Commute mode of Irvine residents

Irvine at 50: The changing landscape of housing, commuting, and amenities June, 2022

Figure 4.2

Commute mode of Irvine residents

When it comes to commuting, there are various ways residents can get from their home to their workplace. We assessed the mode Irvine residents tend to use when getting to work, and compare this to other residents in Orange County.22

The most prevalent way commuters in Southern California get to work is by driving alone in their own automobile. Figure 4.3 (panel A) shows the percent of workers who commuted by driving alone. Over these years, about 78% of Irvine workers have commuted by driving alone, although this dropped slightly to 76% in 2017. Nonetheless, Irvine does relatively poorly along this metric, as it currently ranks as the #7 highest in Orange County (indicating that a high percentage of Irvine residents commute by driving alone).

Rather than simply driving alone, an alternative possible mode of commuting is to carpool with others. Nonetheless, Irvine residents are also less likely to commute in this way compared to the rest of Orange County (panel B in Figure 4.3). Irvine has consistently had fewer workers commuting in this manner compared to the remainder of the county. Whereas 11% of Irvine residents were in carpools in 1980, this has steadily drifted downward since then and is about 7% now.

Irvine at 50: The changing landscape of housing, commuting, and amenities June, 2022

Another commute mode is using public transportation, and in recent years Irvine residents also are less likely to use this mode. Panel C in Figure 4.3 shows that although Irvine residents were more likely to use this mode of transport just before incorporation in 1971 (3%), since then the percent using public transportation has hovered around 1%, compared to 2-3% in the rest of the county. Irvine currently ranks just #20 in Orange County for using public transportation.

Figure 4.3