New York City has sparked debate across the country over its decision to use congestion pricing to accelerate and help fund the adoption of low-carbontransportation. Now, several other cities in the U.S., including DC,Honolulu,Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, are starting to explore the potential for this bold action to advance their own climate and livability eforts.
Most of these cities, including DC,Los Angeles, and Seattle,are winners of the Bloomberg Philanthropies American Cities Climate Challenge,a $70 million program designed to help 25 of the country's largest cities accelerate and deepen their efforts to reduce climate pollution from the building and transportation sectors. Through the Climate (Challenge, all winning cities are pursuing ambitious actions——from expanding miles of bus-only lanes toremoving parking minimums in new construction—to reduce climate pollution from the transportationsector. As air quality worsens and traffic increases, more and more cities are looking at congestion pricing strategies, ranging from putting a price on transportation network companies (TNCs) to full out cordon pricing.
Successful policies in cities like Stockholm, Singapore, and London prove congestion pricing results in less traffic, safer streets for pedestrians, cleaner air, and improved quality of public transportation. After London enacted a congestion charge, traffic decreassed 40 percent. Congestion pricing, simply put, is a commonsense climate policy that just so happens to have real, everyday benefits for the local community.
So how can more cities enact successful congestion pricing policies? The key to widespread implementation of congestion pricing lies in theability for cities to overcome one major obstacle:securing support and buy-in from the public. Congestion pricing plans are generally unpopular, right up until they are implemented. However, most gainpublic favor over time as residents realize that they make their city healthier and easier to get around. TThis was the case in Stockholm, where public opinion went from 70 percent opposed to 70 percent in favor over the course of seven months.
As Mike Bloomberg says, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Plans to implement congestion pricing in cities should come with clear-cut, measurable and achievable goals that residents can get on board with, and a robust plan to quantify and communicate benefits post implementation. These can include everything from improvements in local air quality to travel time savings—and what works for some cities might not work for others. IFinding out how congestion pricing can most benefit residents will be key to enacting successful policies.
In coming weeks, many employers around the world will be singing a new tune: How do we get'em back in the office after so many employees worked from home? That issue, of course, doesn't apply to workers who continued with front-line labor during the pandemic. But for those who could work remotely, their eyes are now open to alternative work arrangements.
Many will welcome a return to in-person encounters that cannot quite match the digital kind. They miss the camaraderie（同志情谊）of the office.Innovative ideas can spring from casual conversations.And without the distractions of working at home, employees at an office can be more focused and collaborative.
Still employers will be conscious of those employees who were able to find a work-life balance that improved both their personal needs and professionalaccomplishments. The new work motto is not "how many hours did you work?”but“how much did you accomplish?”Many employees find they got more done each day by not commuting.For some,remotework just makes financial sense: Keep the same job, with the same pay, but move to a part of the country with lower living costs, while saving on commuting costs as well.
Companies are making plans to bring employees back to their offices in stages over the summer. Most popular may be early September, when children will mostly be heading back to classrooms, freeingup parents who provided child care to head in to work. Many companies are pledging to take a more flexible approach, hoping to keep the most talented and productive on staff. Google plans to give its employees four weeks of "work from anywhere"tirne each year. LinkedIn will allow a good portion of its employees to work remotely for up to half of the time.
How badly do workers want to work from home? A recent study by Microsoft showed that more than 70% of workers want to have the option ofworking remotely with flexible hours. Blind, an anonymous U.S.network for professionals,found that most people it surveyed would choose being able to work from home over receiving a 30% raise.
For many, a return to the office is coming. But the traditional office is going to have to compete harder to win over employees who've found a surprising renewal in remote work. Employees will need to be aware of the benefits of in-office work to anorganization. The key for employers will be to find win-win solutions that enhance both their organization's goals and worker satisfaction.
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