Costa Rica News – What is a solution to the problem which requires us to perform the least amount of work as possible? If this question was being asked in order to actually solve a problem that would be great, but in the case of government entities in Costa Rica it is just to try to make it so they do not have to do anything without knowing if the end result will actually be a solution.
The Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, also known as MOPT, has a new approach to reducing traffic in the metropolitan area of San Jose. The plan is that employers would stagger the entry and exit of employees.
This could mean having some employees come in at 7 and others at 8 or it could go as far as to coordinate with another company in the same town, so that each company has a different entry and exit time.
They are currently exploring if this would actually have an effect on traffic.
They are looking at records from the Costa Rican Social Security Fund to see where people live and where they work. The Department of Traffic Engineering is working on updating the data.
So far they know that at least 300,000 vehicles are entering San Jose daily during peak hours.
The private sector is promoting a separate plan that would have employees working all of their 48 hours over just 4 days and having an extra day off, thus reducing traffic.
The country’s workforce is composed of 2,065,801 people.
Some business representatives suggest encouraging telecommuting to cut both traffic and office expenses.
So instead of improving infrastructure and solving this problem for the long term Costa Rica is again looking for the quick fix.
1. People are still going to have to drop their kids off at school and this requires many to drive in those morning hours
2. Telecommuting? From personal experience it does not work very well in Costa Rica. There has to be strict monitoring of when an employee is online and working, and in most cases getting this system implemented is costly and inefficient
3. Finally, why do the people have to adjust because MOPT does not want to put in the work for a long term fix? Yes it would take time to get the infrastructure in place but once in place the problem would be solved. How about MOPT work off hours from 7 pm until 5 am in order to get the work done?
