Despite being in a global pandemic, essential low-wage workers, healthcare providers, knowledge workers and many others have continued to work. However, since the start of lockdowns in March, some美国劳动力中有42％来自全职工作。
The continued progression of COVID-19 has required many businesses to postpone their back-to-the-office dates to protect their workers and assuage their health concerns.Of the 42 percent of the workforce able to work remotely, some 73 percent would prefer not to go back due to fears over the disease's spread.
从Twitter到亚马逊，主要的城市企业已推出variety of commuting policies as they contemplate going "back to the office."Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Shopify have shifted to permanent work from home arrangements for some, and Google will be working remotely until at least summer 2021.
Environmental researchers have warned that the unprecedented low-carbon levels due to stay-at-home orders could be followed by a surge in car usage as white-collar workers in densely populated urban areas attempt to evade public transportation.Climate scientists expect private vehicle usage to surpass pre-pandemic levels.
5月，纽约证券交易所（NYSE）发布了公共交通的彻底禁令betway必威娱乐, telling employees they had to take private cars to work. It was an appalling proposal, based on the false impression that public transit spreads coronavirus, and overturned just three weeks later. NYSE is still providing employees withreduced prices on parking, but the stock exchange hasn’t conducted关于在曼哈顿下部使用汽车使用情况的任何研究或调查。
Assuming the COVID vaccine eventually becomes widely available this spring or at least distributed at a pace more in line with global standards, employers and employees could have more freedom to set the terms of their return.
在其他地方，彭博媒体提供large reimbursements for commuting into work- 每天最高75美元，或者在给定月份最高$ 1,500。这可能是为了鼓励使用私家车。有利于开车去大众运输的政策表明，无视拥堵，空气质量和城市的整体宜居性。如果每个纽约人一直使用私家车上下班，那么这座城市将是不可能的。
不断扩大的企业，对其远程工作的盈利能力没有损害，已经安排在家里转向永久性工作。
Baruch College国际商业教授Lilac Nachum在接受采访时告诉我，基于知识和创新的行业实际上是永久性地从家里工作的最少收益。尽管这些工作的许多组成部分是最直接的在线工作，并且可以保持遥远，但在没有面对面互动的情况下丢失了大量的创造力和创新。
As Nachum notes, "What we've seen is that the knowledge economy has given a huge boom to the growth of cities. This interaction of people creates the necessary conditions for innovation, exchange of ideas and creativity. So for those kinds of industries, I think that it is extremely important to get back to work."
Considering that even the knowledge-based industries that work remotely need to bring people together, few industries can do well working entirely remotely. "I think we're left with a small number of jobs that can effectively be implemented remotely, which means companies basically have to prepare, should prepare for returning to the office. Fortunately, the vaccine is just around the corner," Nachum said.
Indeed, the knowledge industry has long been aware of the benefits of sustained in-person collaboration. Pre-pandemic, tech companies, including Google and Facebook, developed plans to create onsite housing at their campuses. Merging offices and housing has been hailed by some as the ultimate perk,a new type of "factory town,"以及通过减轻通勤负担来解决城市运输问题的绿色解决方案。betway必威娱乐
但是，这些新公司城镇导致了新问题并加剧了不平等。在目前的现状下，大型科技公司习惯于通过开车，刺激绅士化，驱逐长期居民和提高无家可归率来接管其直接区域。西雅图就是这种情况when Amazon moved its headquarters to the city他们的许多工人生活在近距离上，当地企业依靠他们更富裕的工人的赞助。
Regardless of whether such company towns benefit the environment by cutting back on commutes, although fraught with other political problems, the issue is relatively moot because creating a company town is not an option for the vast majority of firms.
By fall,most workers could be returning to traditional offices。Assuming the COVID vaccine eventually becomes widely available this spring or at leastdistributed at a pace more in line with global standards, employers and employees could have more freedom to set the terms of their return.
今年，纽约市的公共交通使用下降到高达80％。我们许多人是less than enthusiastic about resuming our old commutesby bus and subway. Even though mass transit creates far fewer emissions per individual per kilometer than cars, people think subways and buses are major carriers for the disease even though没有证据支持这一点。汽车会导致交通拥堵，增加所有人的通勤时间，并导致城市蔓延。
Companies concerned with climate change could increase the appeal of transportation alternatives by developing new initiatives to discourage private vehicle use. Under this scenario, our badly under-used public transit might begin to come back from our fiscal deficit. Public, mass forms of high-density transportation are the future our climate relies on. Now more than ever, we need free, comfortable, easily accessible public transit to help us recover from both this health crisis and the climate crisis.
