Will we ever go back to 'normal'?
As we have successfully navigated the lockdown measures, talk has slowly begun about when, and how, things will return to the way they were.
But with everyone at home and the resulting lack of congestion, some have discussed the merits of enacting measures aimed at making this reduced traffic a permanent change.
We're seeing many industries continue to thrive while their employees are working from home. Some companies, such as OPTUS, will encourage their staff to work from home permanently after the lockdown measures end.
Even if employees can only work from home one day a week, traffic congestion will be noticeably less. Think of it like this, if all staff in any/all organisations had 20% of staff (i.e. 1 in 5 days) on a rotating work at home schedule then traffic on the roads could be 20% less.
From a traffic engineering point of view, this will mean that in the future we'll likely see a reduction in the traffic generation of new projects as well as reduced existing traffic on the local and arterial road network.
By extension, office uses and other staff intensive developments will have a reduced car parking requirement with 20% of staff working from home everyday.
Right now, as we see private companies lead the charge, it is not yet known how aggressively governments will pursue this 'new norm’.
However, with traffic congestion and cost of large scale road infrastructure improvements a constant political and economic theme, you can expect this already-proven solution of staff working from home to be considered at length.
No matter what happens, Quantum Traffic will always keep up with the latest trends and requirements.
So if you're getting started on a new development and want your project reviewed in terms of traffic, parking or overall design with up-to-date information, contact us today.