October 1, 2008
Turns out California is not quite the car-crazy, motoring Mecca it's made it out to be – at least compared to other states.
New census data offer an image-busting glimpse of Golden State commuting: A smaller percentage of workers drove alone last year than in almost any other state.
That's not saying much, however. Nationally, 76 percent of commuters drive alone each day to work.
California's 73 percent ranks it a surprisingly low 43rd among states on solo car commutes, tied with the famously eco-aware Oregon, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Sacramento has more solo commuters, although still slightly fewer than the national average.
New data back what some experts have argued for years. Californians use their cars a lot, but are no more freewheeling than people in other states.
"One more mention of California's love affair with the car and we're goners," lamented Charles Lave of the University of California Transportation Center more than a year ago. "If we wanted to fondle cars, we'd be somewhere in Alabama."
(Alabama is tied with Tennessee as the nation's true solo car commute capitals, census data show, followed by Indiana and Michigan.)
California also is gaining a reputation for its high-profile attempts to put the brakes on long commutes, gas consumption and vehicle emissions.
That includes Assembly Bill 32 in 2006, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide from vehicles, blamed for global warming.
And, on Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Sacramento Sen. Darrell Steinberg's SB 375, which guides metropolitan areas to cut sprawl and reduce emissions by growing more densely in existing urban areas and near public transit lines.
The legislation was inspired by the Sacramento region's recent Blueprint to reduce car commutes with more urban-style housing and more transit.
"It's about ensuring that people don't have to spend more time in their cars," Steinberg said.
Californians also are cutting back on their own.
Pinched by high fuel prices and a slow economy, California drivers bought nearly 5percent less gas this June than in June 2007. It was the ninth consecutive month of reduced gas purchases.
Nationally, motorists are driving about 4 percent less this summer than last summer, national transportation officials said Tuesday, also part of a nine-month trend.
Despite gains, a review of census data show California, the Sacramento region and the rest of the nation are a long way from leaving their cars in the garage.
Californians now spend on average 27.3 minutes each morning on a commute. That includes transit riding and is among the longest in the country. Still, it's less than the 27.7-minute average commute in 2000.
In most cases, commuters' choices on how to get to work remain limited, transportation analysts say.
"We are not so exceptional," UC Berkeley transportation analyst Elizabeth Deakin said of California. "People are very rational and very practical. They choose based on travel time and travel cost."
In a congested urban area, like Los Angeles, the Bay Area or central Sacramento, people will choose transit if it works better than a car, she said.
But it's causing a dilemma away from Sacramento's core, where cities like Folsom, Roseville and Elk Grove are dense enough to have congestion, but not dense enough for buses to be popular.
Yolo County remains the region's least car-dependent commute area. There, commuters ride bikes and walk to work at rates far exceeding state averages.
Yet, since 2000, with growth on the edges of Davis and Woodland, Yolo County shows the biggest increase in the number of commuters driving solo.
Some, Deakin says, are heading to work in Sacramento, but plenty others are caught in the nowhere land of fringe developments that are just a little too far out of transit, biking and walking distances.
Conversely, in Placer County, historically a car-centric area, the percentage of people driving alone to work is dropping, and carpool and transit ridership is up.
But even in more urbanized portions of Sacramento – where transit is strongest – residents lament a lack of commute options.
"Getting out of my car is one of the reasons I choose to live close to the city core," said Kathleen Ave of Curtis Park. She has taken light rail and ridden her bike to work. But, with two school-age children and no neighborhood bus to school, "realities get in the way sometimes."
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