Friday, July 14, 2006

Too Close to Home?

If your commute is tightening its grip on your wallet and your life, perhaps it's time to consider the cost of driving to work every day instead of telecommuting.

If you were in your home office instead of on the Outer Loop, you and everyone else could save $3.9 billion a year in gasoline costs alone. That figure -- based on the average commute and gas at $2.89 a gallon -- comes from a University of Maryland Smith School of Business technology survey.

One-fourth of workers said they could do their jobs from home, yet only 11 percent are doing so, according to the survey of 1,015 people. In fact, four in 10 workers who are allowed to telecommute would choose to do so one day a week or less -- and one in seven would head to work every day.

Perhaps they don't miss the 69 hours a year the average commuter loses to traffic tie-ups in this area. Or perhaps they love their colleagues' jokes, or they don't like to listen to their teenagers' video games all afternoon. Or maybe they're among the 30 percent of Americans who do not have high-speed Internet at home, so they can't access company documents or their favorite game sites fast enough.

-- Vickie Elmer