<...> A study released today examines commuting trends during the last decade of the 20th century.
-- The number of workers with commutes over an hour grew by nearly 50 percent. -- More Americans commute from city to suburb than suburb to city. -- Only 4 percent of commuters live in households without a car. -- Men make up the majority of commuters before 7:30 a.m. while women make up the majority after 7:30 a.m. -- 30 million vehicles were added to households from 1990 to 2000, and 13 million of those were added to households that already have two or more vehicles. <...> CALIFORNIA Bay Area bucks trend for one driver, one car Study shows drop in rate of solo commuting Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer Monday, October 16, 2006 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/16/BAG0PLQ5S11.DTL The Western states, as most who live and work here know, are different from the rest of the nation. Our commuting habits are no exception. According to a national study released today, the proportion of U.S. commuters driving to work alone continued to increase at the end of the 20th century, but the speed of that increase slowed, especially in the West. The West saw increases in carpooling and transit ridership while both declined in the East and Midwest. "Something different is happening in the West,'' said Tad Widby, project manager for 511 Rideshare, which promotes carpooling and other alternatives to driving in the Bay Area. Those regional differences are among the findings in the 172-page Commuting in America III report -- a fact-filled analysis of commuting trends in the last decade of the century prepared by transportation consultant Alan Pisarski for the Transportation Research Board. It's based on data from the 2000 U.S. census. Nationally, 75.7 percent of all commuters drove to work alone -- a 2.5 percent increase over 1990. The percentage of solo commuters decreased in only five metropolitan areas, including four in the West. The Bay Area and New York City are the only metropolitan areas in the nation with more than 1 million residents where fewer than 80 percent of commuters drive alone. According to the report, 68.1 percent drive alone in the Bay Area; it's 56.3 percent in New York. Not surprisingly, the West also had a higher proportion of commuters riding transit over the decade with significant increases in the San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas and Denver areas. West Palm Beach, Fla., Orlando and New York also saw big jumps while Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago had big decreases. The West's increases in transit ridership, Widby said, are likely because of new transit systems, including light rail. Denizens of Western states also were more likely to carpool, according to the report. While the popularity of carpooling has plummeted from 20 percent nationally in 1980 to 12 percent in 2000, four cities experienced increases in ridesharing: Phoenix, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta. Five other Western metro areas -- San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Houston -- maintained their shares of carpoolers. Much of the success of carpooling in those areas, said author Pisarski, is thanks to the influx of immigrants, who were drawn to carpools in far higher numbers than other American commuters. Immigrants made up just 14 percent of the workforce but accounted for 40 percent of those in large carpools. The percentage is particularly high among Hispanic immigrants, Pisarski said. "We've seen the same thing in the Bay Area with our regional rideshare program,'' said Widby, adding that the trend has continued beyond 2000. "People of Hispanic origin tend to use carpooling more than others.'' And according to the report, more people are likely to carpool or take transit as commute patterns change. Those patterns will be influenced by aging Baby Boomers entering or nearing retirement, and the influence of immigrants, who tend to ride transit, carpool, ride bikes or walk to work. How we get around A study released today examines commuting trends during the last decade of the 20th century. -- The number of workers with commutes over an hour grew by nearly 50 percent. -- More Americans commute from city to suburb than suburb to city. -- Only 4 percent of commuters live in households without a car. -- Men make up the majority of commuters before 7:30 a.m. while women make up the majority after 7:30 a.m. -- 30 million vehicles were added to households from 1990 to 2000, and 13 million of those were added to households that already have two or more vehicles. -- 4 million Americans work from home -- more than the number who walk to work. Source: Commuting in America III report E-mail Michael Cabanatuan at [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Leigh [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.leighm.net
