Published Wednesday, March 22, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News

Lengthy commutes cost more than time Long-haul workers cut back on movies, trips BY JULIA PRODIS SULEK Mercury News Staff Writer

From Modesto to Los Banos to Half Moon Bay, long-haul commuters to Silicon Valley are bearing the latest eye-popping gas prices with frustrated resignation.

Take Doris Rodriguez. It's bad enough she has to leave her Modesto house and two little children at 4:05 a.m. for a two-hour commute to Silicon Valley. Now escalating gas prices add one more aggravation to her long-distance drudgery.

Rodriguez has some choice words for gas companies, to be sure. But even though she's spending nearly $2 a gallon for her 182-mile round trip to Sunnyvale, she isn't second-guessing her setup.

``I'm living the American dream. You have a house, a car and a good job,'' said the 39-year-old microchip technician who bought her 1,700-square-foot Central Valley house for $80,000 three years ago. ``The only way to do that is to move over here.''

Imagine that: The American dream includes four hours on the highway burning $2-a-gallon gas all the way.

But it's a common trade-off these days: walk-in closets and sunken tubs for a grueling commute and less time with family. With the median price for a single-family home in Santa Clara County nearing a half-million dollars, many working families would be lucky to afford a shack here. In the hinterland, they can get a four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom house for less than $200,000.

The 25 percent increase in gas prices over the past month is adding up fast, costing some long-distance commuters upward of $30 more a week at the pump. But that's nothing compared with the hundreds of dollars per week they're saving in lower mortgage payments by living far away.

Modest means

For the most part, these commuters aren't Silicon Valley's six-figure techies who find higher gas prices a mere annoyance. Instead, they are the grocery store managers, the $40,000-a-year technicians, the teachers.

And they're trying to save a buck where they can. The high gas prices have many of them changing their habits, from cramming more people into a carpool to forgoing weekend outings to waiting in long lines for the cheapest gas. It even has more people considering -- gasp -- public transit.

To save a few cents on the mile, some commuters are slowing down.

By resisting his temptation to speed over 70 mph, Jonathan Buettner of Los Banos figures he's saving about four miles a gallon. It's not much, but it adds up. His days of gunning it past slow motor homes are over.

``Every minute of every day, I question whether it's worth it,'' said Buettner, an IBM technician.

More companionship

He likes his fellow carpoolers, but spending two hours a day with the same four men in a minivan can get on his nerves from time to time. Before the gas price spike, one or two carpoolers would occasionally split off to take a breather. Not anymore.

``We're finding excuses to get along,'' he said.

But he can't forget the best thing about living in Los Banos: He could afford for his wife to stay home to raise the children.

Gas prices are taking a psychological toll on the Paddy family of Los Banos as well. When Michael Paddy admitted to his wife that he paid $1.93 per gallon at the station around the corner instead of waiting in line for cheaper gas, ``she took a meat cleaver. Just kidding. But she went off the wall.''

It doesn't help family harmony that the Paddys are cutting out their trips to the movie theater 30 miles away. That's an extra two gallons of gas and an additional $4 per trip.

``We're getting nickeled-and-dimed to death,'' he said. ``There's got to be someone who can stop this madness.''

He's constantly reminding his teenage children to run their errands and see their friends on the same trip. ``Make it a circuitous route,'' he told his daughter. ``We don't do any spontaneous maneuvering.''

Getting a raise at his San Jose job at City Team Ministries was a good thing for Paddy, but a chunk of it is simply going to fill his gas tank.

Nonetheless, he's thankful he has his four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom house on a cul-de-sac -- where all five of his neighbors commute separately to San Jose -- and his monthly mortgage payment is $500 cheaper than what he paid to rent in Gilroy.

``There are times when I wish I were a little closer, but I never would have been able to afford it,'' he said. ``I own my own home. I can change the color of my carpeting. We have a built-in pool. We have a huge yard. I just say we are very blessed.''

Less freedom

For Donna and Darren Berns, who commute 70 miles round-trip from El Granada near Half Moon Bay to their jobs in Mountain View, gas prices are cramping their style.

Before gas prices jumped above $1.80, they drove separately a couple of times a week so one of them could go for a bike ride after work or meet with friends while the other went home to walk the dog. Now, they drive together in Donna's 10-year-old Pontiac Sunbird most days because it gets better mileage than the new Toyota pickup.

``We've lost that freedom,'' Donna Berns said.

Cutting back

Curtis Prescott of Sunnyvale is fed up with high gas prices. He doesn't drive down the coast on weekends like he used to. But that hasn't stopped him from planning a move to Roseville -- some 140 miles north -- to buy an affordable house. Round-trip, that would mean upward of five hours on the road a day.

``It will cut into a lot of things,'' said Prescott, a single father of a 10-year-old son. ``Well, what can you do?''

The only thing he can think of: ``I drive a pickup truck. I was considering purchasing a Geo Metro.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 22, 2000