Fall Vote on Staggered Work Shifts Is Urged

San Diego City Councilman Bruce Henderson, whose frequent discourses on traffic congestion solutions have made his views well known to his colleagues, now wants to know what you think about them.

Henderson, who rarely misses an opportunity to remind the council about the need for traffic management, Thursday proposed placing an advisory measure on the November ballot to gauge public support for a mandatory program of staggered work hours. The program would apply to any business in the city that employs 25 or more people and to all city employees.

By staggering work hours, Henderson said, the city could reduce traffic on roads and freeways, helping to ease a problem that residents consider one of the city’s most pressing, according to polls.

“If staggered work hours is what (people) want, we can move forward,” Henderson said in a news release. “If not, we can pursue other choices.”

At Henderson’s urging, the council in June approved a one-week voluntary staggered work-hour experiment, which is scheduled for October. A nonprofit organization is working to coordinate a similar demonstration.

Change of Life Style

Asked why a ballot measure on traffic control is needed, Henderson said that “traffic management is just so tough, because it involves an actual change in life style. It involves (motorists) giving up the privacy of the automobile.”

San Marcos is the only San Diego County city with a mandatory traffic-management program. The plan applies various requirements to businesses of different sizes, including mandatory promotion of staggered hours, flex time and car pools by businesses employing more than 50 people.

Also Thursday, the council directed its Planning Department to devise by Sept. 19 a series of short-term measures that could be taken to counteract traffic congestion. Deputy Mayor Gloria McColl initiated the plan to speed up the efforts of a task force currently working on long-term measures.