Not all Temeculans are commuting to jobs in the city of San Diego. The 2011 census reports that 38,000 people commuted daily from riverside county to San Diego county. Southwest riverside county has probably 300-500k people. So that’s somewhere around 10%. But not many of those commute to the City of San Diego, most commute to the North County, where the actual jobs are for most who make the move. Surprisingly that’s where many of the good jobs and the job growth is.
One highlight from the wikipedia article on the North county:
“In modern times, North County continues to grow as a highly influential region of Greater San Diego. The top twenty-five employers in San Diego County are closer to the North County city of Carlsbad than San Diego proper.”
The North County is becoming the center of the county economically in some ways and SW riverside’s commuters are more than likely going there as opposed to Downtown.
Shows the average temeculan commutes 33 minutes, 8 minutes longer than the average american.
I know there are some people with crazy commutes, but that is anecdotal, not average. We are not spending decades driving 3-4 hours per day. A few might be, but it’s not the majority. There are also probably Chula Vista residents driving to Escondido to work.Probably not all and probably not be design, but I’ll bet they exist.
The future Mrs. TG drives to the Northern half of San Marcos, she moved in with me a a few years ago and she will retire in about 5-7 years, she moved from North Park and now her drive is shorter. Many people do not work for an employer with a single building and over the years their work location, even with the same employer can change, especially as part of a promotion. When she moved to North Park she was close to work, but that didn’t last long and the majority of the time she lived there she was commuting to the North County. Her tiny rental cost as much as my mortgage, so that can be a reason for people as jobs move, lower cost housing and a shorter commutes can be one in the same. You ask why someone would commute and lose time, I ask why someone would pay a large part of their income to live close to things they cannot afford to do, it’s all based on the individual, their specific situation and what they want. I bought my car in 2011, I have put 10k total miles on it in the last 4 years (2,500 a year) which included driving it to vegas once or twice and to northern california about once per year and I live in Temecula. I bought it used and the tires were already worn a bit so I recently had to buy tires, but they will probably rot before the tread wears off since it will be 15 years before the estimated 40k tread life estimate is reached. But that’s also anecdotal and not average. I realize that. So if your world is south of I-8, this is not for you, don’t buy here, but understand your experience is not everyone’s, its just your experience.
