Calfornia Cities among nation's worst for commute times

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

When do we admit we've reached a saturation point with freeways!!!!! All freeways do is encourage people to live further and further away from where they work. They don't really help. We need other viable modes of transit besides freeways and driving.



It won't improve as long as people assume the only way to fix our transit problems is more freeway lanes. Of course, building train lines, etc. is difficult and expensive now that we have built a "freeway only" type infrastructure. But we must try.

But you have to admit that things like not having a freeway connecting the Peninsula with Marin via the City, or, the gaps in So Cal freeways, are just idiotic gestures. Dealing with things like that would not promote leap frog development.

[MIKEETC]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

But you have to admit that things like not having a freeway connecting the Peninsula with Marin via the City, or, the gaps in So Cal freeways, are just idiotic gestures. Dealing with things like that would not promote leap frog development.

A number of the 'gaps' are the result of negative reaction by the local community who don't want a freeway passing through/dividing their neighborhood. The State doesn't purposely create these gaps.

[hsw]

Median/avg commute time stats mean little and are usually manipulated by various gps with vested interests in development, mass transit, gvt union wages, toll rds, etc etc

Matters what are one's own commute times from affordable housing to a desirable job

US is a dynamic, competitive place; any region with truly onerous costs and commutes will cause major employers and talented workers to leave for more efficient regions like Dallas; tech/Net/Blkberry/webcams mean more and more workers can telecommute, saving companies much cost in office space (and workers much commute time/money); much mundane (and even upscale) shopping can be done online

SiliconValley, LA, Manhattan, etc have been costly, congested places for 25+yrs; unlikely to change; people need to gain useful education/skills and seek a job in a place where they can maximize their QOL...no one is forced to live in CA or NYC...and support workers in CA or NYC are probably paid more than support workers in less costly places; those who don't like COL of CA/NYC will likely find suburban Dall/Hou are most efficient places for many workers

Anecdotally, would argue commute times for most $100K+/yr workers in SiliconValley are a hell of a lot faster (and far more comfortable, climate-controlled and safer via private automobile) than their counterparts commuting into Manhattan from CT/NY/NJ suburbs (or even vs many intra-Manhattan commutes), despite all of NYC's worthless mass transit and puny fwys...

[Alberhill Ranch Resident]

Lake Elsinore is the worse commute in all of Southern California, it made the news for the worse commute. If you have any brains you won't move out to Lake Elsinore, especially Alberhill Ranch unless you enjoy sitting in traffic for HOURS..................

[wburg]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Not everyone can afford to be a mass transit taking urbanite. Furthermore, not everyone wants to live in places like the LA Basin or Inner Bay Area. Many people like big land, one story homes with good square footage, and an "American" feeling of place.

That "American" feeling of place comes with a cost. When this country (especially in this state) had fewer people in it, the government was rich and gas was cheap, that sort of thing became so easy that it became an expectation--as though Americans have an inborn right to huge homes and easy commutes. Adding lanes won't help in the long run--traffic simply increases to compensate, and suburbs keep sprawling farther out.

It's kind of like deciding you're going to lose weight, and instead of going on a diet or exercising you just buy bigger clothes and keep eating ice cream pizza. You feel like you lost weight--until you gain more and grow out of those clothes. The cycle repeats until you run out of ice cream pizza.

We're no longer a country with cheap gas or a wealthy government. We're no longer an underpopulated state with plenty of room to grow. So no, unless you're willing to deal with those long commutes, or much higher taxes, you aren't going to be able to have the big land, big house places for much longer. Our government is being told to go on a diet--that means that those who receive the benefit of that government's services, like freeway expansions and other subsidies to the suburbs, also have to lose weight, because we can't afford to feed them anymore.

Besides, public transit does not necessarily make one an "urbanite." Los Angeles and Orange County had a great electric transit system, and most of its suburbs (like the suburbs along the SF peninsula and East Bay, and the inner suburbs of Sacramento) were originally served by streetcar and interurban electric or steam trains. Most of those neighborhoods were pleasant, dominated by a mixture of single-family homes and apartments, and often they are still valuable and desirable neighborhoods, not "inner city" urban places by any stretch of the imagination. Getting back to the "streetcar suburb" model, with heavy rail accompanying highways and streetcars accompanying neighborhood feeder streets, might be a way to increase the total capacity of transit by giving people an alternative to cars. Getting back to localized jobs and mixed-use neighborhoods can help break the cycle of two-hour commutes, living and working in physically distant places.

[Alberhill Ranch Resident]

LAKE ELSINORE IS A DANGEROUS TOWN, it has fugitive dust, hgihest taxes in the I.E. and the longest commute, it is a waste of your money, avoid it by all means

Originally Posted by Alberhill Ranch Resident

Lake Elsinore is the worse commute in all of Southern California, it made the news for the worse commute. If you have any brains you won't move out to Lake Elsinore, especially Alberhill Ranch unless you enjoy sitting in traffic for HOURS..................