Commercial Street is nearly devoid of pedestrians and traffic on March 25, 2020 in Portland, Maine, just before a stay-at-home order went into place because of the pandemic. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)
Maine government workers have reduced their car travel by 1 million vehicle miles a week since the start of the pandemic, thanks to the rapid, wholesale adoption of telework policies.
The preliminary data are opening an unexpected window on the future of telecommuting and its potential to deliver substantial reductions in global warming pollution.
Last year, before anyone heard of COVID-19, Maine’s Legislature authorized a comprehensive analysis of telework’s potential costs and benefits for state government and its employees. But as the research project got underway, the pandemic hit, and by April of this year some 85 percent of the state government’s workforce — excepting public safety positions — was suddenly working from home.