Sacramento’s traffic congestion has become a constant source of irritation and wasted gas. Not just the freeways; many major roads now are sluggish throughout the day and even worse during commute hours. I have little room to whine—my office is less than a half-mile from my home—but still, I am not used to waiting in traffic, spending more time with my foot on the brake than on the gas.

What’s more, the region’s more seasoned commuters have realized that their supposedly “secret” detours are no longer a secret; they, too, are congested. Taking Folsom Boulevard instead of Highway 50, for example, or zipping along Auburn Boulevard while traffic on adjacent Capital City Freeway crawls—even these detours now are regularly choked. It’s the same with taking Power Inn Road south instead of Highway 99, or Highway 160 to Richards Boulevard instead of taking Interstate 80 to access Interstate 5. There is no quick way home.

I don’t know if much can be done to speed up the region’s travel times. Throughout the past few decades, opposite theories have reigned; neither has eased our commutes. One end of the spectrum is to stop funding road enhancements altogether, focusing solely on alternative transportation methods such as bus lines or light rail. These options, however, are inconvenient for most folks. At the other end of the spectrum is to continue to go full speed ahead in building more roads, as has been the case for some time. Still, we wait in traffic.

We should undo one of the sillier efforts aimed at changing driver behavior: car pool lanes. To me, they are an example of government trying to force people to behave a certain way rather than serving the users who pay huge taxes for these roads. This past September, my daughter, wife and I traveled to the Bay Area on a weekday. Given that I, like 99 percent of the working world, usually drive alone, I was surprised and even amused to be able to use the car pool lanes. For the first 30 miles, I didn’t realize that I could use them, despite signs posted every 25 feet stating the hours and rules, and warning that violators would pay dearly. When finally I did pull into the lane, we had it nearly to ourselves. The only others using the lane were single drivers doing about 80 miles an hour. Those lanes haven’t done much to generate car poolers, so perhaps doing away with them and availing the car pool lanes to everyone would speed things up.

An ongoing debate persists about which suburb has the slower commute to and from downtown. Does the drive in via I-80 from Roseville to Sacramento take longer than traveling Highway 99 a similar distance in from Laguna/Elk Grove? Likewise, Serrano and Folsom residents have claimed that the drive on Highway 50 is quicker than those of Rocklinites trekking downtown on I-80.

What’s your opinion? E-mail me (mikeob@sacmag.com) your thoughts on your route and let me know if you’d be interested in participating in an entirely unscientific survey in the coming months. We’ll ask several commuters to record daily commute times and report their findings. Maybe we’ll get the results broadcast on the radio, which you can listen to as you sit in traffic. Happy Holidays!

Mike O'Brien

This article appears in the December 2004 issue of Sacramento Magazine.