Census data give a detailed picture of Clark County’s commuting landscape

A breakdown of Clark County zip codes shows that people who call 98675 home (think Yacolt and surrounding areas) have an average commute time of 42 minutes. Other parts of north Clark County registered average commute times of just over 30 minutes, according to the data.

Not surprisingly, zip codes closer to the area’s urban cores — and closer to more jobs — had shorter commutes. But no part of Clark County had an average commute time of less than 20 minutes. The data were included in a national map assembled by public radio station WNYC.

Of course, traveling a longer distance doesn’t necessarily mean a worse commute. Most people would take driving a rural back road over sitting in freeway gridlock any day of the week. Even if you’re in the car just as long, “there’s that sense of, at least I’m making progress,” said Jim Quintana, a Hockinson-area resident who commutes to C-Tran headquarters in Vancouver.

This month’s Census numbers also showed that, nationwide, 23 percent of workers with a commute of an hour or longer opted for public transit. For the workforce as a whole, that number was just 5.3 percent.

In Clark County, many transit commuters ride C-Tran’s express bus routes between Vancouver and Portland. Beyond that, it’s not as easy to distinguish who is riding other bus routes to work, and who is riding for another reason, said Quintana, C-Tran public affairs manager.

Ridership on C-Tran’s express routes has been anything but steady in recent years. Once over 1.3 million riders per year, the number abruptly dropped under 1 million in 2005. That’s when C-Tran doubled express fares amid financial turmoil on the heels of a failed ballot measure in 2004. Express ridership dropped even further in 2006 and 2007.

Express ridership climbed again in 2008 — a jump Quintana attributed at least partly to skyrocketing gas prices that year, before the brunt of the Great Recession hit. The express numbers then fell again, bottoming out at just over 700,000 riders in 2010, according to C-Tran.

Sjolander, the WSDOT megacommuter, has trekked between Keizer and Vancouver for more than 13 years. Though his wife is now retired, children and grandchildren in the Salem area keep him living there, he said. Sjolander used to work for the Oregon Department of Transportation, much closer to home.

Sjolander admits rising gas prices have influenced his behavior since then. And logging so many miles, Sjolander said he finds himself driving a different car every few years.

“They keep getting smaller,” Sjolander said. (The Nissan Sentra he’s driving now gets about 40 miles per gallon).

Interstate commuters

This month’s Census numbers reinforce a trend that’s well known to Clark County: Far more people leave the county to go to work than come in from outside. The vast majority of exiting commuters head across the Columbia River to jobs in the Portland area.

More than 55,000 Clark County residents commuted to work in Oregon’s Multnomah, Washington or Clackamas counties in 2011, according to Census data. Close to 13,000 people made the trip in reverse, driving from one of those three counties to work in Clark County.

About 3,500 Clark County workers live in Cowlitz County, according to the data. That’s more than either Washington or Clackamas counties.

An estimated 121,466 people both live and work in Clark County, according to the data.

Eric Florip: 360-735-4541; http://twitter.com/col_enviro; eric.florip@columbian.com