Here's another way Facebook will keep you from getting work done on a daily basis: according to a report released yesterday, Facebook's growing campus at 1 Hacker Way could pose a major traffic problem for Highway 101 and the surrounding streets in Menlo Park if the company doesn't limit the number of employees driving to work. Facebook started moving its 2,000 employees to the new digs over the summer, but Zuckerberg and Co. hope to eventually fill out the offices with 9,400 total employees split between the former Sun Microsystems HQ and the Facebook East Campus across the Bayfront Expressway.
When Sun was the big man on campus, Menlo Park had to limit the company to 3,600 employees at what is now 1 Hacker Way. Facebook, on the other hand, wants to squeeze in nearly double that number with 6,600 employees at the main campus. The company has already told the city they plan to "aggressively coax" employees to carpool or take a shuttle to keep the number of cars down. For those that do plan on driving, Facebook has promised the city that they will limit the number of vehicle trips to and from the campus during the morning and evening rush hours. Given how much Zuckerberg likes to keep employees at work, he'll probably relish any excuse to milk a couple extra hours of productivity out of the people who habitually start staring at the clock at 4:30.
Assuming they can keep their motoring employees in check, traffic on Highway 101 might be spared from the plague of Facebook employees rushing back to the city to catch happy hour, let's just hope they can keep their eyes off their gadgets on the way home.
