How long is your commute?

Now there's a SoCal question. And answers vary from the smug (work-at-home types) to the outraged (getting anywhere, almost any time, on the 10 east). Our traffic guru, Steve Hymon, ever in search of a way to ease your pain, explains why turning carpool lanes into toll lanes (a.k.a. congestion pricing) is a good thing.

Caltrans data shows that carpool lanes typically move faster than regular lanes but also suffer from congestion during rush hour.

Of course, you don't need a spreadsheet to tell you that. One recent Thursday, I drove in the 210's regular lanes from Pasadena to Upland between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. At times, I was going faster than vehicles in the carpool lane, where traffic by my count was averaging about 30 mph before speeding up east of the 57 junction.

This is where the toll comes into play. Officials say the fees (which are yet to be set) would discourage some people from using the carpool lane during rush hour and thus improve speeds to at least an average of 45 mph.

Steve's commuting column is here. To throw fuel on the fire make things more interesting, we've got a map right here.

This being a topic near and dear to our automotive hearts and, readers of this blog being an opinionated bunch (comments are open but please, no cursing, name-calling or urls), I'm guessing there's lots to say.

-- Veronique de Turenne

Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Lynda from THE LBC]

In the morning I would say about 30 minutes to go 19 miles... Not bad, about half Freeway, and Surface streets

At night, it can be from 35 minutes to an hour, depending on howmany idiots on cell phones in SUVs there are...

[L Joyce Croker]

I live in Atwater Village and commute to UCLA every week day, about 14 miles. It takes between 45 minutes and and hour to get there in the morning via surface streets. It's the drive home that kills: an hour on good days; all the way to two hours on bad days.

[Sue Kamm]

One problem with High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes is Caltrans seems to think everyone is going to the same general area. Drivers STILL have to cross lanes of traffic to get off the freeway, or if one drives on the top deck of the 110, there are no exits from that stretch, not even at the existing freeway off-ramps.

[Kerry]

We might as well thin out the "carpool lanes" by charging for use, although how this will be enforced escapes me. As a hybrid driver, I sometimes use the lanes but often just drive next to them (for flexibility and exit strategies). It's disheartening how many scofflaws (non-hybrids with one person) treat the carpool lane as a personal passing lane, or simply drive on it when they are not supposed to - but clearly, they CAN drive on it, and there's few ways to catch them or stop them.

So, again - how will tolls be collected, and the 'sanctity' of the toll lane protected so that this doesn't become one more naive effort based on the honor system?

[Will Campbell]

I bike commute the roundtrip 30 miles from Silver Lake to Westchester and back every weekday. It takes me about an hour each way and the exercise saves me the $70 a month I had been paying the downtown YMCA. Plus the office park where I work has an alt-transportation subsidy program that rewards my cycling commutes to the tune of about $30 a month.

Doing the same surface street route by car is about 10-15 minutes faster in the morning and 30-45 minutes slower in the evening.

I've only done the freeway route (101 South / 110 South / 10 West / 405 South) twice in the eight months I've had this job: once on a Saturday morning and the other on Christmas Eve. Never during a regular work day because I would to insane.

[Roger, Gone Green]

The issue isn't so much about traffic as the fact that we expect that we *should* live 20, 30 or 40 miles from work.

I live in Pasadena. For several years I worked in El Monte, 10 miles away one way, about 20 minutes on surface streets by car; 30 minutes when driving a bike. .

Now that I finally work *and* live in Pasadena, my commute is 1.85 miles. I drive a bike most days. Takes about 10 minutes. I could walk in twice that. Either way, I get to enjoy the spring flowers and the smell of wood smoke on winter mornings.

Even if I ride a car it takes about 10 minutes, with traffic lights and parking.

By arranging my life to avoid being sentenced to a car, I have options. I also spend less time in the car. And don't complain about the commute.