|
Carpooling drops as traffic
congestion increases
BY MARISA NAVARRO
Capital News Service
Carpooling in Maryland dropped
15 percent during the 1990s, despite a population increase
and worsening traffic conditions, according to an analysis
of data from the Census Bureau.
The figures showed that more than 320,000 Maryland workers
shared a ride to work in 2000, about 55,000 fewer carpoolers
than in 1990, despite a 10 percent increase in the state population
during the decade.
Carpooling was still more popular than public transportation,
according to the Census, or walking to work. But the number
of carpoolers paled in comparison to the 1.9 million people
who chose to drive to work alone, the most popular mode of
commuting in 2000.
"People in this area like their cars," said Amanda Knittle,
spokeswoman for the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the AAA.
And they apparently don't like to share. Knittle said the
automobile association this month released a poll of Maryland
drivers that found that while 50 percent believe that traffic
conditions are very bad, only 16 percent said carpooling was
a way to relieve congestion.
Carpooling can be a hard sell for people who have grown used
to the independence that a car brings, said Heather McColl,
executive director of the Anne Arundel Regional Transportation
Management Association. She said commuters have told her that
they worry about being stranded at work if an emergency, like
a sick child, arose and they did not have a car.
Local officials aim to answer that concern with programs
like the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments' Commuter
Connections program. In addition to giving drivers a free
database of others who are interested in sharing a ride to
work, the program guarantees carpoolers a free ride home,
up to four times a year, in case there is an emergency at
home or the employee gets stuck at work on unexpected overtime.
State and local groups are taking other steps to encourage
carpooling. The state started phasing in High-Occupancy Vehicle
lanes on some highways beginning in the 1990s, for example,
and governments have set up Park-and-Ride lots near highways
and Metro stations where commuters can park their cars and
board carpools.
But not everyone is worried about the drop in carpooling
-- as long as the people who give up carpools get into another
mode of mass transportation.
The expansion of subway and light-rail systems since 1990,
for example, has given commuters more options, said Robin
Briscoe, rideshare coordinator for the Tri-County Council
for Southern Maryland.
"You have more services," Briscoe said. "People are staying
away from carpools."
Linda Greene, executive director of BWI Business Partnership
Inc., said carpooling is "not as big as we would like it to
be," but attributes that lack of interest to options like
Baltimore's light-rail system.
Commuter Connections Director Nicholas Ramfos said that getting
people to carpool is a challenge but "if you look at it (carpooling)
as a percentage of the whole, we are still doing what we need
to be doing."
Statewide, about 12 percent of all workers carpooled in 2000,
down from 20 percent in 1990, according to the Census. Only
two counties posted carpooling gains during the decade, with
Calvert County reporting an 8 percent increase and Garrett
County seeing a 3 percent rise. Kent County had the biggest
drop in its rate of carpoolers, falling 33 percent.
The drop in ride-sharing comes at time when traffic conditions
have worsened.
A September report by the Texas Transportation Institute
said that the Washington, D.C., area had one of the most congested
road systems in the country in 2001. It said Washington-area
commuters waste an average of 34 hours a year stuck in traffic,
the seventh-highest rate in the nation, and Baltimore-area
commuters spend an extra 22 hours a year behind the wheel,
the 25th-worst of 75 metropolitan areas studied.
"Right now the average commute is horrendous and it will
only continue to get worse as people realize they are part
of the problem as they sit in the Beltway," McColl said.
|
