2016 Games planners push for staggered work hours
Would Chicago businesses be willing to stagger the working hours of their employees to reduce Olympic-sized traffic jams during a 2016 Summer Games here?
Mayor Daley's Olympic planners are counting on it.
Tucked away in an 80-page questionnaire submitted to the International Olympic Committee is a promise to "encourage staggered work schedules" to augment a transportation plan that would rely on a network of shuttle buses and dedicated lanes, at least one of those lanes running between the Loop and O'Hare Airport.
During a meeting Wednesday with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board, Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan said staggered work schedules that extend the rush hour by a few hours on either side of the traditional 9-to-5 workday worked like a charm at Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Athens and Sydney.
Los Angeles also used night deliveries for the 1984 Olympics, with the city waiving regulations that normally prohibit such deliveries. Local unions agreed to forgo typical nighttime wage bonuses. Some L.A. employers also put workers on a four-day workweek or gave employees days off during the Games. Retailers were urged to change business hours as well.
Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, is gung-ho about the idea of staggered hours -- so much so that he'd like to do a dry run long before the Olympics.
Who knows? Chicago could get used to the idea of a 7 a.m.-to-3 p.m. workday.
"You would start by releasing employees who work the furthest from the Metra station at around 3 p.m. Then, you'd start your next wave of employees in the area from State Street to Franklin. The final wave would be everything from Wacker to the west. You need about 45 minutes in between to get people across the Loop," Roper said.
"During the Olympics, you would probably have almost a 90 percent participation of businesses wanting to do flex-time. There's a civic responsibility to the athletes and visitors coming into this city. We've got to show we're willing to make room for them while they're in our city for 14-to-17 days.
"But, aldermen are making suggestions right now about congestion pricing. We need to find ways right now to stretch out the rush hour. That's much better than trying to penalize people," Roper added.
Roper said he would encourage his members to start testing staggered work hours later this year.
"Congestion on the highways and CTA is at its maximum between 6:30 and 8 in the morning, 4:30 and 6 in the evening. ... You have a tremendous number of people jamming buses, trains and roads. Why are we still operating on a 9-to-5 schedule in a city the size of Chicago?" he said. Last year, Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) urged the City Council to hold public hearings to at least explore the possibility of charging motorists for the privilege of driving downtown.
It never happened. Mayor Daley was dead-set against the idea of imposing a London-style congestion fee because of the chilling impact it could have on business and tourism.
"Let's not rush to that and scare everybody off. We're trying to keep businesses here and constantly move businesses into the city and relocate businesses," Daley told reporters at the time.
"Are you gonna put it on all the aldermen [who] drive down every day? Do you start with them? ... Can citizens drive down from [elsewhere in] the city? Are they excluded?... How about all of the trucks coming downtown? That's what you have to look at."