A RIDESHARING MARKET ANALYSIS SURVEY OF COMMUTER ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR AT A MAJOR SUBURBAN EMPLOYMENT CENTER

This survey was part of a project to prepare a transportation systems management plan for the Irvine Business Complex (IBC), a developing, suburban employment center 50 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. Because manufacturing and warehousing employees were undersampled, there may be some bias in the survey results. About 90 percent of the respondents were driving to work alone. The average commuting distance was 12 miles one way. Average commuting time was about 30 minutes, each way. The trip-length distribution was quite similar to that of the Los Angeles region. More than three-quarters of the commuters started work between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. About 60 percent left between 4:00 and 5:30 p.m. Only 12 percent of this white collar work force had schedule flexibility of more than 30 min. Almost two-thirds felt that commute traffic was growing worse. Free parking was enjoyed by 94 percent of respondents; parking was abundant. The average duration of employment in the IBC was almost 3 years. More than two-thirds of the survey respondents were female. The five most common reasons cited for not ridesharing were (a) Prefer freedom of driving alone (45 percent); (b) Might need car due to overtime (42 percent); (c) Need car for business (32 percent); (d) Run other errands en route (30 percent); and (e) Irregular working hours (26 percent). However, 41 percent of the solo drivers expressed positive attitudes toward using some other commute mode, and 11 percent requested ridesharing information. Combining ridesharing with the other demand management techniques of parking management, work rescheduling, and telecommuting, the market shares of which are harder to quantify, the maximum potential market share or participation rate will likely be between one-half and two-thirds of all IBC commuters.