Commuter Psychology

It is crucial to address the specific transit needs of the affluent technologists in the corridor to generate sufficient ridership. Time is money for these technologists, so travel time via CalTrain/feeder must be competitive with auto travel. Technologists are stressed out to the point where waiting for transit, especially with some uncertainty about the schedule, magnifies stress. The cushy, cocoon-like driving experience in a fine German sedan provides many pleasant subtleties such as status, leather seat smell, lumbar adjustment, stereo system quality, hands free cell phone, and large storage space for important items which are unpredictably needed. It is that much harder to pull a person out of a luxury car and put them onto transit. Soccer mom technologists have the most complex transit needs of any group in the corridor.

Commuter objections to transit may be categorized as follows:

COMMUTE TRIP CONVENIENCE/FLEXIBILITY

• Travel time on transit is greater than via car
• Transit transfers are an inconvenience. Waiting time where the commuter is not progressing towards destination seems psychologically 3X slower than regular time. Service reliability is not such that commuter can transfer without worry of delay - this is a stress inducer.
• Transit doesn't provide sufficient convenience and flexibility
• Work hours / work schedule make transit impossible. Must be able to come and go at will.
• Transit is unreliable

NON COMMUTE TRIP

• Affluent technologists take many non-commute trips originating from work at different times of day. Transit absolutely must match total auto trip time (from office front door, walking to parking lot, driving to destination parking lot, walking to destination) for these trips.
• Many types of trips must be served: get lunch, workout at gym, walk at the Dish, dry cleaner, hardware store, grocery shopping, clothes shopping, gift shopping, banking, professional services (legal, medical, dental, financial advisor), business meetings, transport kids to activities, and child care.
• Need to be able to get home fast in an emergency
• Some cars serve as security blankets. Their trunks contain many important items that are unpredictably needed. It is inconvenient or impossible to carry all of these items around on transit. Note that objections like these typically do not come out of statistical transit surveys, but may actually touch closer to the heart of psychological resistance to transit.

CABIN EXPERIENCE

• Comfort & relaxation. Jobs are fast paced and stress-filled, the solitary ride home listening to music and replaying the day in one's mind is part of "decompressing" from a long day. The separation from the rest of the world provided by the car cabin is a little cocoon of sanity.
• Need privacy for work/social cell phoning. Reception while taking transit is worse than by car. Transit cabin environment is noisier than luxury sound deafened auto. Economic strata differences on transit may be starkly highlighted by the use of cell phones.
• Safety / economic strata issues
• Affluent technologists are often uncomfortable around strangers
• Bus fumes are objectionable

MISCELLANEOUS

• Cultural/habits - commuters haven't been trained to ride transit
• Perceived cost - Transit seems to be very expensive and auto seems to be very cheap

There are still further complications with affluent technologist commuter behavior:

• There is the concept of "time stamp." Competitive workers strive to show proof of being the first worker to start and the last worker to stop every day. This disease is rampant in the Valley. The CEO of a major consumer web site sends e-mail every night at 1AM. The cultural message from the top down is often that it is macho to sacrifice your personal life and drive yourself to the limits of endurance in order to maximize IPO price. Cell phone conversations while driving are notoriously unproductive because the driver is distracted, forgetful, cannot refer to documents and cannot jot down notes. However, the perceived cultural benefit of leaving a voice mail at 7:30AM while driving to work rather than making the call at 8:45 from work are large. The 7:30AM time stamp creates the illusion that the worker is productive during the time from 7:30AM til they get to the office. E-mails and voice mails have about the same impact as far as time stamping is concerned. So valley workers go so far as to change the time on their computer to make it appear that their e-mails were sent at even more extreme times of day. The CalTrain / feeder commute must accommodate this need for time stamping. Face time in the office has higher value than e-mail or voice mail time stamps. Being seen as the first one in or the last to leave is important. CalTrain feeder commute must accommodate the need to arrive early and leave late.

==== solutions for some objections ====

• CalTrain + Feeder must provide a very high frequency and quality of service
• Feeder must conveniently serve the non commute trips (gym, day care, dry cleaners, etc.). Likewise, the first floor retail of the new affordable housing must serve these trip needs.
• Workers desire to come and go to work at any time can be alleviated by workers having home offices with high speed internet connects. A home office allows workers to come and go in synchronization with the improved CalTrain schedule and then continue to be a workaholic at home.
• The rest of the Bay Area obviously needs better feeder service to CalTrain. A good starting point is Robert Cervero's parabus/minibus research. This is quite viable for our sacred Palo Alto residential neighborhoods.
• Bay Area's terrific free RIDES service provides personal analysis of transit alternatives for commuters, locating the closest and most convenient transit alternatives. The Corridor implementation will take great advantage of this service to help provide individuals with the best transit information. The corridor implementation may need to provide funding to RIDES. In addition, RIDES or a new organization will provide "customer services" both promoting CalTrain based commutes and taking feedback to enhance the corridor implementation as it evolves. See http://www.rides.org/. Ongoing PR, outreach, and web site updating are part of this effort.
• A number of items improve commute pleasure and productivity: personal consumer electronics, electric scooters, shared public bicycles, etc.
• Instant transit info should be made available via PDA, web, & cell phone. Precise instructions for when to get on a feeder to catch the next CalTrain are needed.
• CalTrain + feeder have trouble serving business meeting trips and emergencies. Car sharing and dedicated cars at stations (station cars) provide an answer.
• To combat entrenched anti-transit habits, incentives such as a "free trial month" may need to be provided to get folks to even try transit.
• Cell phone usage on CalTrain is problematic. A) cell phone service providers need to work to provide consistently strong signal strength along the track, B) higher bandwidth cellular modems are currently under development, C) Higher priced seating should be provided in a few cars to provide cell "phone booths" where commuters can close a sound deafening curtain.