More US commuters drive solo
Global-warming warnings have not dissuaded Americans from driving to work alone. In fact, their numbers have been rising.
By Bina Venkataraman
June 25, 2007
Geraldine Kim, a fourth-grade teacher who lives in San Francisco, says she drives to her job in Sunnyvale, Calif., alone because it reduces her commute time from two hours using public transit to 40 minutes. "Every time I pump gas or I'm stuck in traffic, I feel guilty about the fact that I'm contributing to global warming," she says. Ms. Kim recently took a new job in Oakland, where her commute will be closer to 20 minutes each way - about the new national average.
Average travel time to work for American commuters has increased, and the trend of driving more distance is expected to continue. By 2012, the number of miles clocked by drive-alone commuters will increase by 15 percent over 2002 levels, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some cities are leaps and bounds ahead of others when it comes to alternatives to the automobile. New York leads the nation with less than one-fourth of workers driving alone and the lowest ratio of cars to commuters. But its workers also travel for the most amount of time.
Washington is ranked the top city for alternative commuting by SustainLane, a San Francisco business that publishes rankings of US cities based on "sustainability" criteria. The ranking gives separate weight to the share of people carpooling and the share bicycling and walking, which can give indications about road safety, sidewalks, and bike paths. Warren Karlenzig, the company's chief strategy officer, praises Washington's "modern and efficient" public-transit system, broad boulevards, and greenways for encouraging carless travel.
Several transportation experts say Americans - particularly working women - may be increasing their fuel efficiency in ways not reflected by the study, such as combining their commutes with errands like dropping off laundry.
Kim, in San Francisco, says that on her way home from work, she frequently stops by a market to pick up groceries for the week. But she says she hasn't found other ways to make her commute more efficient.
From Mr. Pisarski's perspective, Americans are most concerned with saving time - not money or the environment. "The safest thing to assume is that if there are going to be environmental gains or fuel-efficiency gains, it will be from technology," he adds. "It will be from the kinds of vehicles we use and the fuels we use, rather than reformations in people's behavior."
Hints of recent change have surfaced. Memorial Day road travel grew less dramatically from last year than usual, according to Mike Pina of the American Automobile Association. He attributes the flattening to high gas prices, but predicts that most Americans will keep driving to work because they want "door-to-door service" and think that driving saves them time.
"There won't be dramatic changes unless [gas] prices are much higher," says Winters. "What you probably will see is a growing interest in working from home."
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