BIG WASTE OF TIME ANGELENOS' YEARLY COMMUTE EQUIVALENT TO 10 FULL DAYS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Enduring commutes far worse than most Americans, Southern Californians spend at least 120 hours a year driving to their jobs - and that's equal to three full weeks at their workplaces, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

And that's just one-way.

Workers still have to get back home, which puts the round-trip commute for Los Angeles residents at 240 hours a year - or 10 full days spent commuting.

``That hits you in the head,'' said Alan Pisarski, a national transportation expert and author of ``Commuting in America.''

``We're seeing two things: congestion, which is making the standard trip longer in time, but we're also seeing people going to longer and longer distances.

``I think a lot of what we're seeing is people's reacting to housing costs, and the housing costs are forcing people farther and farther out and so the commuting distances are increasing as well as the time.''

Lake Elizabeth resident Julie Kalevicoglu said it's ``staggering'' to realize she's spending hundreds of hours a year driving her Acura 38 miles one-way to her job in the San Fernando Valley.

``It's a hard thought to think that's how many days I drive,'' said Kalevicoglu, who moved out of the Valley after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake but kept her job in the radiology department at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

``It's a lot of days, it's a lot of hours. It's staggering. It's wow, that's what people actually do.''

But she says she wouldn't trade her lifestyle at home far from the city. She hears owls and coyotes at night instead of the roar of sirens and freeway traffic. So she'll stick with her nearly hourlong commute, even after recent storms washed out a key roadway, forcing her to take a detour that nearly doubles her time on the road.

``I think it would be nice if you could have something closer to the area you live in, but if you're willing to have what you call home and that tranquillity, you're going to do it.

``If that's what you have to do, that's what you do.''

The census data are part of the bureau's newer American Community Survey, which compiles information on a yearly basis instead of the traditional once-a-decade census.

It found that American workers 16 years and older in 2003 commuted on average 24.3 minutes one-way to work, spending more than 100 hours a year driving, taking buses and trains, walking or otherwise getting there.

Los Angeles County residents fared worse, spending 28.7 minutes on their one-way trip to work, about the same as Los Angeles city residents who spent 29 minutes getting to work, amounting to about 240 hours a year.

The Texas Transportation Institute previously reported that the extra time Southern California commuters wasted in the area's legendary traffic jams, instead of in free-flowing lanes, amounted to 93 hours a year. That study, based on 2002 data, said commuters nationwide wasted 46 hours in congested traffic.

As bad as commutes to work are in Southern California, they're not the worst, which the census said goes to New York City, where commuters spend 38 minutes getting to work.

After New York, it's Chicago, Newark, Riverside and Philadelphia, with Los Angeles city residents' commutes ranking sixth worst in the nation.

Los Angeles city residents' commutes have hovered around 28 minutes to 29 minutes since 2000, rising from 10th worst in the nation in 2000 to fifth worst in 2001. But census officials said the fluctuations in many cases aren't statistically meaningful.

``As we collect more years of data, the trends will be more discernible,'' said Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the Census Bureau, which started compiling the new annual survey in the late 1990s. ``From year to year, there can be ups and down.''

Los Angeles County, like neighboring San Bernardino County and Riverside County, saw its ranking worsen in the past few years. L.A. County ranked 53rd in 2001, compared with 39th in 2003. Riverside County shot up from 42nd to 18th.

The census said 3 percent of L.A. city's commuters have ``extreme'' commutes of 90 minutes or more, compared with 2 percent nationally.

Pisarski said commute times for workers increased rapidly nationwide during the 1990s as populations increased but road-building failed to keep pace. Taking public transit almost always leads to longer commutes.

But he adds that the fluctuations since then are most likely tied to the economic downturn as the new century got under way and job losses shrunk the pool of commuters.

``We've been kind of living off of all the infrastructure that's been built in the '60s, '70s, '80s. ... But since '90 it's been jumping very fast,'' he said.

``That's why a number like 100 hours kind of gets people's recognition.''

But officials at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees highway and transit investments for Los Angeles County, said research from the 1990s showed typical commutes for county residents averaged 35 minutes.

``The silver lining on this is if we're down to 28 or 29 minutes, it's an improvement,'' said Brad McAllester, deputy executive officer for long- range planning at the MTA.

``What it's starting to say is, even though we have a high level of congestion in our county, we're beginning to see a payoff in the investments we're making in transportation.''

He points to the new train lines, the 400-plus miles of car-pool lanes and the new Orange Line going up in the Valley as options that didn't exist for Los Angeles commuters a decade ago.

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

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WORKERS' ONE-WAY COMMUTE TIMES

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau survey

Warren Huskey/Staff Artist