says. "But I must say, it does work."
