THE EFFECTS OF STAGGERED WORKING HOURS ON TRAFFIC VOLUMES AT A LARGE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

THE 3M CORPORATION'S CENTER IN ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA EMPLOYS 8,000 PEOPLE AND EXPANSION IS PLANNED FOR 1980, DOUBLING THIS AMOUNT. 3M SAW THAT TRAFFIC CONGESTION TO AND FROM THE CENTER COULD BECOME A SERIOUS PROBLEM AND FOR THIS REASON BEGAN TO STUDY THE POSSIBILITY OF STAGGERING WORK HOURS. PEAK HOUR TRAFFIC WAS PROJECTED TO 1978 AND SHOWED THAT THE AVAILABLE TRAFFIC CAPACITY COULD NO WHERE NEAR MEET THE EXPECTED DEMAND. THESE FIGURES WERE THEN FURTHER BROKEN DOWN BY DEMAND OF EACH PARTICULAR DIVISION OF THE COMPANY. IT WAS DECIDED THAT ONE HALF HOUR WAS THE BEST STAGGER TIME, IN THEORY THIS WOULD REDUCE THE TRAFFIC LOAD BY TWENTY NINE PERCENT AND SPREAD IT OUT MORE EVENLY. IN IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN, 3M FOUND THAT WHILE OVERALL TRAFFIC HAS INCREASED, PEAK HOUR VOLUMES HAVE DECREASED. WILCOXON'S TEST FOR PAIRED COMPARISONS WAS USED TO DETERMINE THE STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DECREASED CAUSED BY STAGGERING WORK HOURS. 3M HAS EXTENDED THIS EXPERIMENT INDEFINITELY.