The Mobilized Masses

The sky is just beginning to lighten, yet convoys of long-distance commuters--stressed out, zoned out and acting out--already are crawling the freeways of Southern California.

These are the ultracommuters, the people who rise with the dawn and skip breakfast with the family to embark on drives to work that will take at least 45 minutes, and sometimes two hours or more. And that’s not counting the return trip.

“In the morning, it’s terrible wherever you go,” said Randy Evans, a mortgage banker who drives to Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside from his home in Coto de Caza. “If I have to get somewhere, I won’t make an appointment at 8 a.m.”

Three out of four drivers in Orange County find their time on the road frustrating, according to a new Times Orange County Poll by Baldassare Associates. And seven in 10 feel endangered by other motorists at least occasionally on an average commuting day.

Housing frontiers are moving ever outward, and jobs are scattered throughout the region. And the effects are being felt in more places than the freeway.

The ultracommuters are literally losing sleep over the amount of time they spend on the road. Families are strained as the exhausting day deprives workers both of time with loved ones and the energy to enjoy that time. Even communities feel the absence of many of their residents for much of the day; less time at home means less time to know neighbors and get involved in local activities.

In many areas of the country, a 45-minute drive is a trip to the country for the weekend. Here, for a fourth of commuters, it’s just another turtle race to work. And as both the population and number of jobs in the region increase, the ranks of the ultracommuters are growing.

Since the recession, a revived economy has added 1.5 million jobs to the region but made the commute worse in many places.

Recent road construction in Orange County has momentarily lightened the average commute for some South County residents, but the rising number of drivers threatens to vanquish those gains in short order.

“We’ve had a down economy. We’ve had a nice vacation from congestion, but that is ending,” said Jim Sims, director of Rideshare Services for the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

It takes Valerie Walrath, a facilities management specialist who drives from Hacienda Heights to Irvine, 45 minutes to two hours each way, depending on weather and road conditions.

“There are just so many people on the road,” Walrath said. “I have sat in my car and screamed.” She is among the 79% of the region’s 6 million commuters who trek to work and back alone in their cars.

Like Walrath, women with long commutes--which many transportation experts define as 20 miles or longer--are the most stressed out of the commuting class, according to Raymond Novaco, a professor of psychology and social behavior at UC Irvine who extensively surveyed commuter stress.

The reason “remains something of a puzzle,” but may be because women tend to have more responsibilities, such as stopping at the market or picking up children.

Novaco has found that in general, the frustration associated with driving in traffic raises blood pressure, lowers moods and contributes to illness and missed work.

And, curiously, he found that more-relaxed Type B people get more agitated during a difficult drive than hard-charging, aggressive Type A motorists. The reason, Novaco thinks, is that Type As are more calibrated to compete, take control of their drive and get to work.

But he agrees it’s a jungle out there, at least in terms of animal instinct. People see their space as their territory.

“The main function of aggressive behavior is territorial defense,” he said. “If you look at aggressiveness in human and animal species, the best predictor is the proximity of another animal.”

And in a traffic crunch, the other animals are just too close.

Novaco cites a Salt Lake City study that concluded that 12% of males and 18% of females endorsed the statement that “at times, I felt that I could gladly kill another driver.” His own studies in Southern California find that more than 40% of male drivers and up to 21% of female drivers said they had chased other drivers who had angered them.

Among the ultracommuters, commuting is a separate world made up of equal parts frustration, dread and dreams, where sometimes the mind is angrily focused on the present and other times floats somewhere else.

“You get programmed after a while; you can almost drive to work with your eyes closed,” said Rich Macias, a planner who lives in Rancho Cucamonga and for years drove one to two hours each way to jobs in central Los Angeles. “People get so mesmerized they don’t see a car stop in front of them. You’re sort of in a trance.”

Seated and cushioned, steel and glass protecting them from the noise and weather, with the reassuring rumble of tires on pavement, commuters slip into an illusion of tranquil safety. Fingers fuss with the tape deck or the radio. The mind has an out-of-car experience. It becomes a sort of jukebox. A little arm passes over a neat row and selects some scratchy memory or thorny problem. It is like dreaming awake. There are a hundred half-thought thoughts.

“It’s like you’re literally zoned out, like you’ve lost time, in a time warp,” Walrath said.

More than once, Walrath has found herself driving home at night, an old family crisis for which she blamed herself playing like a soundtrack in her brain. “I’d get in my car, and there’d go that tape. When you’re alone, even if there’s music on, those tapes are going on in your head.”

That other-world boredom can suddenly turn to terror.

“I have been instantaneously frightened,” Macias said. Cars “come very close to nicking you.”

Insurance agent Hugh Prosser has one of the most treacherous commutes in Southern California, 54 miles from Temecula in Riverside County to San Juan Capistrano over the beautifully dangerous Ortega Highway. Travel time: one hour, 15 minutes of curves and sheer plunges.

“This year alone, I’ve seen three deaths on the Ortega and one serious accident a week. I’m constantly on the alert and wonder what’s coming around the next corner. You don’t dare daydream.”

