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Commuting can turn into a tiring lifestyle By JOSHUA MOLINA
They go to bed early and rise before the sun comes up, just to hop in their cars and listen to books on tape and radio tunes or ponder life while moving at a slug's pace. Highway 101 commuters leave their lives and homes in Ventura, Oxnard, Ojai and beyond every morning to work in Santa Barbara, where there is higher pay, but in many cases, still not enough to buy a home. Thousands of motorists drive every day through the snarled traffic on Highway 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara. About 15,000 people live in Ventura but work in Santa Barbara, according to a survey by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. There's an awesome ocean view along the way, but the drive isn't much fun. It's worsened in recent years because more people are commuting and overwhelming the highway, particularly between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara, where the road bottlenecks into two lanes. "You can't get distraught or upset because there's nothing you can do," said Cheryl Garza, who spends nearly two hours a day commuting back and forth between Santa Barbara and her home in Ojai. Getting on the road every day at odd hours is more than just a long drive. It's a lifestyle. Her day begins with the sound of her alarm clock at 5:15 a.m. She leaves by 6:45 a.m. to make sure she gets to work by 7:30 a.m. The ride from Ojai along Highway 150 is pleasant and the country roads and the view of Lake Casitas relax her. Along the way she listens to classical music or news on the radio. Sometimes she uses the time to just think. At Highway 101 in Carpinteria, where she picks up a fellow commuter, the traffic flow shifts.
"It usually comes to a stop," she said. "It becomes a parking lot." It takes her 20 minutes to get from Carpinteria to her job as an executive secretary at Santa Barbara City Hall. She doesn't work in Ojai because of fewer job opportunities, she said. "It would certainly be nice to work where you live," she said. "But nowadays, most people don't." One of the reasons she carpools is because she is concerned about the environment. The most annoying thing about commuting, she said, is the number of motorists she sees driving alone in cars. Most of the time, there's only one person in the car. That's a lost opportunity to help the environment because it would take another car off the highway, she said. Ultimately, she wants to see more money put into public transportation and more people commuting in vans. "I don't like contributing to the congestion problem," she said. "It just distresses me to see so many single people in cars. A lot of people don't want to be hindered by someone else's schedule." Some people choose to live South out of convenience. Christine Gomez works for a media buying company in Santa Barbara, but lives in Oxnard. Her husband works in Los Angeles and the two chose Oxnard because it's a central living point. Over the years, the drive has gotten worse. "Six years ago, when I started commuting, it was an easy drive in 45 minutes, looking at the ocean, the dolphins and the surfers," Ms. Gomez said. "The drive was a beautiful one. Now with more and more commuters, the drive isn't so pleasant, but it's still a great alternative to living in L.A. At least you're actually covering ground instead of spending an hour on the road to go 12 miles." If she leaves home at 7 a.m. it takes her at least an hour to get to work. The later she leaves in the morning, the longer the drive. Coming home at night is the opposite. If she leaves at 5 p.m., it can take about 70 minutes. But leave at 7 p.m., and she's relaxing at home in about 45 minutes. Sometimes she listens to books on tape that she gets from the library. Her favorites include "The Song of Solomon," a collection that soothed her commute for more than a week. She recently listened to a crime novel called "Mystic River." The popular Mark & Brian Show on 95.5 FM also sometimes helps pass the time. "If it's been a bad day at work, I fester quietly in the car and try not to take out my aggressions on fellow drivers," she said. Ms. Gomez said there are no easy answers to the congestion, but she sees a rail service that extends to Santa Barbara and North County as one possibility. Some say the answer is to increase affordable housing options in Santa Barbara. Longtime residents have to choose whether to pay outrageously high rents or try to buy homes with less expensive mortgage payments outside of the city. Commuter Della Rosales is one of those people.
There was a time when it took her seven minutes to walk to work when she lived in Santa Barbara. Now it sometimes takes her 70 minutes to drive from Ventura. At the Seacliff exit, the traffic comes to a halt. Like many before her, she moved South for financial reasons. "It was either stay a renter or be an opportunist and buy a house," she said. The commute at first made her doubt the decision. "The first week I wondered, why did I do this?" she said. "What the heck was I thinking? It was a period of thinking 'this was a big mistake.'" She has to leave home by 6:46 to get to work by 8 a.m. On the way, she listens to the radio and talks to her seventh-grade son while driving him to school. Going home is a little quicker, depending on what time she leaves. There are positives. She has a Toyota Hybrid that gets 51 miles per gallon. And it's a beautiful drive. "I let the ocean snap me out of my negative thoughts," she said. Since she moved, she misses the little things. Like walking around the city and saying hello to people, going to nighttime events, or seeing the Christmas tree go up in the Paseo Nuevo Mall. Then she remembers why she left. "I remind myself that I have a home," she said. "And I don't have a fear of getting evicted." |
©2002 Santa Barbara New-Press