Stories tagged with "telecommuting"

A Resilient Suburbia? 2: Cost of Commuting

Posted by jeffvail on November 11, 2008 - 8:20am
Topic: Economics/Finance
Tags: alternatives, base cost, carpooling, commuting, housing, original, peak oil, public transportation, rideshare, suburbia, telecommuting, variable cost [list all tags]




In the second post in this series on suburbia and peak oil, I’ll consider one of the threats that peak oil poses to suburbia: the increasing cost of commuting to and from work for suburban residents. My conclusions may surprise readers: suburbanites aren't particularly vulnerable to the rising cost of gasoline. Instead, like all of us, they are vulnerable to general economic shocks that may be caused by peak oil, but the elasticity of their commuting budgets may better position them to deal with these shocks than urban residents.

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Telework Pros and Cons: 28 Reasons To "Telework"--With Data To Back Them Up

Posted by Prof. Goose on July 22, 2008 - 9:30am
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: automobile, carbon footprint, climate change, commuting, conservation, four hour workweek, gas prices, global warming, original, telecommuting, telework, traffic congestion, undress4success, work at home, work from home, work-life [list all tags]

This is a guest post by Kate Lister. Kate, along with partner Tom Harnish, runs a web site called Undress4Success.com, which offers advice on work at home jobs, freelance opportunities, and home-based businesses. Kate and Tom are telecommuting researchers and authors; their academic study of the topic is balanced with practical lessons they've learned from over twenty years of home-based work and business ownership. They are currently working on a book, Undress4Success—The Naked Truth About Working From Home for John Wiley & Sons (March 2009). This will be their third book for Wiley.

The terms telework and telecommuting were coined by Jack Nilles (http://www.jala.com), a former NASA engineer, more than three decades ago. "One of my colleagues at NASA was carrying on about if we can put a man on the moon, we ought to be able to do something about traffic," recalls Jack. So that's what he set out to do. Today, about five million Americans earn a full-time paycheck working at home. Our research shows than another fifty million could. While the concept of telework has been simmering for years, soaring gas prices are fanning the flame such that we may have finally reached a tipping point.
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