Any time someone talks about how EVs have more than enough range for the average American driver, I get irked. It’s a statement that generalizes American drivers and fails to take into account those of us who don’t live in a convenient area. Just because someone has a 20 or 40 miles round trip commute in New England or less than that somewhere else doesn’t mean that’s the case everywhere. Take my home region of Southern California.
A variety of factors have come together to create a region of super commuters who have some of — if not the — longest commutes in the country. Years of rising housing costs forced millions of people to move from the L.A. and Orange County areas to Inland communities. All the well-paying jobs, however, stayed in L.A. and Orange County, forcing these people to drive back to work in the areas they left due to a lack of affordable housing.
As the years have gone on, rising housing costs have reached inland, forcing people to move even farther east while jobs have stayed put. Millions of drivers spend 2-3 hours in traffic just to get home. I used to be one of these people. Just a few years ago I had a 164 miles round trip commute into L.A. from inland. And that’s not the worst.
The following slides detail some of the worst commutes I’ve heard of here locally. All of these were collected by me asking various drivers here in Southern Cali if they had or knew anyone who had long local commutes.
The routes shown here are the most direct, fastest routes.
