COMMUNAL COMMUTE FOR SOME SOUTHLANDERS, CAR-POOL EXPERIENCE FEELS `LIKE BEING PART OF A FAMILY'.

Byline: BARBARA CORREA Staff Writer

Gas prices may be heading south, but it's too little, too late for many commuters who have already changed their driving habits for good.

Jenny Betancourt, an accounting assistant at the San Bernardino Associated Governments office downtown, ditched her Suzuki Samurai for a van pool a few months ago and hasn't looked back.

Aside from saving hundreds of dollars per month on gas and car maintenance, she's actually getting an extra $15 a month on her paychecks from her employer for commuting. The switch from car to van is also forcing her to change in ways she never expected.

``I used to go through the drive-through -- I would buy lunches out more,'' said Betancourt, who moved from Moreno Valley to Beaumont in Riverside County last December in a failed attempt to cut down her commute time. ``Now I have to brown bag it or keep food at work.''

Lacinda Pyle lives in Chatsworth and works for Lockton Insurance in downtown Los Angeles. She switched to Metrolink, and the company covers the monthly $190 fare.

Debby Zambrzuski, a collections manager at Apria Healthcare in Lake Forest, ditched her gas-guzzling Dodge Durango three months ago to become a car pooler with another Apria manager. She has halved her monthly gas bill and now drives from her home in Lake Elsinore twice a week. ``I probably spend less now than when I lived in Mission Viejo,'' just a few miles from work, she said.

Getting out from behind the wheel

After years of incentives from employers, it took ridiculously high gas prices to motivate workers across Southern California to look at alternatives to the one-person, one-car model.

``Historically, people are not motivated to change their route,'' said David Rizzo, a traffic expert and author of ``Survive the Drive! How to Beat Freeway Traffic in Southern California.''

``Even during World War II gas rationing, people didn't carpool. They had to be forced. ... I do think gas prices have made a difference.''

A poll of riders taken last spring by the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority found that car owners who choose to ride the bus or rails now make up 34 percent of ridership, up from 22 percent in 2002. Systemwide, bus ridership rose to 35.2 million boardings during August, up from 33.5 million in the same period last year. Total rail usage also rose, from 6.8 million boardings in August 2005 to 7.5 million during that month this year, according to MTA figures.

That might not sound dramatic, until you consider how difficult it is to separate Southern Californians from their cars, even if it's only a few times a week.

For those willing to leave their wheels behind, the benefits are very attractive.

``The cost savings can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on where they're coming from,'' said Scott Snyder, a supervisor at UCLA Commuter Services and Information, which manages the university van-pool program. The program's 1,500 members come to Westwood from far-flung areas including Ventura, Palmdale and throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties. While riders have to pay up to $200 a month to use the service, it allows them to give up their campus parking permit, which costs $59 a month.

The additional savings on gas and wear and tear more than make up for the expense, he says.

In addition, ride-sharers, and their employers, get tax breaks.

Rizzo, Dr. Roadmap, says payments to employees who use some form of ride-sharing or public transport can be exempt from payroll taxes, and workers can get up to $205 from employers for public transport, ride- sharing or park-and-ride programs.

David Sutton, director of metro commuter services at the MTA, says he's been getting a lot more phone calls from companies that want to start programs. He said several downtown Los Angeles hotels, including the Omni, the Sunset Plaza and the Mayfair, have launched ride-sharing in the past year because the spike in gas prices hit their mostly minimum-wage workers particularly hard.

Car pooling, ride-sharing, or taking public transport is obviously not for everybody. Traveling to work without a car is still a novelty in a region where 79 percent of work trips are still taken by solo driver.

Ultimate traffic multitasking 

But converts to group commuting say drivers who think their cars are more comfortable than other alternatives are missing out.

``Our vans have airline-style reclining seats and overhead lighting,'' said Charles Carter, a longtime van-pool member in Woodland Hills. He said another advantage is the high vantage point passengers enjoy in a van, which allows them to see more than the average solo driver. He says the strangest thing he ever witnessed while sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 101 northbound was a long-haired man in a pickup truck who washed his hair while stopped.

``He had a gallon water container that he reached around and rinsed his hair with. Then he shampooed it. Then he reached for another gallon container and did the finishing rinse,'' he said. ``I couldn't believe it.''

The best perk of commuting in a group, though, isn't financial.

It's not convenience or time-saving or being able to watch other drivers.

It's the community of riding with the same people day in and day out.

``It's about socializing,'' said Betancourt, the accounting worker in San Bernardino, whose van pool is made up of six women and one man. ``We talk about our personal lives, work and kids. We exchange recipes. ... Sometimes we talk politics and religion. We have different opinions but everybody respects each other.''

Zambrzuski, the Apria collections manager, says that when her car-pool partner, also a manager, isn't playing on his PlayStation or napping, they bounce ideas off one another about work during their commute.

After 16 years riding and driving van pools, Charles Carter describes the experience as ``like being part of a family.'' He and members of his current commuting group, which has been traveling between Woodland Hills and Westwood since 2001, have celebrated birthdays and baby showers together. They plan a continental breakfast at their park-and-ride at Westfield Topanga before leaving for the morning commute to recognize a retiring van-pool member. And in the past year, van-pool members attended the funeral of another longtime rider.

Carter says he doesn't miss anything about driving alone. ``I don't miss it one heartbeat,'' he said. ``It's not fun out there being a lone ranger.''

barbara.correa(at)dailynews.com

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Source: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority