As the government begins to signal a gradual reopening of the city, how can we reduce the spread of the virus in the BTS, buses, and boats?

This is a thought-provoking issue because, typically, these transportation systems are packed like sardines. Solutions involving air purification systems and disinfectant spraying are being discussed, but they may not effectively address the spread of the virus when large numbers of people cannot maintain social distancing.

Let's play with the idea of how to use big data if commuters had the option to stagger their work hours.

For instance, on a particular BTS route, if 100,000 people travel at 7 AM, we could use an app (based on route vectors) to allow each person to choose their departure time (and start time) instead of everyone starting work at 8:00 AM. We could stagger the start times from 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, and even into the afternoon and evening.

The system would analyze the resulting choices to determine the density at different times and suggest alternative times for individuals to achieve the best (optimal) results in reducing congestion and increasing social distance.

Who knows, a group of office workers might choose to work from 6 PM to the morning. The outcomes could be a single shot hitting three targets:

1) Health benefits: Reducing virus transmission by increasing social distance. While this method may not compare to working from home, it at least lowers the risk of virus exposure and reduces the viral load from repeatedly inhaling the virus.

2) Economic and social benefits: Allowing people to return to work and earn an income again. When employees from companies, shops, and universities can return to work, other groups will also regain their income, such as restaurants and small businesses.

For example, previously, everyone starting work at the same time increased the viral load for both buyers and sellers. Imagine the BTS Saladaeng station during rush hour, where everyone rushes off the BTS and crowds onto the sidewalk, stopping to buy food from stalls and exchanging viruses along the way.

If 300 customers buy curry rice simultaneously in one hour (compared to 300 customers coming one by one throughout the day), the vendor earns the same amount... but the customers will have varying levels of virus exposure.

Reducing congestion through staggered hours would inject life back into the economy, allowing shops and stalls to have customers again, and making social distancing easier.

3) Energy and environmental benefits: Reducing electricity use in buildings by not turning on lights and air conditioning simultaneously. This would lower peak demand for electricity and spread usage across different hours of the day. By reducing peak demand, we can delay the need for new power plants and decrease fuel consumption during peak times.

Moreover, if staggered work hours become widely accepted, road traffic would decrease due to fewer cars leaving at the same time, thus reducing air pollution.

“One thing conservationists often overlook is that waking up to go to work at the same time is one of the most wasteful uses of energy in modern history.”

The concept of staggered work hours (instead of everyone going to work at the same time) should be adopted as a public health policy to help slow the spread of the virus to some extent.

This approach can be implemented at various levels, from staggering hours as mentioned above to staggering weeks, where employees in a company might alternate working every other week, with the remaining time working from home to reduce density in the office. This would lower the risk of virus transmission both in public transport and within buildings. However, organizational leaders must be open-minded and innovate new ways of working that do not require everyone to be in the workplace simultaneously anymore.

SOURCE: www.thaipublica.org