LONDON UPDATE (courtesy of BizNow)
The British prime minister Boris Johnston announced on September 22 that his government was advising office workers to “go back to working from home if they can.” This brought immediate responses from large employers HSBC, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, PwC and the Lloyds of London insurance market, which announced that their return to work plans had been put on hold.
The London Property Alliance, the Westminster Property Association, Heart of London Business Alliance used the new measures to call for government support to help the service sector survive. “We are not saying we oppose the measures, and we understand the need to keep people safe,” the LPA said. “But if the government thinks that from an economic perspective this will have a more benign impact on jobs and livelihoods than a full lockdown, then that is not the case.”
The biggest immediate impact is on those businesses that rely on office workers for their revenue: sandwich shops and cafés, pubs, bars and restaurants. For every 100 central London office jobs, 18 are supported in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, an ARUP study found.
NEW YORK (courtesy of Wall Street Journal)
More than six months into the coronavirus pandemic, only about a quarter of office workers have returned to their places of work, a new study has found. The number of office workers physically at the office on any given workday is particularly anemic in Manhattan, at about 10%, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing data compiled by CBRE. Workers are still skittish about using mass transit, and in some cases need to be home with children who are not physically in school. Suburban New York has about a third of its workers at the office, while metro Dallas has about 40% and metro Los Angeles about 32%.
According to CBRE's latest Workplace Sentiment Survey, most workers are comfortable with remote work, and believe that it is just as productive as coming into an office. Most of those surveyed (85%) expect to work remotely in the future at least some of the time. On the other hand, a majority of workers (60%) also expect the office to continue to be an important place for community and engagement with colleagues, so some form of hybrid arrangement between working in the office and elsewhere might evolve into the new normal eventually.
TRANSIT UPDATES (courtesy of Queen’s professor, Dr. Ajay Agarwal and Claire Lee)
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MTA) introduced a real-time bus ridership tracker in July 2020 to maintain physical distancing onboard. Available on the MYmta app and MTA official website, the tracker allows riders to track in real-time the number of passengers on an arriving bus, giving them the option avoid getting on a bus where maintaining safe physical distance would not be possible. The real-time data collection is done by Automated Passenger Counter sensors mounted above doorways, and is integrated with on-board GIS to link passenger counts to vehicle location. The counters are currently installed on 40% of the bus fleet with plans to expand.
The Chicago Transit Authority has introduced real-time crowd monitoring at select high-ridership rail stations.
Face coverings: During the summer the TTC committed to distributing 1 million non-medical grade masks to riders. TTC also sells branded reusable masks with all proceeds going to the United Way.
San Francisco initiated two programs for eligible seniors and people with disabilities to compensate for service cuts: the Essential Trip Card offers a subsidy for essential trips such as grocery shopping and medical appointments made in taxis. Eligible participants are mailed a debit card to pay for 2-3 taxi trips per month at 20% of the regular cost. The Shop-a-Round program is a low-cost shared-ride shuttle that offers trips to grocery stores. Eligible riders may pre-book a trip by phoning to reserve a pick-up/drop-off time and location. The shuttle costs $2.50 per one-way trip, and registered users may take unlimited rides.
Berlin is a leader in the application of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), an innovative concept that allows the user to view travel needs across as many as 12 different modes (transit, car-share, rise-share, scooters etc). The app used in Berlin is the Jelbi App. Its use has expanded during COVID as people try to find the most efficient, safest way to complete complex journeys.