Dream Commuters

Résumé du document

UK's economic and demographic growth has won the admiration of all countries across the European continent. As the popular saying highlights ?The grass is always greener on the other side', Britain is not free from drawbacks. The Britishers in general feel that they lack space as they sense that their island is getting cramped up. They sense this feeling more importantly since the island is densely populated. Over the years, the big cities and suburbs in the UK are sprawling, not to ignore the skyrocketing prices in the real estate domain especially in city centers. As a result, there is an increase in the number of commuters (people) back and forth to work. As far as the eye can see, traffic jams in Britain are uncontrollable. It is an astonishing fact that a huge proportion of British workers remain stuck in traffic for hours. It has and will in time have a harmful impact on their quality of life and work. Commuting through long and exhausting hours is a very stressful way to begin a workday. It prevents individuals (Britishers in this case) from striking a balance between work and family life.

Extraits

[...] The commuters of Hong-Kong, for instance, fare much better than their British counterparts; the credit goes to the local authorities that overhauled mass transit systems and invested heavily in the building of new, efficient infrastructures. Thanks to this set of measures, the workers there can turn to these substitutes instead of driving their cars, hence less traffic congestion, and less strain on the workers. Britain's main cities should follow suit if they are determined to remain attractive: long- distance commuting has some harmful effects (take its damaging effect on the environment, for instance), and although it may make some people happy, it is not a very satisfactory solution indeed! [...]

[...] On the other hand, Britons dream of leaving their country and setting up home in Southern Europe. This paradox points out the difficulty to convert economic prosperity into better quality of life: the strong economic growth generates jobs and cash, but hardly has a positive effect on the daily life of ordinary people. The fact is: there is no silver bullet that will entirely solve this problem but political will could improve the situation dramatically: reinventing urbanism and city planning, for instance (which could imply bringing business centres closer to residential areas), would be a great step towards curbing commute pain. [...]

[...] For instance, the expatriate's companies are supporting the move; some of them even prompt their employees to work from home, using a broadband internet connexion: by doing so, they hope to achieve a better productivity (those working home are in a good condition to work, and in better moral and physical shape than their colleagues). Big firms probably also feel they could seize the opportunity in order to cut their own real estate costs dramatically. The more employees decide to deliver their work from their remote Dordogne village, or from their seaside Barcelona home, the more office space companies will be able to dispose of which is quite a blessing in cities such as London, where real estate prices put a big strain on companies! [...]

[...] This, of course, is a blessing for those who can not stand the wear and tear of English city life anymore: the cost of setting up home in France or in Spain is now more than made up for by the savings such a move generates, since the cost of living in these countries is much lower than it is in Britain. Some Britons did not hesitate to take the plunge, and cashed in on this unprecedented opportunity. This led to the emergence of a new breed of long-distance commuters. The “species” is made up of a wide spectrum of people, ranging from manual workers fleeing their skyhigh mortgage payments to highly-skilled white collars, yearning for a better quality of life. [...]

[...] Dream Commuters The UK's economic and demographic growth is the admiration of all continental Europe but it also has its drawbacks. Britons feel increasingly cramped for space on their small, densely populated island. Big cities and suburbs are sprawling, and real estate prices are skyrocketing in city centres; as a result, an ever growing number of people have to commute back and forth to work. This leads to traffic jams as far as the eye can see: each day, a huge proportion of British workers remain stuck in traffic for hours. [...]