🚀 go-pugleaf

An analysis of telecommuting is expected to (finally) be included in the
Austin Metropolitan Area Transportation Plan (AMATP) which hopefully will
reduce the $7.5B budget for this plan over the next 25 years.

This analysis will require the participation of the currently on-line
segments of the community - as many of *you* as possible - to determine
the best estimates for telecommuting which will change with improvements 
in technology.

I will be back with more information on how this analysis will be done 
- hopefully conducted primarily through the in-place research grants that 
have been obtained by the UT Community and Regional Planning department.

Ted 
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					  Information Age Consulting
					  6618 Lost Horizon Drive
					  Austin, TX 78759-6117
					  April 5, 1995
Senator Gonzalo Barrientos
Chairman, ATS PAC
Texas State Senate
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, TX 78711

Dear Senator Barrientos:

I was very pleased with your directive to Michael Aulick at the FHWA/FTA
(Federal Highway Administration/Federal Transit Administration) review
session on April 3rd to have the ATS conduct a meaningful analysis of
the effects that telecommuting will have on transportation over the 25
year time frame of the AMATP.

As I stated in my comments at this session, I am sure that knowledgeable
members of the Austin academic and business sectors will be very willing
to participate. Professors in the Community and Regional Planning
department at the University of Texas already have grants for research
projects that are very relevant to this analysis. Your directive will
increase the incentive for evolvement by a broad cross-section of the
overall community.

No one knows precisely what will be the results of this analysis, but
telecommuting is evitable going to increase with technology as it
inherently improves economic productivity and quality of life that are
important competitive criteria for communities in the rapidly expanding
globally based information age.

I spoke with Michael after the review session, and said that ATS needs
to provide a leadership role to make academic and business leaders aware
that telecommuting is now an important consideration of the AMATP - a
significant change to the currently available documentation. I am most
willing to help promulgate this change - in fact I have already done so
by email, and to help ATS get the appropriate community representation.
I also recommended that the point person in ATS for telecommuting (at a
minimum) be available on the Internet especially since the City of
Austin now has a home page on the World Wide Web which hopefully will be
extended to include information on the AMATP.

Austin is an ideal community to evaluate leading edge information age
concepts like telecommuting that will not only benefit our community,
but hopefully also create a model for other communities to emulate.

			  Sincerely,
			  Ted Kircher

Copy to:
Mr. Michael Aulick, Director of Austin Transportation Study (ATS)
Ms. Barbara Maley, Federal Highway Administration
Mayor Bruce Todd
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