WE have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people working from home as directed by governments and employers around the world to help stop th...
have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people working from home as directed by governments and employers around the world to help stop the spread of Covid-19.
But what impact will this have on our cities? After all, many aspects of our cities were designed with commuting, not working from home, in mind.From a telecommunications perspective, the huge increase in people working from home challenges the ways in which our existing networks were designed. Another factor not modelled by the government research was the potential impact of an increase in uploads. This is a typical requirement for people working from home, as they now send large files via their suburban home networks, rather than their office networks in the city.
Thursday afternoons from 5-5.15pm are normally the worst time of the week for traffic congestion in Melbourne. Last week the city’s roads recorded the sort of free-flowing traffic usually seen at 9.30am on a Sunday. Just 1.8% of Melbourne’s major roads were congested, a fraction of the usual 19.8% at that time.
Passengers are also staying away from public transport in droves. For example, South Australian government statistics for Adelaide show passenger numbers have slumped by 69% for buses, by 74% for trains and by 77% for trams, compared with this time last year.With these trends in mind, future investment in roads, public transport, energy and telecommunications will need to consider the likelihood of more people working from home.
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