Great idea. However, the big question mark is: do people really drive less on their day off?

That's the thing, if they just drive somewhere else on Friday (or whenever the extra day off is), then the energy savings pretty much evaporate. At my employer we do have our Public Works guys on a 4 day, 10/hr per day schedule. They all love it. Why? Because that gives them an extra day to go hunt or fish -- activities they must drive some distance to. I might also point out that all those people with an extra day off are going to want to go shopping or to some entertainment venue, so the people staffing THOSE places can't have that day off.

I'm pretty sure employers would be able to work their schedules so that there was coverage on all days. This excellent suggestion didn't say that it is mandatory for every person in the country to take Friday off.

Personally, I would rather have Monday off. Nothing better than coming to work on Tuesday and thinking 'wow, part of the week is gone already'.

As far as what people might do on their 3rd day off is not really an issue, considering all the other mentioned benefits of a 4 day work week. Of course it would have to be 4 10 hour days. There is no way this would happen if the number of work hours in a week were reduced.

I agree this is a big question and calls the 40% reduction in reason #1 in to question. First of all if I commute 4 days instead of five that's a 20% reduction, and if I drive for personal reasons on the extra day off then I don't even get the full 20% benefit.

that number's fixed. I missed it in my edit last night. Apologies.

In Los Angeles, smog is usually worst on Saturdays. This could be strong evidence that a 4-day work week would not provide the benefits suggested in this article.

Rampant speculation and riling ahead:
(note: this is not directed at anyone specifically)

Perhaps these people who've been cooped up all week feel the need to get out and go somewhere on Saturday. If the workweek were reduced they may not feel the need to do so. So not only would you get the benefit of them not driving the one day of the workweek, but they may not feel as compelled to go anywhere else otherwise, so you'd get a reduction on Saturdays as well.

More likely, whatever driving they would be doing on Saturday may get simply get shifted. So the workweek benefit may still be there, but they may simply do their Saturday driving on a different day.

Here's stirring the pot: I'd say that fuel burned during recreation is a worthy use. Fuel burned during commuting is completely wasted. I'll make a side note that fuel used in creating the items we need for survival - food, shelter, clothing, etc. is also a worthy use. I'll go even further to say that even if they drive on the "off" day, that is a much better use of the resource. For the reason, I'll answer with a question...what's the purpose/meaning of life? I'll let you decide.

Now, to be a little less controversial, one of the things this WOULD do...is to make a *mandatory* driving day into an *optional* driving day. If you must drive to get to work and you work 5 days a week, you need to drive 5 days a week - though you could drive 7. If you've got a 4 day workweek, you need only drive 4 days a week - though you could still drive 7. The other day becomes optional. So if gas is $10/gal - perhaps on that 5th day that you would have *had* to drive to work, you'll hop on your bicycle and cruise downtown instead (or sit on your fat, lazy ass and ogle the one-eyed god...but that's another story).

In 2006 (I think it was) fuel use for transport by private persons for leisure overtook fuel use for work-related / commuting purposes, in Geneva, Switzerland. (Shopping was split, a bit of it was counted as ‘essential’ driving. ifirc..) That is what you get with great public transport for a small territory, in a rich country. Leisure spots are of course off the public transport grid, either because they involve ‘country’ or because they are set in locations where the land/rents are cheap - off the grid!

Heigh ho, heigh its off to to the mall (park, ski, spa...and in the winter, sunlight..) we go!

Working days (hours) are amongst the highest in Europe. Saturday is still an official working day - employers simply offer it as ‘non-working,’ fact which most employees don’t realize until they are called in to work on Sat. which admittedly only happens for some professions and in some exceptional situations.

I have given this some thought. I think that what we should do is have a 4 day forty hour work week with a mandatory no driving day--for anyone short of emergency services (or alternatively drivers could buy a prohibitively pricey driving pass for the day off though I don't like that idea too much). Let's make it something similar to the Jewish Sabbath say Friday at midnight to Saturday at midnight with Monday off. Its not like people wouldn't be able to do things on this day, it just means they would have to do it without their automobiles. Some people could still work if they wanted or needed too. They would just have to ride a bicylce or walk--with the added bonus that the roads would be much safer on those day. I can only imagine what it would do for this obese country. I know that people would complain, but driving is a privlige and not a right and a mandatory no driving day would undoubtedly curb demand and we could still get the same amount of work done in a week. Maybe it could even be done at the federal level if the government threatened to withold highway funding. Heck, if we just had a mandatory no driving day on the weekend we could still have a 5 day work week. We could even make it Sunday. I am only 26 and still remember how everything used to be shut on Sudays when I was a kid.