A new report sponsored by Intel and the Sperling’s Best Places names Washington DC as the “Best City for Teleworking”.

The first thing I noticed about the report was the blatant advertising for Intel products. The next thing I noticed is that the cities highest on the list also ranked highest on the list of cities with the worst traffic. That is when I noticed that the study shows the cities with the most potential for teleworking and not necessarily the cities that ranked highest for people already doing it.

To determine what made a city good for teleworking, they used the standard “best places” type of criteria like climate and combined it with factors that make teleworking more desireable or possible like communications infrastructure, amount of telework friendly jobs (office workers) and as I pointed out – worst traffic.

So… workers, employees and governments of the listed cities – This is not a pat on the back for a job well done. This is a call to action. You have all the ingredients required to promote teleworking as a viable option. Get out there and make it happen.

Teleworking improves the environment, prevents wear and tear on the roads, provides flexibility and business continuity options for companies and represents a cash and time benefit for the employee. Everybody wins.

When I drove to work, I spent about $20 a week on gas. When I began telecommuting full time, I was able to save about $1000 a year on gas I didn’t have to buy. It was like a raise I gave to myself.

Of course that was before the price of a gallon of gas doubled and tripled. I often think about what I would have to give up if I were still driving so much and paying $2000-$3000 a year in gas.

Are you still driving to work everyday? What are you giving up to deal with the high costs of gas? What if you could get some of that money back by telecommuting one or two days a week?

Yahoo had a story on the topic today. At the end of the story there are some good questions to ask yourself if you are considering telecommuting and it gives some good strategies for getting your company to support you in your efforts.

Here’s another article repeating what we already know: More and more people are getting more work done by doing it from home.

This article cites several benefits to the employee such as flexible hours, self-controlled environment, and the much shorter commute.

The author of the article is in Florida and writes the article with the purpose of encouraging local business and government to adopt telecommuter friendly policies so that more high tech workers and businesses will come to Florida.

A lot of telecommuters are high tech workers who are generally paid more and without the commute have a smaller impact on the local resources. It really makes sense for localities to encourage this type of behavior. The formula is really quite simple: More Tax Revenue + Less Impact to Roads and Environment = Great Deal!

This year I didn’t get an invitation to the office Christmas party. Apparently since I telecommute, I didn’t merit an invitation. The only reason I even heard of it was because of a stray email that happened to land in my inbox. Of course that was on the Monday after the event.

Just because you work at home, doesn’t mean you should forgo the office holiday festivities. There was an article in the Baltimore Sun this morning that told of a group of local home based business and telecommuters that took matters in their own hands and held their own home office holiday party. It had everything you would expect of a regular office party including lamp shades for their heads, pre-spiked punch, and a copier for… uh… later.

This article made the cover of the Sun’s Today section which tells me 3 things: 1. There are a lot of people working from home these days. 2. We’re an innovative bunch that takes what’s good, improves upon it and makes sure we get our share. 3. That mainstream people are starting to notice.