Many commuters bear all this to keep their families well housed, safe and happy. Then they come home too tired and irritated--and too late--to enjoy their time together.

Macias’ family rejoiced when he accepted a job in downtown Los Angeles that he could reach by catching Metrolink near his Rancho Cucamonga home, getting him out of the car and cutting his commute time. “In my family, life was starting to deteriorate,” he said. “My wife would communicate with me on the phone during work.”

He was getting 5 1/2 hours of sleep on a good night. “It affects your productivity level at work. You feel you will never catch up. You become cynical, irritable. You’re no fun to be around.”

Americans have added about 158 hours to their yearly work commute time since 1969, hours that are subtracted from sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

Prosser blames “the tension, the tiredness” of his mountain commute for helping bring the collapse of his 25-year marriage. “The same things that aggravated you at work, you think of the entire way home. I really think long commutes contribute to marital problems.”

They also subtract from community life, commuters find.

Steve McCaughey practices what he preaches as executive director of Spectrumotion Transportation Management Assn., which arranges commute alternatives to reduce congestion in the Irvine Spectrum business park. He carpools the 42 miles each way to his job from his spacious house in Corona in Riverside County. It takes an hour in the morning, less on the return trip.

“I have no sense of community with Corona,” he said. “I sleep there. I know nothing about local business or politics. I would guess the community suffers for this. My entire neighborhood commutes to Orange County. It’s very sad.”

He goes to bed at 9:15 so he can be up at 4:45. “I live from weekend to the weekend,” McCaughey said. “Am I happy?”

It’s predicted to worsen as the economy brings in new jobs and new residents.

Los Angeles County, which a 10-year study by the Texas Transportation Institute last October proclaimed the most congested urban area in the nation, will experience a 31% population growth by 2020.

Orange County is projected to add nearly 21.6%. or 600,000, more residents during that time, and the populations of San Bernardino and Riverside counties will grow by 79% and 98.6%, respectively. In Ventura County, an additional 185,000 residents and up to 200,000 more jobs are forecast, although a growth-control proposal could significantly affect those numbers.

Some transportation experts and academicians argue that commuting is self-regulating and that people have the freedom to change jobs or residences if the drive becomes unendurable.

But that decision is far more complicated for commuters who want to live where houses are bigger and cheaper and their families are established and happy. The work world has changed, they say; it’s not worth it to uproot family and home for a job that might or might not be there in a year or two.

For Walrath, whose husband commutes in the opposite direction, their home, valued at a pre-Proposition 13 assessment, is not only a midway point and a break on their property taxes but also a sanctuary for their children, whom Walrath doesn’t want to tear away from their school and friends.

“Styles have changed,” she said. “You don’t work for a company 20 years and get a gold watch. You’ve got to make as much as you can when you’re young enough and put it in a retirement fund. You do what you can. You drive to your job, five or 50 miles. You do it for your kids and for your retirement.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

About the Poll

The Times Orange County Poll was conducted by Baldassare Associates. The random telephone survey of 600 adult Orange County residents was conducted July 23-26. The sample reflects the demographic characteristics of adult Orange County residents. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 4% at the 95% confidence level. That means the results are within 4 percentage points of what they would be if all adults in Orange County were interviewed. For subgroups, such as regions, the margin of error would be larger. For registered voters, the margin of error is plus or minus 5%.

Rough Day on the Road

Like most commuters in Southern California, a vast majority of those living in Orange County take to their cars, alone, when they head off to work. Three-fourths of them end up frustrated with the drive on a typical day.

Drive Alone to Work

San Bernardino: 82%

Orange: 81

Riverside: 80

Ventura: 80

Los Angeles: 78

Commuting Distance

(miles, one way)

Riverside: 25.3

San Bernardino: 24.3

Ventura: 17.8

Orange: 17.1

Los Angeles: 14.6

Commute Stats

Use Freeway in Commute

Los Angeles: 57

Orange: 64

Riverside: 65%

San Bernardino: 61

Ventura: 63

*

Average Monthly Commute Cost

Riverside: $103

San Bernardino: 101

Orange: 98

Ventura: 91

Los Angeles: 90

Percent Working in Home County

Los Angeles: 94%

Orange: 75

Ventura: 73

Riverside: 64

San Bernardino: 64

Commute Times

In minutes

*--*

To From work work San Bernardino 37 47 Riverside 39 45 Orange 32 38 Los Angeles 30 34 Ventura 27 31

*--*

How Frustrated?

* On a typical day, would you say you find the driving conditions you encounter to be very frustrating, somewhat frustrating, somewhat pleasant or very pleasant?

Very frustrating: 18%

Somewhat frustrating: 57

Somewhat pleasant: 21

Very pleasant: 4

Feel Endangered?

* On a typical day, how frequently do you feel endangered by other drivers?

Often: 27%

Sometimes: 42

Rarely: 24

Never: 7

Cautious or Aggressive?

Do driving conditions today cause you to drive more cautiously, more aggressively or about the same as always?

More cautiously: 57%

More aggressively: 15

Same as always: 28

Sources: Times Orange County Poll; Southern California Assn. of Governments