A Commuter Who Enjoys Car-Pooling : Transportation: Simi Valley man saves money, gets exercise by ride sharing. But 82% of county drivers still motor to and from work alone.

Robert Samuelson of Simi Valley used to drop his daughter at school each morning and drive alone through rush-hour traffic to his distant job at Los Angeles International Airport.

But in the past three months, Samuelson has become the kind of commuter Ventura County transportation planners dream about.

He still travels 100 miles a day from his home to LAX and back again.

But now he does it by car pool, a commuter van and his bicycle.

Samuelson changed his habits primarily because his wife needed to use the family’s only car and he needed to save money. But at the same time, he wanted to play a small role in preserving the county’s air quality.

Today, the Wood Ranch resident prefers this rigorous routine because it has eliminated the need for a second car and helped him become more physically fit. Although he gets up a little earlier each day, the new schedule gets him home well before dark.

“I kind of like coming home on the early side and spending time with the family,” he said. “I suppose I could afford a second car. But (the family budget) is pretty tight.”

Samuelson added: “I was kind of a couch potato. This is one way to get some exercise.”

In a county where the vast majority of residents commute one person per car, Samuelson, 50, has found other ways to get to and from work. Yet few Ventura County workers seem to be following his example.

According to a recent survey by Commuter Transportation Services Inc., 82% of Ventura County commuters drive to and from work alone.

The poll also found that Ventura County commuters face less highway-related stress and fewer traffic jams than those in neighboring counties.

For these reasons, experts say, it is difficult to persuade local workers to use car and van pools, buses or bicycles.

“It’s a matter of trying to convince people to change their lifestyles, which is very difficult,” said Bill Mount, deputy director of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. “When it takes you only 20 minutes to go 20 miles, there’s not a lot of personal incentive.”

Nevertheless, getting more cars off the road is critical if Ventura County residents want to keep their atmosphere clear and clean, he said.

“Motor vehicles are the largest contributor to our air quality problems,” Mount said.

To reduce the number of vehicles on local roads, Mount’s agency adopted Rule 210 in 1989. The measure requires Ventura County employers to make a good-faith effort to reduce the number of car trips made by their employees.

Some critics have described the rule as a burdensome regulation that discourages businesses from locating or expanding in the county.

Since its adoption, Rule 210 has been modified. “We’re trying to make the rule less onerous to business,” Mount said.

Still, Rule 210 has led some companies to make significant strides in reducing the number of solo commuters in their work force.

At a meeting more than two years ago, workers at Schlumberger Technologies in Simi Valley were asked to stand if they had walked, car-pooled or taken a bus to work.

Only half a dozen people stood, recalled Melissa Erickson, transportation coordinator at the electronics plant, which employs 146 people.

At such meetings today, as many as 50 people stand. And as many as 116 Schlumberger workers have tried car-pooling at least once, she said.

To encourage this, the company offers days off, gifts, free lunches and preferential parking to workers who find an alternative to solo commuting.

The company synchronized the work schedules of seven employees who live 60 miles away in Palmdale and set up a van pool so they could leave their cars at home.

In addition, the firm educated workers about why Rule 210 was adopted, Erickson said.

“More than just the incentives or throwing days off at people, it was helping them to understand that there is an air quality problem and that by participating, they could make a difference,” she said.

But it was not company incentives or educational efforts that led Samuelson to stop traveling solo.

His wife, Marcella, needed the family car to take son Erik to a private school in Thousand Oaks, which could not be reached by public bus. A daughter, Denise, attends college, adding to the family’s expenses.

Samuelson first car-pooled with a co-worker who lived nearby, but the arrangement proved unreliable because the colleague often had to go out of town on business.

The Wood Ranch resident telephoned the Commuter Computer service in search of another partner, but it found no match, he said.

Earlier this year, Samuelson contacted Doug MacDuffee, a neighbor who works at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, not far from LAX.

MacDuffee, a mail supervisor, was willing to drop Samuelson off in the morning. But because his job often requires him to work late, MacDuffee couldn’t commit to the return trip. So Samuelson found other means to get home each day.

Samuelson, a computer programmer for Federal Express, changed his work schedule so that he could climb into MacDuffee’s car each day at 5:05 a.m. They stop briefly along the way for coffee and a newspaper.

“When we go in,” Samuelson said, “most of the people are driving by themselves. People need to car-pool more. The biggest problem that I see is just finding out where people are going and trying to match your schedule with somebody else’s.”

Samuelson’s neighbor drops him at LAX at about 6 a.m.

Samuelson then removes a small, collapsible bicycle from MacDuffee’s car and locks it inside a Continental Airlines commuter van parked near his workplace.

At 2:35 p.m. Samuelson boards the van, which takes Continental workers to Granada Hills and Simi Valley. He pays $105 a month for the ride, which ends at a gas station a few miles from Wood Ranch.

At the station, Samuelson assembles his bicycle, puts on a T-shirt and pedals home.

The 25-minute bike ride was a challenge at first. “I was kind of out of shape,” he said. “I had to walk the bicycle part of the way.”

Samuelson said his employer provides no reimbursement to workers who car-pool or ride a commuter van. But the firm recently agreed to pay for airport shuttle rides home when car-pooling employees are asked to work late or need to leave early for a family emergency.

Marcella Samuelson said she approves of her husband’s unusual commuting routine.

“I like the idea that he is taking care of the environment,” she said.

In addition, the family is saving the gasoline and insurance expenses associated with a second car. Plus, her husband now gets plenty of exercise.

“He sits all day long,” she said. “The bicycling is good for him.”