What is the price of commuting to and from work?
A new study from business research company Chamber of Commerce analyzed just that. The study revealed San Diego commuters lose an average of $6,200 in wages per year due to an average 45 minute round-trip commute.
It’s similar in Chula Vista and Escondido and even worse in Oceanside.
“We can't be talking about working from home for bus drivers, for nurses, for school teachers,” said Circulate San Diego CEO Colin Parent.
He said many lower-income workers have no choice but to drive. “We really do need to take into account and think about how to improve people’s commutes,” Parent said.
That being said, there are now many remote and hybrid options for certain fields.
“For workers avoiding those commutes it has an impact on productivity and quality of life,” said San Diego North Economic Development Council’s Erik Bruvold.
While Bruvold said remote and hybrid work have some drawbacks, the positives often outweigh the negatives.
“I think from an employer's standpoint you'd be far happier for somebody to be working and being productive rather than sitting for a couple of hours on our freeways,” he said.
Bruvold said commute times are going to get longer unless San Diego changes where people can afford to live.
“Some of the things that are driving these commute costs are the fact that housing proximate to employment sites is in scarce supply. And that drives up the cost — it forces people to live further and further afield,” he said.
Parent said in addition to housing, more functional mass transit could cut down on those costs.
“If we made the bus run more frequently — made the trolley run more frequently — (and) if we built more bike lanes, then more people would be able to get to where they're going at a faster rate without having to be stuck in traffic," Parent said.
The study shows that roughly 9% to 12% of annual wages in San Diego County are lost due to time in traffic.
All of San Diego, Oceanside, Escondido and Chula Vista are above the nationwide average annual wage loss for commuters driving to work, which is $5,748 per year, according to the study.
