The paradigm is outdated that all people who live in the burbs work downtown. As a 20 year resident of this particular far flung outpost, I see fewer and fewer commuters leaving and commuters actually coming in. The traffic patterns have changed and studies have been done in this region to support this notion. It is now easier to get on the freeway in Temecula in the morning than it is to get off for those traveling South to Temecula. The greater valley is approaching 400k people, Tem/Mur actually has suburbs of it own. This little exhurb is bigger than cities that have their own professional sports teams. It’s a tipping point and it’s either already been reached or it’s near.

Before there were job losses, in 2007, probably the height of employment, only 37,000 residents of Riverside county commuted to San Diego County daily for work. 2/3 of those came from the Temecula Valley area, so Roughly 25,000 people, which is about 7% of the residents. Then when you factor in that some of those people aren’t going downtown, they are going to the North County, heading to places like Esco, Vista, San Marcos, where the drive is 30 minutes with minimal traffic. The remaining 3-5% are the ones driving the little cars, the hybrids and getting 40+. Or they are the unhappy ones, the ones that move closer to work, replaced by people who don’t work in an office in a big city every day.

But the Notion that everyone empties out at 7am and returns for dinner is no longer accurate. That $5 gas will hit 5% of the residents, who should have already done something about their carpooling or mpgs when it hit $4 a while back. Technology is changing how we live and will continue to change it.