Shifting Gears : More Commuters Are Seeking, Finding Alternatives to the Car Lifestyle

Ultimately, it is the individual commuter making a decision to somehow change his or her commute, who is going to have the greatest impact on our transportation picture.

--State of the Commute Report, May, 1990

For Brad Confer, administrative staff assistant for the West Hollywood City Council, the moment of decision occurred six months ago when his 1979 Buick broke down, again, on Sunset Boulevard during rush hour.

“It just died on the street and I’d had enough,” he said. “My car insurance was $1,400 a year and I was real tired of being hostage to insurance, gas station lines and traffic snarls. I decided to take a year off and see what it’s like not having a car. So far I have been able to address all my needs.”

For Monica Price of the City of Orange, it was the congested drive to her job at Burlington Air Express in Irvine. “I just couldn’t deal with the traffic on the 55 Freeway,” she said. “It’s bumper-to-bumper from the 91 all the way to Costa Mesa. Now my husband and I drive together. We can take the inside (car-pool) lane and we just laugh as we pass everybody else. It’s a wonderful feeling.”

For Morgan Ferry of Costa Mesa, a computer programmer at Avco Financial Services, it was his company’s highly promoted ride-share program, offering cash bonuses for car-pooling and double cash bonuses for any mode of transportation that wasn’t a car.

“I’d ridden my bike to work a few times and decided to try it on a full-time basis,” he said.

“Now I take an off-road bicycle trail around the Newport back bay--it’s a wildlife preserve with rabbits and herons and hawks. I liked it so much, my wife Janet has started doing the same thing. The extra pay is a nice incentive, but I have to say if they stopped paying me I would still do it. It makes me feel good about myself.”

These are three voices in a small but growing chorus of Southern California drivers who have made the decision to change their commuting habits. If they can’t kick the habit, at least they can cut down. A few expert traffic-watchers detect something new stirring: These recovering single-passenger automobile addicts might be the leading edge of a movement to give up car dependency for getting to and from work.

The number of drive-alone commuters actually dropped 4% last year, according to the second annual State of the Commute Report issued by Commuter Transportation Services. At the same time, the level of awareness about alternatives to driving alone (car pools, van pools, telecommute, biking) increased substantially, as did commuter concern about worsening traffic.

So far their numbers haven’t reversed the tide. Based on interviews with commuters in five counties, the same report concluded that almost everything has gotten worse since last year. The average commute takes 10 to 15 minutes longer, freeway rush hour starts earlier and ends later and 79% of Southern California’s commuters still drive alone in their cars.

But some observers see a flicker of real change.

“I am optimistic,” said Jim Sims, president of Commuter Transportation Services Inc., which has been surveying Southland commuting patterns and perceptions closely for two years. “I believe we have some real potential to change peoples’ habits in terms of the trip to work.”

“I’m cheery. There are signs that didn’t exist before,” said Ralph Cipriani, principal planner for regional mobility for the Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG), whose plans call for a dramatic shift in commute patterns by the year 2010. “I think awareness is increasing rapidly that the single car isn’t going to work anymore.”

Even the most upbeat forecasters suggest that the situation may have to get a little worse before it gets better. “We are very optimistic over the long range,” said Dana Woodbury, interim director of planning at RTD, which is looking at carrying a 300% increase in public transit commuters over the next 20 years.

“It hasn’t become all that inconvenient yet for people to use their cars, but it’s going to. In the meantime, there’s a lot of stuff being put in place to accommodate them.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude predicts that “we are on the verge of a big breakthrough.”

A 25-year bicycle rider and environmental activist, he ticked off some of the signs of change: “The government policy is shifting very quickly to accommodate the needs of the commuter to get out of the single-occupied car. We know not everyone will, nor is it necessary, but a significant number of people will.

“We are improving the bus system, we are creating high-occupancy (HOV) lanes on freeways, we are inaugurating a light rail system in July, we are providing preferential parking for people who ride together or ride in van pools, corporations are subsidizing car pools and van pools, we are working to change the tax system so corporations are encouraged to assist employees to ride public transit or ride share, we have expanded the express commuter bus system.”

On the side of negative pressure, Braude cited the increasing cost of commuting alone. “The cost of accidents, insurance, parking, is greater. The tax on gasoline is going up. There are going to be many more economic incentives to utilize public transit.”

In addition to those tangible considerations, Braude, like others, talked about a changed attitude stemming from increased environmental awareness, something that was mentioned frequently in interviews with commuters and commuter watchers. “It’s becoming more fashionable to ride-share or use public transit,” said Braude. “It is becoming more healthy, people feel more human.”

In short, the traffic crisis is producing ethical choices.

That’s the way Mark Pisano, executive director of SCAG, which co-sponsored the State of the Commute Report, puts it.

“We are not yet seeing relief from congestion because of increased growth in population, automobiles and number of trips,” he said last week. “However my sense is that we are beginning to see a change in the responsiveness of the driving public--a change from individuals just driving alone to individuals willing to car-pool, willing to take transit, more open to working at home at least one or two days a week, changing their hours when they go to work.”

He characterizes the change as the development of a “congestion relief ethic,” and he thinks it is the key to unlocking traffic gridlock in Southern California. “Just like we turn the light off when we leave a room or turn the shower water off when we soap up, in order to conserve energy and water, we need to make a conscious effort to reduce traffic.”

That is not a new notion for everyone, however. Among the many Southern Californians who have long viewed commuting as an ethical choice is Ben Swets, 32, of Santa Monica.

A commercial photographer who regularly bikes to corporate clients in downtown Los Angeles loaded with 20 to 30 pounds of cameras, strobe lights and lenses, Swets can be lyrical about his commute style. “I’ve ridden bicycles all my life,” he said.

“The bike is a metaphor for simplicity, and simplicity--of the way we eat, the way we purchase, the way we travel--implies responsibility. The work of pedaling a bicycle is a kind of responsible act toward our society, our descendants.”

Pedaling downtown along Pico or Venice boulevards, Swets passes cars and “feels eternally grateful that I am not sitting down,” he said.

“Sitting alone in a car habitually is sort of like a religious ritual: It promotes the notion that we have to consume, that we are living for the goal of our own pleasure.

“To me, the bicycle implies not taking more than your share.”