SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOB MARKET : COPING WITH COMMUTING : TRAFFIC STRATEGIES: CREATIVE COPING
Armed with a compact cooler, two hand towels and a six-pack of spring water, Santa Monica nutritional consultant Jennifer Jensen is ready to begin her day.
“The secret to successful eating on the run is planning,” said Jensen, a registered dietician who has developed a unique specialty--car nutrition. Concerned about the number of clients who blamed their poor eating habits on being trapped in their cars and stuck in traffic much of the day, Jensen developed a simple system requiring a few extra minutes of planning.
By carrying a supply of healthy food and drink, traffic-mad clients will be less tempted to drive through a fast food restaurant and grab something fattening or off their diet, Jensen said. She suggests getting up a minute or two earlier each morning to pack single-serving portions of healthy food in a cooler.
On a recent day, her cooler contained thin-sliced wheat bread, low fat yogurt, nonfat milk, a jar of peanut butter, sugarless fruit spread, applesauce, rye crackers and single-serving cheese sticks. Napkins, utensils and towel completed her ensemble.
“These foods can easily be consumed in your car while parked, or while walking to your car,” said Jensen, who strongly cautions against eating while driving, even in heavy stop-and-go traffic.
While Jensen’s clients are toting car food as a way to cope with Los Angeles’ gridlock, others have developed strategies ranging from the strict scheduling of appointments to deliberately renting offices in convenient locations. An estimated 7 million vehicle trips per day are made between home and work in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernadino County.
“I selected Century City because I knew a lot of my clients lived out here (on the Westside) and wouldn’t have to travel as far to see me,” said Charles Rack, president of Treasury Resources International, a financial consulting firm. “This way, clients can leave their downtown offices around 3 p.m. and are pleased to come here on their way home.”
If a downtown client wants to meet for breakfast, Rack suggests they meet somewhere half way between downtown and Century City. And, “unless its a hugely important deal and I’m going to make millions,” Rack half seriously said he only will drive downtown at lunchtime.
Century City also gives Rack easy access to the airport because he travels frequently as an adviser to corporate treasurers.
“When I worked downtown for Bank of America, I never knew when to leave for the airport,” said Rack. “Sometimes it took 45 minutes, but sometimes it took 2 hours.”
Others cope with the Los Angeles traffic by refusing to go out in it. Mike Terpin, a copywriter for an Agoura advertising agency, works at home in West Los Angeles. When he has to meet with clients, he carefully lines up his appointments to avoid rush hour congestion.
“I try to schedule all my meetings all in one day,” said Terpin. “It completely kills me if I have to go to four different meetings on four different days.”
Terpin, whose clients are mainly high technology companies clustered in the West San Fernando Valley, says he “will not go to Van Nuys for a 4 p.m. meeting.”
“I say, ‘Look, it will take me an hour to get there, versus 20 minutes if you schedule our meeting at 2 p.m.”’
He also tries to establish a strong rapport with clients in the beginning so he can virtually eliminate face-to-face meetings. By relying on his telephone and fax machine he has completed several major projects for a client in Newbury Park, which is in Ventura County.
“I met with them several times at first, but I haven’t been back there in six months,” said Terpin. “Now, it’s getting to the point where if a client doesn’t have a fax machine, you wonder if they are a real business.”
If pressed, Terpin said he will travel to the advertising agency he works for, but he relies on the phone and fax to deal with his colleagues as well. “Once, in the past 2 1/2 years I went into the office five days in one week--but I arrived at 10:30 a.m. and left around 8 p.m.”
Some executives take a more sanguine view of the traffic problems thwarting their travels and business transactions. “I’m bloody immune to it all,” said Tom Beeler, a vice president for Bank of America in Pasadena. “It’s the curse we all live with.”
Beeler said he just figures out where he’s going and factors in extra time for traffic delays.
But, he admits that his clients often beg not to be expected at his office before 9 a.m.
“They say, ‘I don’t want to get in that traffic mess.”’
