April 2008
Commuting
No planes and trains, but plenty of automobiles - and buses - take Lake County commuters to work
By Andrea McGovern

Patricia White commutes from Geneva to her job as an executive assistant at Keybank in downtown Cleveland. White, who catches a Laketran bus in Madison, is involved with the Laketran advisory council. She crochets to put the time spent on the bus to good use.

David Reed leaves his home in Madison at 6:45 each morning to begin his hour-and-a-half trek to Akron, where he works at FirstEnergy.

“For the most part, I’m driving against traffic,” he said. “I never hit my second stoplight until I’ve already gone 50 miles.”

In recent years, there has been a sharp of increase in the number of people who drive such long distances to get to work, according to “Commuting in America III: The Third National Report on Commuting Patterns and Trends.”

The report was published by the Transportation Research Board, and uses the most recent census data as its informational source. According to the report, many more Americans are leaving their homes earlier, between 5 and 6:30 a.m., commuting longer periods of time and crossing county lines on their ride to work.

Another trend the study noted is the growth in commuting from suburb to suburb. In fact, today the suburbs account for the majority of job destinations.

The implications of these developments for workers in Lake County are obvious. Nearly 73,000 of them work right in Lake County. More than 36,000 go to Cuyahoga County each day; with Geauga, Summit and Ashtabula bringing up the next three slots on the top five with a total of about 4,500 Lake residents traveling to all three combined. When you note the availability of public transit routes, it becomes clear the majority of them are driving.

Economics the driving factor

According to Alan E. Pisarski, author of all three editions of “Commuting in America,” the willingness to drive longer distances to work is most often fueled by factors such as the cost of housing or the location of a spouse’s place of employment.

Reed, an accountant, began his career at FirstEnergy at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant. When CEI went under the umbrella of FirstEnergy, the accounting functions were moved to Akron. He and his wife, Linda, executive director of the Painesville Area Chamber of Commerce, discussed moving to a location in between their two jobs, but chose to stay in Madison. He likes to drive better than she does, he said.

Researchers at the University of California’s Transportation Center found that working women do tend to be more negatively affected by long commutes than men. Their studies measured blood pressure, heart rate and mood, and assessed memory, psychomotor performance and tolerance for frustration. Significantly, the women tested who experienced the most stress appraised their commutes more negatively than did men who drove comparable distances and had similar incomes and education levels. It was suggested that women’s travel patterns tend to be more complex because they are juggling household duties, child care and chauffeuring along with their employment.

It’s how you use the time that seems to matter most

Researchers at the University of West England found that although 25 percent of the commuters they interviewed viewed their time in transit as wasted, many more of them, about half, used the time to relax, clear their minds or read. Those who did seemed to find the time more worthwhile.

Although originally Reed said he thought driving to Akron on a daily basis would add a lot of stress, the reality is actually quite the opposite.

“I’ve found that for me it provides mental time to prepare for the day and unwind after it,” he said. “Certainly, traffic can be stressful, but in my case it’s rare to hit a lot of traffic. Whenever you are driving, you do have to maintain yourself mentally, and if at the end of the day I’m tired, that can be stressful.”

“Commuting in America III” shows that among those who travel more than 60 minutes each way to get to work, the average one-way trip is 80 minutes. Many people drive 90 minutes each way or farther. That’s the group the government has dubbed “extreme commuters.” Often they trade the time because of housing and lifestyle choices offered farther from high employment areas. Circumstances such as job changes, job losses and company relocations may also force someone into commuting farther than they had planned.

Like their California counterparts, the British researchers cited medical studies that found long car commutes to be linked to tension, reduced performance and bad moods that carry over after work. They also cited physical symptoms such as stiff neck, tiredness and lower back pain. These seemed to be somewhat diminished for those with accessibility to mass transit – if they used the time to “re-energize.”

Public transit a solution for some commuters

Laketran riders Patricia Nousak White and Ellen Brown discovered the bus as a solution to the hassles of driving when commuting to Cleveland from outlying suburbs became too much of a burden.

White has been commuting from Geneva to downtown Cleveland for 19 years. She is an executive assistant in Keybank’s commercial banking division at the Keybank Center. White is gone from home more than 12 hours each day, leaving before 6 a.m. and returning around 6 p.m. A number of forced job changes for White’s husband caused her to continue working downtown many years longer than they had originally anticipated when they first moved from Cleveland to Geneva.

“We moved to Geneva because that was where we wanted to be,” White said. “But you can’t get a job out there for what we get in Cleveland, either in money or in benefits.”

She usually drives downtown on Fridays, but opts to take Laketran the remainder of the week. She picks up the bus in Madison. Although her commute would be slightly shorter if she drove every day, she likes the bus because she can read or sleep, save money on gas and downtown parking, and doesn’t have the stress of driving and finding a parking place.

Brown picks up the bus either at the depot in Painesville or Market Street in Mentor. The Fairport Harbor resident has been in her position as an executive administrative assistant in the structured finance division at National City’s downtown Cleveland offices for eight years. She originally carpooled with her husband, but a job loss for him ended that convenience. Brown drives a large vehicle because the family still has students in college who need to be moved a couple of times a year. It didn’t make it as a commuter vehicle. Besides the cost of gas, it is difficult to park. Taking the bus also significantly decreased Brown’s car insurance rates.

“All around this saves me money,” Brown said. “And I get to sleep.”

It’s those catnaps that give her the energy to be productive in her work day, and do chores and hobbies after work, she said.

Both White and Brown said the riders on their buses have become small communities that watch out for each other and share the details of their lives.

“I’d have to spend that time anyway,” Brown said. “By taking the bus, I’ve met a lot of people who have become close friends.”

Lost time is lost time

Although she also enjoys the bus ride, White still said she often feels “like I don’t live at home, but just stop by every now and then.”

Long commutes do take time away from non-work hours, and the British researchers found that many of their respondents lamented time lost from other activities. Especially important to them was self-care, such as visiting doctors, sleeping, exercising, eating healthily and enjoying leisure and social activities.

Andrea McGovern is a Mentor Freelance writer.