County Commuters Have It Easier, Survey Says : Transit: Drivers spend less time on road, suffer less highway stress, study reports.

Ventura County commuters are more satisfied with their driving routine, suffer less highway stress and run into less congestion than commuters elsewhere in Southern California, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The annual State of the Commute report, produced by Commuter Transportation Services Inc., also found that Ventura County commuters spend less time on the road getting to and from work than their counterparts in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

But because most Ventura County commuters face an easier drive, it will be tougher to persuade them to use car pools, trains and buses, transportation experts said.

“The challenge is even greater in Ventura County to get people out of their cars because the commute is not as onerous as in the other counties,” said Roy Young, research manager for Commuter Transportation Services. “It’s going to be tougher to get Ventura County residents to consider ride-sharing.”

Young’s Los Angeles-based organization, popularly known as Commuter Computer, is the nation’s oldest and largest private agency providing employers and the public with information on ride-sharing and commuting.

The group’s fifth annual survey produced a profile of the typical Ventura County commuter. The study was based on a telephone survey of 2,591 commuters in the five-county area, including more than 500 living in Ventura County.

The agency cautioned that its poll was conducted late last year, prior to the full launch of the Metrolink commuter rail system and before the opening of the “Team Rideshare” publicity campaign, aimed at encouraging car pools.

Among the survey’s findings were:

* Ventura County commuters spend an average of 56 minutes per day getting to and from their jobs. That compares to 69 minutes a day for Los Angeles County residents and 80 minutes per day for Riverside County residents.

* About 82% of Ventura County commuters drive alone to and from work, putting them in the middle among the five counties.

* About 62% of Ventura County commuters use freeways, tying Riverside County for the highest usage.

* Only 8% of Ventura County’s commuters have a chance to use freeway lanes reserved for car pools--the lowest percentage among the counties surveyed. By contrast, 70% of Orange County’s commuters had access to a car-pool lane.

* Only 24% of the Ventura County commuters polled said they knew of a bus they could take to work. This figure was the lowest among the counties surveyed.

The survey indicated that Ventura County commuters are the region’s least aggravated by their drive.

When asked to rate how satisfied they were with their commutes on a scale of 1 to 9, 1 being worst and 9 being best, Ventura County residents rated theirs at 6.6--the highest among the five counties.

When asked to rate freeway and surface street traffic during their commutes compared to one year ago, more than half of the Ventura County respondents said the conditions were either “more often good” or “always good.”

In a measure of “commuter stress,” only 18% of Ventura County drivers said they were often bothered by traffic congestion. In Los Angeles County, the figure was 39%.

This relatively low commuter stress level is making it more difficult for local employers to comply with the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District’s Rule 210, local officials said. The rule requires companies to take steps to reduce the number of single-person car trips made by workers.

“Based on Rule 210, and the demands facing employers, we are going to have to work a little harder to make people aware that we have an air-quality problem that can be helped by cutting down on the use of the (one-person) vehicle,” said Charles Coffey, executive director of the Simi Valley Transportation Management Assn.

Coffey’s group works with employers to promote the use of car pools, van pools, buses, bicycles and walking.

He said the new Metrolink rail service provides a welcome alternative for commuters. But Coffey cautioned that the trains, which stop in Moorpark and Simi Valley, mainly serve east Ventura County residents who work in Los Angeles.

He said four new bus services that would provide new connections between cities, proposed by the Ventura County Transportation Commission, would provide a new way for commuters throughout the county to get to work.

“We believe the commuter needs those services,” Coffey said.

The new bus lines will tentatively begin next year, said Mary Travis, the commission’s manager of transportation programs. She said these buses may alter the results of future commuter surveys.

“In this county, you do have strong environmental reasons not to drive alone,” she said. “We do have a severe air-quality problem, and it comes mainly from the private auto. If folks want to clean up the air, mass transit is one of the ways to do that.”

Commuter Comparison

Commuters Two-way Two-way Commute to who drive commuting commuting out-of-county County alone distance time jobs Ventura 82% 30.8 miles 56 minutes 26% Los Angeles 76% 26.6 miles 69 minutes 10% Orange 86% 28 miles 63 minutes 24% Riverside 85% 45.6 miles 80 minutes 31% San Bernardino 80% 40 miles 75 minutes 37%

Source: Commuter Transportation Services Inc.