Give Mike Hicks a gold star. He has come up with a simple, workable solution to the Colwood Crawl. It’s not the only solution and it won’t make everything magically better, but if more widely adopted, it could make the commute from the West Shore measurably more tolerable.
Hicks, the Juan de Fuca director on the Capital Regional District board and chairman of the regional parks committee, set off a social-media tempest with his decision to change his committee’s start time to 10 a.m. from 9:30 a.m. so he could avoid the Colwood Crawl.
The reactions surprised him.
“People are angry,” said Hicks. “I’m getting hate mail and all sorts of stuff. They’re upset with me moving the meeting, thinking it is for my elitism or for personal gain as a politician or whatever. I even got criticized for screwing up the Johnson Street Bridge. It’s been an eye-opener.”
Hicks commutes from Sooke to attend meetings at the CRD headquarters on Fisgard Street. Because he drives his 13-year-old son to school, he can’t leave Sooke until 8:30 a.m., which doesn’t leave him time to make a 9:30 a.m. meeting in Victoria and to attend to his duties as committee chairman, such as arriving early to go over documents and agenda items.
After consulting with other committee members and CRD chairwoman Barb Desjardins, he decided to push back the meeting start to make it possible for him and other West Shore directors to get in on time.
Those who suggested, on the Times Colonist Facebook page and in letters to the editor, that Hicks should simply get up a little earlier, like all working stiffs, probably weren’t aware of his obligation to get his son to school.
Even without that consideration, Hicks came up with an eminently practical strategy that should be used more widely — staggered work hours. The problem with the Colwood Crawl is not so much the number of cars that travel the highway each day, but the fact that they are all on the road at the same time.
Many who have flexibility in their work hours already know this. They have learned that leaving for work a half-hour earlier or later can make a substantial difference in commuting time. Stretch that flexibility to an hour, or even two, and the ride into town is usually a breeze.
We need to rid ourselves of this old-fashioned notion that we all have to arrive at work at the same time.
Of course, not everyone has the option of when to come to work. Retail businesses, for example, must open and close at specified times. And many workers do not have a say in when they start and stop work — that’s up to their employers.
Employers should look closely at the potential for staggered schedules. That could ease the stress of the commute, enhancing morale and productivity, as well as exercising good citizenship by reducing road congestion, as well as the pollution and frustration that issue forth when cars are stuck idling in traffic.
No single solution will erase traffic congestion, and many remedies carry multimillion-dollar price tags — think dedicated bus lanes, light-rail transit, new interchanges. These and other strategies are no doubt needed, but Hicks came up with a solution that costs nothing, saves time and money, and reduces greenhouse-gas emissions.
It was a solution to a personal problem, but it is also an example of what to do from an elected official. That’s leadership. He deserves to be congratulated, not excoriated.
