Commute Study Finds O.C. Drivers Slowest to Get Into Car Pools

Led by Latinos, the region’s fastest-growing ethnic group, more Southern Californians changed their commuting habits last year, with almost a third of all workers shunning cars at least once a week, according to a survey of commuting habits released Tuesday.

Nearly one in four used a car pool, bus or bicycle every day.

Despite this, the survey found that most people think that their commutes are getting worse--and for good reason. Fully 77% of those surveyed still drive alone to work, jamming freeways and adding another five minutes to the average commute.

Of the five Southern California counties surveyed, Orange County residents remain most wedded to their autos. A full 85% of the commuters here drive alone to work, despite the county’s worsening congestion, an enviable network of freeway car-pool lanes and the largest share of employers offering help in forming car and van pools.

Still, researchers at the nonprofit Commuter Transportation Services Inc., which runs Commuter Computer and other traffic-mitigation efforts for local governments, said their fourth annual “State of the Commute” report indicates that the right combination of sticks and carrots can help the region reduce its pollution and congestion problems.

“I’m encouraged by what I see, but we’re not changing the world overnight,” said CTSI President Jim Sims. “We aren’t talking about mass movements (in commuting habits), but we are talking about a change in direction.”

A key discovery in the latest survey is that a significant slice of the commuting public is willing to hop a bus or join a car pool once or twice a week, while still relying on cars to get to work most of the time. This arrangement provides the convenience of a private car for errands or appointments but reduces congestion on days that cars are left at home.

Sims said this is significant because these “part-time ride-sharers” usually are managers, lawyers and other white-collar professionals who, until recently, were written off as “hard-core drive-alones.”

“These are the people who once said, ‘You’ll never catch me in a car pool,’ ” Sims said. “As traffic gets worse and driving alone gets less convenient, they’re beginning to realize that it makes sense to share a ride once or twice a week.”

Orange County employers were more likely to offer assistance with car- and van-pool formation--34%--but workers here were the least likely to participate in employee-sponsored transportation programs.

Although Orange County residents had the shortest average one-way commute--14.4 miles--of all of those surveyed, they registered the worst perception of their drives.

More than 20% of county residents said that freeway traffic on their way to work was always bad, and 33% said traffic was more often bad. On the return trip, 30% of county residents said traffic was always bad and 30% said it was more often bad.

The telephone survey of 2,512 commuters in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties indicates that the number of commuters who rely on driving alone as the primary method of getting to work has slipped six percentage points from its high of 83% in 1989, the first year the survey was conducted.

The margin of error for the survey is estimated at plus or minus 2%.

Car pools and buses have picked up most of the slack, with bus commuting apparently doubling. Ironically, Southern California Rapid Transit District ridership has declined more than 10% in that time, but a host of new municipal and private commuter-bus services have been created.

Surveyors failed to find a single user of the region’s nascent rail-transit network, even though rush-hour trains are often packed. The Metro Blue Line in Los Angeles County and commuter train services by Amtrak and the Orange County Transportation Authority haul about 23,000 round-trip travelers each day, or 1.6% of the five-county population.

The survey also found that workers are much more aware of incentives offered by their employers to stop driving alone to work. Prompted by Air Quality Management District antipollution regulations, the incentives range from preferential parking for car pools to cash subsidies.

Despite their promise, incentive programs are hobbled by state and federal laws, Sims said. Employees can accept unlimited tax-free parking spaces--a $100- or $150-a-month value in some areas--that employers can deduct as a business expense. However, tax laws limit bus pass and other transportation subsidies to $21 a month.

Not surprisingly, the worst commutes in the region are in Los Angeles County. Traveling an average of 31.6 miles round trip each day, Angelenos enjoy the second-shortest commute. But they still spend more time than everyone else on the road, an average of an hour and 19 minutes a day, compared to one hour and seven minutes for Orange County residents.

This leaves Los Angeles commuters with the highest stress level, the survey found, but also prods them to become the region’s most ambitious car-poolers and bus riders. Los Angeles was tied with Ventura County in car-pool use--15% of all commuters--and led the region with 7% of its workers getting to their jobs by bus.

Profile of O.C. Commuters Although Orange County residents on average commute fewer miles than drivers in other Southern California counties, more of us think the traffic is bad, according to a recent survey. How Orange County compares: O.C. Has Shortest Commute ... Average commute distance in miles Orange: 14.4 miles Los Angeles: 15.8 miles Riverside: 20.9 miles San Bernardino: 20.5 miles Ventura: 17.7 miles Traffic Thought to Be Worse Here ... GOING TO WORK

Orange Los Angeles Riverside San Bernardino Ventura Always bad 1% 16% 19% 15% 10% More 33 32 21 22 18 often bad Mixed 8 10 9 9 7 More 26 27 27 33 34 often good Always good 12 14 24 22 31

GOING HOME

Orange Los Angeles Riverside San Bernardino Ventura Always bad 30% 21% 18% 19% 14% More 30 33 27 22 19 often bad Mixed 5 5 5 7 7 More 23 26 22 29 33 often good Always good 11 14 28 22 27

More of Us Drive Alone

Orange Los Angeles Riverside San Bernardino Ventura Drive alone 85% 74% 82% 83% 80% Car 10 16 15 14 16 or van pool Public bus 2 7 1 0 1 Other 3 3 2 3 3

NOTE: Some totals are less than 100% because of rounding. Source: Commuter Transportation Services Inc.

Times staff writer Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this report.