Name: Peter De Jager

Issue: Infrastructure/Transit: How to make it easier to get around Toronto

What’s the big idea: What if we could eliminate at least 10 per cent of the traffic congestion problem in the GTA? The way we normally think of doing this is to increase road capacity — which is an almost impossible task since we are out of space, and out of funding. What if we came at this from another direction? Reduce the amount of traffic on the roads by only 10 per cent — via telecommuting. Most white collar jobs could be done from home. What if we stayed home only one day per week? That is a 20 per cent reduction in white-collar travel to make up for the reality that not everyone can work from home, but many can.

How will the big idea work: Environmental benefits. Less wear and tear on the transportation infrastructure. Personal savings both in time and money.

How much will your big idea cost, and how would it be funded: It would not cost anything near what increasing road capacity by 10 per cent would cost (an almost impossible goal in a city like Toronto). What it requires is a change in how we think about work, about management, about cities, about transportation, about technology. It would require some marketing. The key here is that it is far easier to accomplish than is the notion of building 10 per cent more capacity.

How will you implement your big idea: It would require an awareness of the feasibility of the solution. A sense of how much we could reduce traffic by replacing some portion of the daily commute with something more in tune with available technologies.

This concept is simply measured: How many commuting trips does your company generate each week? 1,000? Can you reduce that to 600 over the next three to five years? That would be a 40 per cent decrease in the traffic your company generates each week. This is not insignificant if 50 per cent of companies took up the gauntlet of having a direct involvement in traffic issues.

If an entire city decided to actively work on this? It would be like adding another highway to the city every few years.