Average weekly - 42%
Peak Day - Wednesday 54%
Slow Day - Monday 33%
Mangers and employees alike continue to struggle with finding an effective balance between managing “In-Office” and “Remote” work. The expected post Christmas increase in the return to the office has slowed in February. The overall figures are off by 1%.
The gap between companies with high rates of in-office work and low rates continues to increase. The difference is greatest between midsized enterprise and large employers. Some companies, mostly smaller and midsized ones are reporting 60% and greater while others remain below the average, despite renewed calls by large enterprise CEOs to return to the office.
This week’s links primarily deal with the significant cost public administrators are facing with the downtown economies and the maintaining service on transit networks across the globe.
Stay well, your SRRA team.
The next Index is scheduled for week of March 13th 2023.
Links to Articles of Interest
Andy Byford Sets Out a Compelling Case for Revamping Assumptions About Transit
Echoing arguments that will be all too familiar to regular attendees of SRRA Forums, former TTC CEO Andy Byford describes how over-dependence on fare revenues is potentially the Achilles heel for large transit agencies. Prior to COVID, the underground division of Transport for London – where he was the CEO – had been close to break even. The pandemic decimated the agency’s balance sheet as revenues plummeted following lock down. As a result, he had to spend the remaining years of his time at TfL negotiating for increased government subsidy and fighting pressure to cut costs by reducing service – a situation similar to the one currently being experienced by the TTC. One of several new alternative revenue sources explored by TfL has been the productive repurposing of what had previously been thought of as surplus property through partnerships with developers that resulted in significant on-going revenue – and produced affordable housing to boot. Byford also believes that some form of hybrid work will turn out to be a permanent state, and that transit agencies can no longer depend on commuting alone to deliver the kind of revenues they have become dependent on. Byford’s finely tuned article also illustrates the importance of helping the general public – in this case readers of the Globe – understand the realities faced by transit executives.
Remote Work Costing Manhattan $12B a Year
Supporting a downtown economy built on a five-day work week with only three active days is costing merchants and the MTA a massive financial headache a new study has found. That figure was calculated by multiplying the annual inflation-adjusted loss in spending per worker by the US Census Bureau’s estimated nearly 2.7 million commuters and residents who worked in Manhattan in 2019. Frustrated business owners and employers alike continue to battle with the drive to get workers to return to something like a normal schedule but three days a week is emerging as a new norm analysts believe.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-manhattan-work-from-home/?srnd=citylab
Bloomberg Tracks Changes in Commuting in Major World Cities
Traffic and transit ridership in the five cities studied are all very different from before COVID.
London’s transit ridership is down by at least 25% and the system has been plagued with intermittent strikes. Mexico City, Tokyo, New York and Mumbai are all suffering in a variety of ways but the bottom line is that the bottom line is changing for all these cities as traffic patterns, transit ridership and decisions affecting residential location choice throw previous norms into disarray.
https://www.bloomberg.com/citylab
But a New Zealand based non-profit would argue that four days could be the next new normal.
Interim results from multi-city study involving hundreds of major employers that began last summer is suggesting that four days a week in the office could be an acceptable compromise that balances maintaining office efficiencies with satisfying workers who had become used to reduced stress related to commuting. The Guardian newspaper is reporting that landlords and other investors with a stake in the value of office real estate are reluctantly seeing the four days in the office ‘norm’ as the way of the future.
Smart Growth America Focuses on Walkability Scores
Dallas Fort Worth is not somewhere typically associated with walkable environments. A report by Smart Growth America found that this popularly held view is unfortunately a reality, with that city receiving the lowest score for walkability among 32 metros studied. Developers in that region are reportedly frustrated with attempts to introduce ‘walkable urbanism’ with mixed use projects but blame push back by a variety of stakeholders with entrenched views. Proponents of pedestrian friendly environments point to the economic and competitive benefits that such projects provide, but this is apparently lost on Texans.
Amazon Primed for Major Shift in Hybrid Work Arrangements
Minimum three days in the office. That’s the take it or leave it statement from the CEO of one of America’s largest employers. While some observers welcome this hard line approach, others point out that even three days a week does not bring downtowns back to the conditions that helped them thrive before the pandemic.
“The Occupancy Index is supported by the City of Toronto, Financial District BIA, Bloor-Yorkville BIA, The Waterfront BIA, Downtown Yonge BIA, St Lawrence Market BIA and Toronto Entertainment District BIA. It is a measure of the percentage of office employees returning to the office compared to the number of employees who would normally have come to their offices pre-COVID. For a detailed description of the calculation please contact Iain Dobson at [email protected],”