According to a new survey, a high percentage of Los Angeles residents are leaving their jobs based on how long it takes them to get there: 24% of them.

Scoop, a carpool app, surveyed over 7,000 workers in 16 metropolitan regions to learn how the daily commute is decreasing productivity, adding to costs, and extending the workdays of approximately 145 million Americans.

Scoop’s chief executive, Rob Sadow, said Los Angeles had the highest percentage of “voluntary attrition” in any metropolitan area in the United States. The national average is 17%.

The report says, “The commute is taking up more minutes and spanning more miles by the year, and will only continue to get worse. As the commute continues to take up more miles and minutes, its effects are beginning to show not only on the roads but also in the workplace.”

Quitting their jobs isn’t the only thing people are doing because of long travel times caused by congested commutes. “Over 60% of people say that they are not applying for particular jobs because of the commute required,” Sadow said.

Increased congestion also means wasted fuel and more trips to the pump. With California ranking 2nd on the list of the top 10 states with the most expensive gas prices, fuel costs have a detrimental impact on the pocketbooks of Los Angeles commuters.

Angeleno Alex Ramirez quit her job in April because of the commute. For two years, she spent four hours each day commuting from her home in Sherman Oaks to her job in downtown Los Angeles, most of it on the 101 freeway. “The freeways here are just ridiculous,” she lamented. “I was really not wanting to spend so much time on the road, and that’s what encouraged me to start looking for employment here in the Valley,” said Ramirez, who has now managed to cut her commute time by more than half.

The Scoop survey also found that commuting causes personal stress every day for 33% of L.A. commuters. And that people would opt to spend more time exercising, socializing, or getting more sleep if they had a shorter commute. Ramirez is a case in point: “It’s given me a lot more time with my family. A lot more leisure time to be able to recharge my batteries,” she said.

Alleviating congestion is one of the tenets of SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, which provides funding for infrastructure programs that help address congestion.

SB 1’s Solutions for Congested Corridors Program (SCCP) provides $250 million annually to reduce congestion along the state’s busiest highways. And SB 1’s State-Local Partnership Program (LPP) provides $200 million annually to ease congestions on both state and local roads, including funding for these important SoCal Projects:

  • Green Line Extension in Los Angeles County: $19.75 million
    This light rail project will provide direct connections to regional destinations, improving accessibility to alternate modes of transportation for commuters and residents in the South Bay area.
  • I-5 Improvement Project in Orange County: $18.24 million
    Adding one general purpose lane in each direction and auxiliary lanes where needed, this project will directly enhance mobility and maximize the productivity of the local transportation system.
  • Temescal Canyon Road Improvement Project in Riverside County: $7.3 million
    This project will double capacity on Temescal Canyon Road, widening it from two to four lanes to provide traffic relief and improve response times for emergency service providers.

Source: LA-ist