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Living the car-free life
By JEAN HELLER, Times Staff Writer
"I grew up on streetcars and buses," said Sloan, who lives in downtown St. Petersburg. "I never have anybody haul me around. Well, if I were going to be totally, brutally honest about it, I'd tell you that when I want to go to Tampa to see a George Strait or Pam Tillis concert -- I'm a big fan -- I have a friend drive me. But other than that, I'm on the bus." Sloan represents one of more than 38,000 households in Pinellas County without personal vehicles. There are nearly 32,000 such households in Hillsborough County, according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. There are more than 9,000 in Pasco, nearly 3,000 each in Hernando and Citrus, more than 7,000 in Manatee and nearly 9,000 in Sarasota. That is a seven-county total of more than 100,000 homes without cars, up 10,000 from 1990. Across all of Florida, more than half a million households are without cars or trucks. That represents more than 8 percent of all residences in the state. It is a measure of growth and the shifting nature of the population that the number of homes without vehicles statewide rose by more than 41,000 between 1990 and 2000, although the total number of residents grew even faster. So the percentage of homes without vehicles dropped by 1 percent during the 10-year period.
"On the other hand, the fact that the number of households without cars declined as a percentage of the total population is a sign that car availability is growing. That's why we also see a decline in carpooling and the use of mass transit." The numbers of households with one, two or three or more vehicles went up, almost across the board, reflecting Florida's population growth. Statewide, more than 41 percent of households have one car, 38 percent have two cars and 12 percent have three or more cars. Other census findings included the impact on traffic of the first wave of Baby Boomer retirements. "Between 1990 and 2000, those who were working or looking for work fell from 60.4 percent of the population to 58.6 percent," Polzin said. "Baby Boomers are beginning to retire." Released from their job commutes, they tend to spend less time in their cars. "This alleviates some pressure on our transportation system," Polzin said. Household size -- the number of people living under the same roof -- had been declining for several decades but has now stabilized, which also bodes well for traffic. "If one household of six makes one weekly trip for groceries, that's one vehicle on the road for that purpose once a week," Polzin said. "If three households of two make one weekly trip for groceries, you've tripled the traffic pressure." On the down side, Polzin found that the increase in Florida commuting times ranks the state among the worst in the country. "Of the other states I checked, only Georgia was worse, and its number was skewed by the terrible traffic congestion in Atlanta," he said. "Georgia commutes increased an average of 5 minutes, followed by Florida at 4.4. Compare that to New York at 3.1, Arizona at 3.3, Illinois at 2.9, and Wisconsin at 2.5." Experts consider increases of two or three minutes in commuting time to be a significant change. The number of people who said they walked to work declined both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total population. "In one way, it's a little surprising because crime fears have dropped," Polzin said. "But we've become a society where speed counts. Any mode of transportation that is slow or is perceived as slow fared badly. People don't have the time, or they think they don't." Those who do have time and know how to manage it are those without cars. Even those who have had access to automobiles all their lives find they can get along without them. Minnie Brand, who lives in a retirement community in the Fort Lauderdale area, took a driving test once as a young woman and failed it. She never tried again. But until her husband, Morris, died last summer, he drove her everywhere. After his death, she gave his car to her son. "I have good bus service here, and if it's an area where the bus doesn't take me, I have a service pick me up," said Brand, 85. "I'm never lost. I'm never stranded. I miss some of the conveniences I had when my husband was here to take me around. But I get along fine." Most private retirement communities offer as part of the services some sort of transportation for residents to take them shopping, to the bank and to medical appointments. In less organized environments, such as age-restricted condominiums and mobile home communities, and in immigrant communities, many people share rides, with one car making do for several households. "If people take the time to learn the bus system, where buses go and what times they run, you can get along fine," Sloan said. Sloan knows so much about Pinellas County's bus line that she was appointed to the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority board. She gets to the meetings by bus. "I have to take three of them there and three of them back," Sloan said. "I just leave plenty of time." - Times researcher Constance Humburg contributed to this report.
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"The people who don't have cars tend to be the elderly, folks with disabilities and those with very low incomes," said Steve Polzin of the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida. "A fair number of people from the immigrant population haven't been fully integrated into our automobile culture, either.
