5.4 percent of Solano employees driving over 90 minutes to work

Note: Bring your high paying jobs to Solano County - Our labor force would like not to commute.

Solano workers' commutes rank among worst in nation

Friday, April 01, 2005 - Bay City News Report

Solano County workers' drives to work rankedrank in the Top 10 worst commutes in the nation in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The average time it takes to drive to work in Solano is 30.6 minutes. In the Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa metropolitan area the average is 28.6 minutes.

Compare that to the national average of 24.3 minutes.

Area workers also have increasingly long commutes, with 5.4 percent of Solano employees driving over 90 minutes to work. In the Vallejo metro area, that number dropped to 4.6 percent.

However, those mega-commutes are far above the 2 percent national average.

The study surveyed workers over the age of 16.

Although the New York region ranks at the top of nearly every list of bad commutes in the country, the Bay Area is not far behind, ranking among the Top 10 worst commutes in the country in 2003, according to the Census.

The census bureau reported that residents of the metropolitan area encompassing San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose averaged 26.8 minutes on the way to work.
In a survey that looked at the percentage of residents that commuted more than 90 minutes to work, San Francisco showed 1.5 percent, which was slightly lower than the percent nationally at 2 percent. Contra Costa County had 4.6 percent with long commutes.
As for states, California was fourth with 2.8 percent of resident commuters traveling for 90 minutes or more.

"This annual information on commuters and their work trips and other transportation-related data will help local, regional and state agencies maintain, improve, plan and develop the nation's transportation systems" said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon in a statement.
A study released by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in January found that regional freeway delays, measured in the daily number of vehicle hours, declined by 18 percent in 2003 from the previous year. In 2002 there was a 6-percent drop in congestion and a 12- percent drop in 2001, the commission reports.

Commission Chair Steve Kinsey notes that the reduction in congestion in 2003 was a byproduct of reduced economic activity in the region.

-- Times-Herald staff writer Matthias Gafni contributed to this report.