COMMENTARY ON THE COMMUTE : It’ll Take More Than Regulation to Drive Us Into Car Pools : Government efforts to promote ride-sharing and mass transit will never work without individual commitment.

Despite the Arab oil embargo of 1972, our society has done precious little to deal with its obsession for cars. During that oil crisis we found ourselves unable to maintain mobility without oil, the precious resource that energizes our auto-based mobility. Nowhere is that fact more clear today than in Orange County, where a recent study about car-pooling in the region dubbed “The State of the Commute” found that Orange County commuters were the least likely to car-pool.

It has been 20 years since the oil embargo and, although autos are responsible for over 60% of the pollution in Southern California’s air and the major contributor to our ever-worsening traffic problems, we are still unable to deal with our obsession. I have been working in the ride-sharing field for almost two decades. When we started, the mission was to reduce congestion, save energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Today, the mission priorities have changed. Our primary goal is to clean the air by reducing travel and congestion.

Much has been written about the many facets of the problem. However, it all boils down to a set of basic issues. Commuters, in this case specifically Orange County commuters, are more resistant to changing their attitudes and behavior in favor of more efficient commuting arrangements.

Why is this when we have the shortest average commute distance? The reasons can be traced to our attitudes, which are closely related to the county’s demographics. A peek into “Transportation in Suburbia,” a 1990 survey of attitudes toward transportation in Orange County, reveals that “there is substantial opposition to transportation policies that involve financial or lifestyle sacrifices, despite the experience of worsening commutes.”

Orange County is one of the most affluent counties in California and the nation, with a median family income of $45,000. In Orange County, high household income is the best indicator of residents continuing the trend of commuting to a distant workplace, opposing parking fees to discourage solo driving and opposing a jobs/housing balance in development.

So the car-pooling statistics in Orange County should come as no surprise to anyone.

More Orange County commuters drive to work alone (85%), contributing to the poor traffic situation. This trend is made worse by one of the lowest ratios of freeway miles to residents among urban counties. It’s no wonder then that Orange County commuters expressed the highest dissatisfaction rate with their commutes among the counties in the region.

In fact, the dissatisfaction with freeway conditions in Orange County has increased significantly in the past 10 years. In 1982, 32% of those surveyed were satisfied with the county’s freeway system. By 1989 that percentage had fallen to just 7%. In 1989, 64% of commuters experienced traffic problems on the way to work and 60% indicated their commute situation was worsening.

What lies ahead for Orange County commuters unwilling to change their attitudes and behavior voluntarily? They can expect stepped-up government regulations designed to meet ambitious state and federal clean-air goals (which, incidentally, most Orange County commuters generally support). Perhaps it will take the form of eliminating all free parking within the region. Or the enactment of regulations requiring trip-reduction efforts by employers of 50 or more employees and by multi-tenant office complexes, schools and colleges.

We cannot build our way out of our traffic problems. Attitudes and behavior must change. In many cases, government regulation will do what we cannot or will not do for ourselves. The regulations will be designed to create policies that will force motorists out of their solo driving habits. Social engineering in action!

Where is technology in all this? Technology will play a major role in cleaning up Southern California’s air during the next 20 years, but it alone will not eliminate the problem. So, government at all levels, the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the state Air Resources Board, and the regional South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) will regulate us into making that lifestyle change we so staunchly resist.

If it’s any consolation, trip-reduction ordinances like SCAQMD’s Regulation XV are popping up all over California and the rest of the country; in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and Washington state, just to name a few. So, moving out of Southern California will do little to escape the government solution to end our obsession with cars.

The good news is that a recent UCLA study of more than 1,000 regulated employers shows measurable and significant impacts as a result of Regulation XV efforts. However, I doubt that these initial gains can be retained and expanded via regulation alone. The UCLA researchers note that the employer-based trip reductions have been accomplished with an average of just 10% of an assigned staff person’s time. Who knows what results are possible if more time were dedicated to the employer programs?

A lot of regulatory effort will precede any behavioral changes. And whatever changes that effort produces may only be in response to traffic problems reaching crisis proportions. We must embrace the practical shared-ride and trip-reduction strategies when and where available. Further, we must also accept the notion that it is our individual responsibility to help reduce congestion and pollution, not just the other driver’s.

We also need to develop more and better strategies, adaptations and enhancements to the alternatives now available. More direct express bus routes, more van-pools, more frequent commuter trains and a greater attitude of openness in the workplace to compressed work weeks and telecommuting will help. These changes, along with government coercion, may help coax more motorists out of their daily, one-person-per-vehicle commute to reduce traffic and the pollution it creates.