DRIVEN TO DISMAY TRANSPORTATION COSTS ARE HIJACKING THE BUDGETS OF MOST ANGELENOS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Getting around in Los Angeles takes a heavy toll on the pocketbook, with nearly 18 percent of household expenditures - an average of $8,104 a year - devoted to keeping the wheels on the road, according to a new study.

In fact, Angelenos spend more on car payments, gas, oil changes and other automotive expenses than on food and health care combined - and more than 10 times what they spend on education.

``It is ridiculous,'' said Anne Pobanz, who commutes 70 miles round-trip a day between her home in Santa Clarita's Stevenson Ranch and her job at WellPoint in Warner Center. Her husband commutes 90 miles daily to his real estate job in Thousand Oaks.

As she filled up the tank of her Dodge Durango in Tarzana, quick math put her family's monthly gas expenditure for the two-SUV household at $1,000.

``Now I'm going to spend the day thinking about how much I spend,'' she said.

The study, released jointly by the Washington, D.C.-based Surface Transportation Policy Project and the Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California, says transportation costs, combined with the 37.8 percent Los Angeles families spend on housing - the highest in the nation - consumes more than half a household's budget.

Poorer families are hardest hit, putting up to 40 percent of their budget toward cars, and leaving little left for other expenses - or saving for the future, the study said.

``There's not that much left for a working-class community to save for college, buy a home - all of those things you should be doing,'' said Katherine Perez, executive director of the transportation collaborative, based in Azusa.

Cooper Smith, an English major at California State University, Northridge, knows how hard it is to save after she shells out $600 each month for her car payment, gas and other transit expenses - money she'd rather be socking away to start a small business.

But every time she gets a bit set aside, something comes up - like the $1,000 insurance deductible she recently paid after her car got hit.

``If they built a rail to the Valley on the 405, that would be the (best),'' said Smith, 30, who commutes to CSUN from Redondo Beach, putting gas in her car's tank $3 at a time. ``It's like a parking lot on the freeway.''

The report said sprawl, along with the decline in public transit options, were key culprits in the rising cost of getting around.

Two generations ago, in 1935, households nationwide devoted 10 percent of their expenditures to transportation, compared with nearly 20 percent in many cities today.

``Now, with few transportation choices other than driving available to many families ... the high cost of transportation has become an obligatory expense,'' according to the report.

With all the money they heap on cars, it's a good thing Angelenos apparently are smitten with their wheels.

Angelenos spend almost as much on gas and oil in a year - $1,525 - as Atlanta residents do on entertainment and Tampa residents do on eating out, according to figures accompanying the report.

Angelenos spend more each year on their cars than on entertainment ($2,116), clothing ($2,066), health care (1,905) and education ($721) - combined, according to STPP.

Los Angeles is not alone - or spending the most. The region ranks 16th on the list of 28 metropolitan areas for transportation costs. New York's the lowest at 15.1 percent; Tampa's the highest spending 24.6 percent.

Pobanz, the Stevenson Ranch mom, already telecommutes to work one day a week, but feels there are few other options to getting on the freeway each morning.

``To be able to afford a house that's new, a lot of people move to the Santa Clarita Valley,'' said Pobanz, who relocated from Encino seven years ago, and now has two sons, ages 3 and 1. ``It's kind of a trade-off. You know you're going to commute.''

Calabasas residents Tom and Shelly Shubert figure they, too, spend $1,000 a month on his '92 Iszuzu Trooper and her '01 Dodge Caravan, money she says they'd rather be spending on their four kids.

``My wife puts a ridiculous amount of miles on her car because of the way the city is organized,'' said Tom, a computer consultant, about Shelly, a personal trainer who's logged 60,000 miles on her Caravan in two years. ``My friends think she's having an affair with somebody in Palm Springs.''

Shelly says she fills up the tank three to four times a week, $27 each time, to shuttle the four kids to sports practices and get to work.

``I drive my kids all over the place,'' she said. ``I don't think you have any choice in L.A. You live in L.A., you have to make a lot of money.''

Tom, though, thinks mass transit would make a difference.

``I think if we had decent public transportation, that might help. Invest in a decent subway, rather than the piecemeal we have,'' he said. ``They did a lousy job planning this city.''

But Encino resident John Higgins, a video editor who commutes five minutes to work in his '89 Honda Accord with 180,000 miles on it, doesn't see what the fuss is all about.

He spends about $20 every two weeks filling up his tank - that includes his twice-a-month jaunt to Hollywood, where he moonlights as a bouncer - a lot less than ``if you got a big, gas-guzzling SUV,'' he said.

``That's ridiculous,'' he said. ``I don't know anyone who spends that kind of money.''

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

Photo:

(color) Anne Pobanz fills up at a Chevron station on Ventura Boulevard on Wednesday. Pobanz and her husband commute from Stevenson Ranch to Woodland Hills and Thousand Oaks, respectively.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer

Chart:

HIGH COSTS OF GETTING AROUND

SOURCE: ``Transportation Costs and the American Dream'' by the Surface Transportation Policy Project and Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California