Authorities Express Concerns over Congested Traffic as Amazon's 50,000 Seattle Employees Resume Office Work this Week
Authorities Express Concerns over Congested Traffic as Amazon's 50,000 Seattle Employees Resume Office Work this Week
Amazon insists on having all its employees work from the office five days a week, completely, leading to the office return. This new policy has Seattle authorities concerned about potential traffic congestion. With Amazon employing about 50,000 workers in the city alone, commuting is inevitable. Aisha Dayal from the Washington State Department of Transportation voiced her concern, stating, "More individuals will be on the road." Dayal advised drivers to allocate extra time for their commute and suggested utilizing the state's complimentary traffic monitoring tools, as they offer real-time traffic information.
Ryan Avery, the deputy director for the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington, voiced his opinion that Amazon's policies would pose challenges for traffic. Fox 13 also referenced an earlier study that attributed Amazon's return-to-office policies to regional traffic slowdowns in the Seattle area. The INRIX report indicated that Amazon's initial RTO policy led to a 35% decrease in traffic speed on certain local routes. The report stated:
Seattle's situation is similar to many cities and Central Business Districts worldwide. Companies eager to restore in-office employment will cause an increase in vehicle miles traveled, pressuring parking, and ultimately reducing commuting travel speeds. As speeds decrease, drivers are trapped in traffic jams, losing valuable time, money, and fuel due to congestion.
Amazon stressed its provision of various commuter benefits and services for office commutes and emphasized that its Seattle employees had already been required to attend the office three days a week. This was intended to mitigate the idea that the full-time RTO policy would uncharacteristically surge in commuters.
Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, announced the global RTO policy in a blog post in September, prompting significant criticism. This policy, asking all of the company's approximately 350,000 employees to work from the office full-time, has faced substantial backlash, including employee protests that have grown accustomed to the flexible work-from-home policies that characterized the pandemic. Amazon decided to postpone the execution of this policy in various major cities due to a lack of sufficient office space for the returning workers.
The INRIX report predicted that Amazon's full-time return-to-office policy could lead to a 35% decrease in traffic speed on certain local routes, mirroring the challenges many cities and Central Business Districts face due to increased vehicle miles traveled with the return of in-office employment. In the future, technologically advanced solutions like smart traffic management systems might be crucial in alleviating such traffic congestion caused by tech giants like Amazon.