Metro driving times among longest Gwinnett County 18th-worst in U.S.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution; 3/31/2005; MARK DAVIS, BRIAN FEAGANS

Edition: Home - Section: METRO

Harried commuters, file this bombshell away to stun your neighbors: Metro Atlanta's counties have some of the worst commuting times among the nation's major metropolitan areas.

Locally, Gwinnett County leads the pack, with an average one-way commute of nearly 31 minutes, tying with Riverside County, Calif., and Cook County, Ill. Gwinnett ranks 18th out of 233 counties listed. Read the figures, compiled in 2003 and released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, and weep. Or perhaps you'd feel better pounding the steering wheel.

According to the bureau's yearly American Community Survey, Americans spend more than 100 hours commuting each year. That's at least 20 hours longer than the average 80 hours of vacation that most working stiffs take annually, the bureau noted. The survey looked at commuting times in every state, plus every city and county with 250,000 or more residents.

The metro Atlanta counties that appear in the survey, and their one-way commute times, are Gwinnett, at 30.8 minutes; Cobb, 30.1; Clayton, 28.7; DeKalb, 28.3; and Fulton, 25.

The survey also assessed states' commuting times. Georgia, with an average 26.1-minute commute, came in at No. 7, tailgating California by a mere half-minute.

In a survey of 68 cities, Atlanta ranked No. 27, with an average commute of 24.2 minutes. New York led all categories --- state, county and city --- with the longest commuting times. The national commuting average was 24.3 minutes.

The local findings don't surprise Jon Newsome of Gwinnett County. Last year, he quit his job as a client services director for a company in College Park because he just couldn't stand the drive. Now he is self-employed, working out of his house in the Hamilton Mill community near Dacula. While stuck in traffic, "I just wanted to scream," Newsome said. "I don't know how others do it."

College Park resident Ericka Davis tries to be more laid-back. She makes the daily grind along I-285 from Clayton County to DeKalb, where she works for the state Department of Juvenile Justice. A good morning commute takes 30 to 40 minutes, she said. Afternoons? Figure an hour. Or more. "There are days when it's not so bad," Davis said. "But 285, to me, on some days, can be a hot mess."

A half-hour drive to work is tolerable, said Tom Weyandt, director of comprehensive planning for the Atlanta Regional Commission. The commission oversees traffic in an 18-county region. "Thirty minutes?" he asked. "That's not so bad. It's pretty good to be able to get to work in 30 minutes." But remember, that 30 minutes is an average. For every lucky soul who scoots to work in five minutes, there's a white-knuckled patsy making a 55-minute slog from home to work. And back.

Mark Rose can relate. He lives in Grayson; his company is in Norcross. Both are in Gwinnett County.

"This morning it took me one hour and 15 minutes," said Rose, who was gassing up his Ford F-150 near one of Gwinnett's most reviled intersections, the car-strangled span of blacktop where Ga. 316 crosses Ga. 20.

Kimberly Lemley of Corpus Christi, Texas, wouldn't tolerate such a wait. According to the survey, her hometown has the shortest average commuting time among the nation's larger cities: 16.1 minutes.

"Traffic's been worse lately," said Lemley, whose formerly 12- minute commute has recently ballooned to 15 minutes. "I guess if I had to wait in traffic, stopped, for seven minutes, that would certainly be a big delay."

Everything, apparently, is not bigger in Texas.

--- Staff writer Stephanie Reid contributed to this article.

CAPTION: WHERE ARE THE LONGEST COMMUTES?

Residents of New York and Maryland spend the most time traveling to their jobs. Georgia ranks seventh in a study released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

(1) New York...... 30.4 Minutes

(2) Maryland...... 30.2 Minutes

(3) New Jersey...... 28.5 Minutes

(4) District of Columbia..28.4 Minutes

(5) Illinois...... 27 Minutes

(6) California...... 26.5 Minutes

(7) Georgia...... 26.1 Minutes

(8) Massachusetts...... 26 Minutes

(9) Virginia...... 25.8 Minutes

(10) Florida...... 24.8 Minutes

(10) Washington...... 24.8 Minutes

Metro Atlanta's five core counties are among the top 100 counties with long commutes to work. Residents of four New York counties spend the most time on the road. Queens County residents, with 41.7-minute commutes, are on the road the longest.

See how Atlanta compares. (#) Rank nationally

(18) GWINNETT..30.8 minutes

(26) COBB...... 30.1 minutes

(39) CLAYTON...28.7 minutes

(47) DEKALB....28.3 minutes

(92) FULTON....25 minutes Includes map of the Atlanta metro counties.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2003 American Community Survey / DALE E. DODSON / Staff