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Introduction

This report is prepared in support of the Residential-Area-Based Offices (RABO) Project, known informally as the Neighborhood Telecenters Project, a three-year program underway at the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), University of California, Davis. This research program is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and involves implementing several residential-area-based telecenters and evaluating their effectiveness as a work environment and as a transportation demand management strategy. In addition to the centers being implemented by the RABO project there are at least 18 telecommuting centers operating in California and several more in the planning stages. It is valuable to track the individual and collective status of these centers over time. It is expected that centrally collecting and then disseminating this information will support these and other efforts to establish and maintain telecommuting centers.

This report summarizes the current status of existing and planned telecenters in California (including the earthquake-related centers), other than those implemented by the RABO project itself. Also, information is included about sites closed since the last Status Tracking Report in December 1993. The 14 existing, non-earthquake-related sites are Antelope Valley Fair Telecommuting Center (at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds), Antelope Valley Telebusiness Center Phase 1, Apple Valley Telebusiness Workcenter, Highland Telework Center, Los Banos Telecenter, Ontario Telebusiness Workcenter, Pomona Telecommuting Center, Telecommuting WorkCenter of Riverside County, Santa Clarita Telebusiness Center (in Santa Clarita Valley), Simi Valley Telework Center, and the Auburn, Citrus Heights, Rocklin, and Roseville Centers operated by the South Placer Transportation Management Association (SPTMA). Of these existing telecenters, the Antelope Valley Fair Telecommuting Center, Auburn Telecenter, Citrus Heights Telecenter, Los Banos Telecenter, Pomona Telecommuting Center, Rocklin Telecenter, and Santa Clarita Telebusiness Center have opened since the last report. The 4 earthquake-related telecommuting centers are Antelope Valley Telebusiness Center Phase 2, Santa Clarita Telecommuting Center (in Valencia), Thousand Oaks and Westlake Telecommuting Center, and Sherman Oaks and Van Nuys Telecommuting Center. The first site is an addition to the Antelope Valley Telebusiness Center Phase 1, and the last three sites are emergency earthquake relief telecenters operated by the federal government. All of them are currently open. The 4 planned telecommuting centers are Blue Line Televillage Demonstration, Long Beach Telebusiness Center, Rancho Palos Verdes Telework Center, and City of Torrance. The 3 closed telecommuting centers are San Jose and Concord Telecommuting Centers operated by the Bay Area Telecommuting Development Program (BATDP) and Santa Monica City College Telecommuting Center.

The information in this report was obtained via telephone interviews with site administrators and project managers. For existing centers, respondents were specifically asked about the number of telecommuters using a facility, the number of different employers whose workers use a center, and center utilization (average number of telecommuters per day). They were also asked about current and planned marketing strategies, sources of funding for the center, and in the case of greater Los Angeles area centers, how occupancy levels were affected by the January 17 Northridge earthquake. Finally, any short term future plans that may affect the center were noted. For planned telecenters, administrators and project managers were asked for a projected opening date, number of workstations, characteristics of the site location, and any unique features possessed by the center. Marketing plans and sources of funding were also discussed. Where applicable, questions were asked regarding impacts the Northridge Quake had on the center plans. In this report, a workstation is defined as a work area designated for a person to work in (can be a cubicle for one person or a desk top shared by more than one person), and a private office is defined as a closed room assumed to contain one workstation unless otherwise specified.

In summary, the status of telecommuting centers in California is still quite volatile. In the December 1993 Status Tracking Report, several centers were in the process of changing management and/or location. Now that those changes have occurred, updated information is provided concerning the new arrangements. At least 11 new telecenters have opened since the last report, four of which are earthquake related centers. Three centers remain in the planning stages, and one new center (City of Torrance) has begun planning. Three centers closed in the last nine months: one earthquake-related center (not counted among the four mentioned above) operated for only a few months, and the other two closed halfway through their planned one-year demonstration periods. Thus, success is still mixed, even among earthquake-related centers.

The Northridge earthquake in January 1994 was found to have some important but limited impacts on the use of telecommuting centers in the Los Angeles region. At least 4 telecenters opened largely as a result of the earthquake (and remain open). Although they had already been contemplated, it is not clear when their operations would have begun without the quake. Three of these telecenters report occupancy levels ranging between 45% and 85%, and the Santa Clarita Telecommuting Center (in Valencia) is currently operating at 100% occupancy. A fifth center opened in Santa Monica as a direct result of the earthquake, but closed three months later due to insufficient utilization. As for existing and previously planned centers, the Antelope Valley Telebusiness Center Phase 1 received phone calls from 40 companies during the first week after the earthquake, with four companies actually signing up for work spaces. Another center (the Santa Clarita Telebusiness Center in Santa Clarita Valley) accelerated its opening date by one month-the quake apparently giving an initial impetus to occupancy levels that have remained high ever since. No impacts have been reported by the Simi Valley Telework Center even though it is located in the earthquake-affected region. No significant changes in occupancy levels were reported by any of the telecenters in regions unaffected by the earthquake. Apparently, to date there has been no region-wide impact on center utilization due to increased awareness of telecommuting.

The December 1993 report identified some potentially important factors regarding the successful implementation of telecenters. Included were: combining the marketing efforts of centers in a region, marketing to small employers, diversification of the telecommuting center (i.e. providing services to a wider range of workers such as business guests at nearby hotels), and working toward a self-supporting center whose operation does not rely on temporary sources of funding. These continue to be the most important areas of focus. Efforts are still being made to achieve regional synergy among the multiple Southern California centers. Marketing ideas and activities have been pooled and are being carried out jointly. Diversification of the center is a strategy that is being used to reduce a center's dependence on telecommuters as the sole clientele. New ideas in this area include: offering services and equipment for home-based telecommuting and utilizing work spaces as distance learning centers. Fear of remote management by some managers is still a barrier to more widespread acceptance of telecommuting.

Nearly all of the existing centers are charging rent to users, although in most cases it is below market rates. This strategy appears to strike a balance between the need to test the economic viability of centers and the need to offer a low-risk, low-cost trial of what is still a novel concept. Two centers which did charge market rates, the Bay Area facilities, have closed prematurely due to insufficient occupancy. On the other hand, the two Antelope Valley Telebusiness Centers are charging comparable rents and have achieved relatively high occupancies. Obviously, then, price alone does not determine the success of a center; other factors including location and marketing strategies come into play.

Brief updates on each center are provided below. Some of the information contained in the center-specific updates are summarized in the accompanying table. A list of contact names and addresses is offered in an appendix.

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