Mon, Jun 18, 2007 (7:04 a.m.)

A new Census Bureau analysis says most of America's commuters still prefer driving themselves to work, despite ongoing increases in gasoline prices, but more are turning to such alternatives as carpools.

The report published Wednesday on the Census Bureau's Web site says that nine out of 10 workers favor driving personal vehicles to work and that 77 percent of these workers prefer driving alone.

The figures are based on 2005 data and compiled in the bureau's American Community Survey, an ongoing research tool that the agency uses to track trends between the official Census that is taken every 10 years.

Carpooling, at 11 percent nationally, runs a distant second to commuting in single-occupant personal vehicles. Still, the figures show, carpooling is increasing in some areas. More than 15 percent of workers in Honolulu; Phoenix and Mesa, Ariz.; and Sacramento and Fresno, Calif., are sharing rides to work. In California and Arizona, the higher carpooling rates can be attributed to immigrants, Census officials say.

Such cities often are used as examples of the long, wasteful commutes created by urban sprawl. But maybe they also could be examples of how carpooling can help relieve pressure on an overburdened transportation system.

In the Las Vegas Valley, 3,206 carpoolers are registered among the 16,724 members of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada's Club Ride commuter program. Club Ride helps employers encourage their workers to commute by carpool, public transportation, bicycling or walking. Last year the 3,206 carpoolers logged 161,092 trips. And, as one RTC spokeswoman noted, the figures only account for people enrolled in the RTC program. Thousands of other people likely carpool with spouses or co-workers.

The Las Vegas Valley has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation for more than a decade, with drives to work becoming longer and more crowded each year. But apparently thousands of local workers are finding ways to ease the burden by riding together. And such creativity and commitment is needed every bit as much as additional roads.

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