Most Commuters Would Share Rides : Transportation: A survey finds 70% would use car pools or public transit if parking costs were raised and perceptions about accessibility were improved.

Nearly 70% of San Fernando Valley residents who drive alone to work are willing to use car pools or public transit, but about half believe that public transit is not readily accessible, according to a survey for the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

To compel more people to use public transit or car pools, a consulting firm hired to conduct the survey suggested increasing the cost of parking in the Valley while lowering the cost of local public transit. The report said commuter behavior changes dramatically when parking costs more than $5 a day.

The Transportation Commission requested the survey of 750 Valley residents to glean information about commuters in order to help city and county transit officials redesign the Valley’s bus and shuttle routes, which were laid out in the late 1970s.

Results of the survey were presented Wednesday to the commission’s Planning and Mobility Improvement Committee, which recommended that the survey be reviewed by the entire commission. The committee also recommended that the commission staff be trained to use the computerized survey results in future transit projects.

The consultants--Booz, Allen & Hamilton Inc. of Los Angeles--concluded that county transportation officials can increase the number of people using car pools and public transit by increasing parking costs, restructuring transit fares and eliminating the perception among many commuters that public transit programs are not readily available.

“I think there is a lot of room for learning and education,” said Mark Dierking, a spokesman for the Transportation Commission.

Although the survey focused on Valley residents, transportation experts said the results would most likely apply countywide.

“I think it’s reflective of citywide and countywide trends,” said Jim Sims, president of Commuter Transportation Services Inc., a nonprofit company that works with private firms to establish car-pool programs and other transit projects.

The survey reflects the Transportation Commission’s first attempt to use private sector “market management” techniques to gauge commuter attitudes, preferences and perceptions about mass transit programs in the Valley, Dierking said.

Booz, Allen & Hamilton surveyed the 750 Valley residents in their homes over the summer. Those surveyed were chosen to represent a cross-section of Valley residents. Based on their responses to a series of questions that took about 40 minutes to answer, each resident was placed by the interviewer in one of several categories that determined how likely they would be to switch from driving solo to using car pools or public transit.

According to the survey, 67% of solo drivers in the Valley would be “highly amenable to leaving their single-passenger cars” and switching to public transit or car pools to get to work.

The percentage of solo drivers willing to switch varied greatly depending on the community. For example, in Sylmar, North Hollywood and Tujunga, more than 70% of those who drive alone would be “amenable” to switching to car pools or public transit, according to the survey. In contrast, in Sun Valley, San Fernando and Chatsworth, fewer than 50% would do so, the survey said.

Doug Carter, a spokesman for Booz, Allen & Hamilton, said he attributes the disparate responses to various factors, including transportation preferences.

“It’s not really driven so much by income and sociodemographic makeup as it is by people’s desires,” he said, adding that the number of people surveyed in some communities was so low that the results are not representative at that level.

The survey suggested that county transportation officials target an educational campaign at those communities with a larger percentage of drivers likely to switch to mass transit or car pools.

“An information/education and marketing campaign . . . is a relatively low-cost and easy-to-implement strategy to influence drive-alone commuters to switch modes,” the survey said.

The survey also said 46% of people who use car pools and 49% of those who drive alone felt that there was a “lack of access” to public transit in their community.

But the survey concluded that the “lack of access” is mostly a false perception because only 23% of those who use public transit complained of a “lack of access.”

In some communities--such as Sylmar--public transit is actually difficult to find, Carter said. “But in some places, there really is transit on every major artery of the Valley, but some people are not cognizant of this.”

One alternative offered by the consultant to encourage solo drivers to switch to public transit or car pools is to increase the cost of parking. Carter said the survey found that the number of commuters willing to drive alone drops dramatically when the cost of parking is raised above $5 per trip.

He said parking in the Valley is extremely cheap, in some cases free, and “a small change in price can have a big effect.”

Dierking said the Transportation Commission may be able to use a federal grant to establish a “pricing demonstration project” in the Valley that would encourage solo drivers to use car pools and public transit by reducing public transit fares and increasing parking prices. If the demonstration project is successful, the results could be applied citywide, he said.

BUS FARE HIKE STUDIED: B1