Survey of Spectrum Workers Finds Strong Support for Car, Van Pools : REAL ESTATE

At least for some Californians, our legendary love affair with the car may be cooling off.

Nearly half the people who work in the 60 largest companies at Irvine Spectrum said recently that they would be interested in car- or van-pooling.

An additional 17% said they would even be willing to ride the bus to work.

The Spectrum is an enormous office and industrial park where the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways meet in Irvine. Companies there already employ 15,000, and the place is still growing.

About 10% already share rides to work.

The survey was done by the Irvine Spectrum Transportation Management Assn.--created by the Irvine Co. at the insistence of the city of Irvine to help reduce traffic at the park--and the Orange County Transit District. They talked to workers at companies with more than 50 employees.

Here’s what the survey found:

People don’t like driving to work much. Of those asked, 60% said the drive was “much more stressful” or “more stressful” than most other activities.

Most employees live within 10 miles of Spectrum, and by far the largest percentage use the Santa Ana Freeway to get to work: 41%.

Twenty-two percent of the employees use their car for business once they get to work. Of the others, 57% said they used a car to get lunch and half said they used one to run errands.