Otter wants to cut state driving

BOISE – Gov. Butch Otter has asked the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality to create a plan to reduce traffic congestion by having more state employees work from home two or three days a week.

He said he also wants more state services online so that people won’t have to drive to government offices.

“I just believe there’s a lot of opportunity out there for us to telecommute and for us to relieve traffic pressure and other environmental problems,” Otter told the Idaho Statesman in a story published Wednesday. “You can expect to see me focusing on it a lot more.”

Otter said that starting next year, he wants 10 percent to 15 percent of the 19,000 state employees not to commute to work.

He asked Toni Hardesty, head of the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, about two weeks ago to design a system that could serve as a model for businesses to follow.

“If we expect them to help, and I do, then we should be helping them by setting an example,” Otter said.

He said increasing rent and parking costs downtown mean companies have the incentive to have employees work from home.

Otter said the plan could reduce congestion and air pollution, reduce how much taxpayers spend on state offices, and possibly delay building new highways.

“This sounds like a very promising initiative on the part of the governor and something the federal government hopes to do more of,” said Michael Replogle, transportation director at the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund. “Simply trying to build more roads to relieve congestion is fairly ineffective at solving these pollution problems.”

Otter said that on his drive to work he sees a park-and-ride that cost $750,000 in federal money to build but that rarely contains more than five cars.

“The problem is, people are just like me,” Otter said. “I’m sitting in the car looking and seeing all these people driving with only one person in the car.”