Riders Go to Work to Clean Air

Chuck Denman, a 42-year-old market analyst, commuted to his job in Huntington Beach on Thursday on roller blades--roller-skates with wheels in a single line--even though the trip is more than eight miles from his Long Beach home.

Other commuters in Orange County chose to car-pool, bicycle or jog to work in hope of reducing air pollution and freeway congestion as California Rideshare Week wound to a close.

If all 50,000 people in Southern California who pledged to find alternative ways to get to work kept their promise on Thursday alone, 28 tons of pollutants, 55,000 gallons of gasoline and $300,000 in commuting costs would have been saved, said Peter Hidalgo, a spokesman for Commuter Computers, a company that works with the California Department of Transportation.

Effect on Freeway

In Orange County, the effect was felt--barely--on the Costa Mesa Freeway, where traffic moved about 5 m.p.h. faster than usual, and the car pool lane had 7% more traffic, according to Commuter Computers and Caltrans.

But “every little bit helps,” said Eldean Orozco, an employee at Lucky Food Centers in Buena Park, where the company celebrated the state’s second annual Keep California Moving Day with a Western carnival for workers.

Orozco said she usually doesn’t ride-share because she lives nearby but that she may reconsider because even her four-mile journey can have an effect.

“It requires a change in life style,” said Margaret Peterson, executive director of the South Coast Metro Transportation Management Assn., which helped promote Thursday’s events. “It’s tough to start, but we all just have to exert a little effort and decide to do it.”

The Orange County Transit District estimated that more people rode its buses Thursday, based on the increased number of telephone inquiries about bus service, but the district did not count riders, said spokesperson Joanne Curran.

And while the slightly speedier ride on the Costa Mesa Freeway helped ease traffic and pollution, Hidalgo said, he admitted it probably was a one-day phenomenon. The last time commuter traffic speeded up that much was Oct. 4 of last year--on Keep California Moving Day 1988.

Mixed Feelings

Ride-sharers on Thursday had mixed feelings about the advantage of front-row parking versus the need to get up earlier and ride in a crowded van.

“If the employer is willing to offer benefits, it helps,” said Rosella Schmidt, a communication services employee at Lucky Food Centers. “It’s like adults asking children to do something, and then offering them something for doing it. It helps.”

Many larger corporations regularly offer employees incentives to find alternative means for commuting to work. Companies with 100 employees or more are required to implement ride-sharing programs or face hefty fines, under a regulation enacted by the Southern California Air Quality Management District in July, 1988.

Most companies offer preferential parking, subsidized bus fares and company-organized car and van pools, but some offer raffles for weekend getaways, car parts and services, and airline tickets to the destination of choice.

Roller-blader Denman sometimes varies his method of transportation. Sometimes he jogs and sometimes he bicycles. He looks forward to the near future, when his company, where about 70 employees cycle to work daily, builds showers and dressing rooms for such commuters.

“I grew up in Denver, where we could see the mountains every day,” Denman said, adding that the smog in Southern California concerns him. “It’s a very difficult problem to convey a different point of view, but I think there are more alternatives (to driving) than people realize.”