Costs and traffic drive rising appeal of hoofing it to work.

NEARLY every day for five years, Edwin Wong cursed the daily drive to his downtown office from his Pasadena home.

Inching along the Harbor (110) Freeway for 30 minutes each morning left him exhausted and frazzled. So when he and his wife, Jeannie, thought about buying their first home, they focused on downtown L.A. so he could be within walking distance of his job at brand management firm Hall & Partners USA Inc.

Wong's commute now takes 11 minutes--and costs nothing.

"My wife told me since I don't have to drive any more, I come home a much happier person," he said. "And the extra half hour of sleep really does wonders."

The Wongs are part of a larger trend in Los Angeles, where after decades of following the sprawl of the suburbs people are beginning to seek more urban neighborhoods to be closer to work.

Congestion, more than high gas prices and parking costs, has been a main motivator of that trend, according to transportation analysts. Drivers here spend an average of 82 hours a year sitting in traffic, according to the California Alliance for Advanced Transportation Systems.

Statewide, the non-profit organization found commute times are only getting worse. The average travel time between most origins and destinations in the state is increasing at an annual rate of 10 percent due to growing tie-ups.

Spencer Scott commuted for three years to his job at the Ontario office of CB Richard Ellis from his home in Newport Beach, but it was switching to the company's downtown office in January that changed his mind about making a long trip everyday.

In February, Scott rented a one-bedroom apartment at Pico Boulevard and Figueroa Street. Instead of the nearly hour commute from Newport Beach, Scott spends a couple of minutes on a DASH bus.

"I'm really discovering what I think is one of the biggest secrets in L.A., which is our subway system," he said. "I never realized the potential of the subway and the transportation system."

Many of those who have decided to forgo driving altogether and move within blocks of their jobs said they would never go back. "I can't even begin to imagine commuting again," Wong said. "I basically gas up once a month now."

Changing housing

Lapchih Fan, an acquisitions analyst with Urban Partners LLC, feels the same way. Fan moved to an apartment two blocks away from his job in the Bradbury Building last summer after graduating from the University of Southern California.

"It's mostly about being able to leave the car at home," he said. "In this part of downtown I can easily go up to Bunker Hill, and I've already been to several concerts at the Disney Concert Hall. 1 walk to little Tokyo all the time for the restaurants. It's been great."

Developers, encouraged by the city, have responded to the demand with a flood of new apartment and condominium projects. And given the compact nature of L.A.'s downtown, almost all are within easy walking distance of shops and restaurants.

In 1999, the city adopted the adaptive reuse ordinance, which eased the process or the conversion of office buildings to residential use. Since then, roughly 7,000 units have been built, permitted or planned downtown. Thousands of the units are in projects above or near subway and light-rail stations, easing car-free commutes for residents.

But living closer to work doesn't mean having to relocate to downtown. For Jackie Mendes it was moving to a shared apartment in Santa Monica from her rented one-bedroom in Redondo Beach.

After making the commute for four years, Mendes--a brand manager for fitness guru Kathy Smith--cut her commute down to five minutes from a treacherous 17-mile crawl on Lincoln Boulevard that could take upwards of an hour. "It was really wearing on me," she said. "It was so frustrating I would sometimes literally fall to the floor and cry when I got home."

Now Mendes is buying a bicycle and plans to pedal her way to work several days a week.

"I think it's just a better way to live," she said.