One obscene use of fossil fuels and time is the simple daily commute.  I say obscene because millions of Americans spend, what, 30 minutes? an hour? two hours? leaving their homes to go to an office, only to return to their homes at the end of their work day.  And they do this day-after-day, week-after-week.  The first order effects are obvious: millions of commute miles and corresponding fuel usage, traffic, pollution, huge swaths of pavement in a futile attempt to handle the "worst case" volume of vehicles.  Huge swaths of land swallowed for buildings and parking lots, and corresponding drainage and energy use problems.  Second order effects are not as obvious:  time spent in traffic could either be spent more economically productive, or more socially productive (want more time with your family, anyone?), homes which are empty and air-conditioned during the day and offices which are empty and air-conditioned during the night.  (How efficient is that?)

In line with the move for pervasive connectivity infrastructure (broadband everywhere), I suggest a massive effort towards moving workers from offices back into their homes.  Obviously, not all jobs are suitable for such an arrangement.  The "culture of the office" would also necessarily be upset (no more water-cooler conversations).  Home life would necessarily change as well (I know this from experience).  However, the benefits are enormous:  lower commute stress (would you like a 15 second commute from the kitchen to your workspace?), more time with family, less vehicles and less vehicle-miles, more efficient roads (read as "less traffic") and less load on other transportation infrastructure, less workspace-exclusive infrastructure (less day-use-only office space) and thus more efficient use of the land space we have, less pollution, better work-life balance (e.g. wait for the cable guy and be at work), more time flexibility, less overhead-per-employee for businesses (thus more likely to hold on to those employees), more geographic flexibility (my "job" won't move to Antarctica, forcing me to decide whether or not to follow it there, when I really want to keep living here), etc., etc.
- by Paul Clarke