Polly Pfuhl travels from La Pine to Bend to get to work every weekday, but by car pooling with a friend, each of them saves about $3,000 a year, she said.

Pfuhl and her car pool buddy share the car during their lunch breaks so they can run errands.

Three days a week they take lunch at different times so Pfuhl can go to the gym.

”There are more pros than cons,” she said. ”I think everyone should do it.”

Pfuhl’s employer, Orthopaedic and Neurosurgical Center of the Cascades, offers an incentive program for its employees who car pool or take some alternative means of transportation to work. For every 20 roundtrips, they get a $15 gift certificate to a local business.

Many other employers in the area including St. Charles Medical Center, Bend Memorial Clinic and Central Oregon Community Hospital have similar programs.

Pfuhl has joined others in the region who share rides. A higher percentage of Central Oregon workers aged 16 and older car pooled in 2000 than in many other areas of the state, according to recent census figures. At 12.7 percent, Bend had a slightly higher percentage of workers who car pooled in 2000 than the state average of 12.2 percent. And the city’s percentage was higher than those in Portland, Eugene and Corvallis.

Some areas in the region – Madras, Prineville, Warm Springs and La Pine – had 20 percent or more of their workers car pooling in 2000, the census shows.

Jeff Monson, executive director of Commute Options for Central Oregon, suggested Bend’s RideShare rates are higher than those in Portland, Eugene and Corvallis because those cities have public transit, and Bend did not.

”That might make it likely that people would car pool because they don’t have the bus option,” he said.

Also, he said it’s possible that cities like Madras and Prineville have higher rates than Bend because the communities are so spread out. Those cities might have more affordable housing, while Bend has the jobs, he suggested.

As for Madras’ impressive RideShare turnout, Monson has heard a large percentage of employees car pool at Brightwood Corp. – one of the region’s biggest employers with about 1,500 employees.

Monson said about 500 people commute from Prineville to Bend every day, but those are not necessarily car poolers.

And one only needs to drive from La Pine to Bend around 5 p.m. to realize most of the traffic is moving south as people return home from work.

Information on car pooling and other transportation modes came from census figures taken from long-form questionnaires, which were sent to about one out of six households across the nation. All numbers are subject to a minimal sampling error, which varies depending on the areas surveyed.

Central Oregon workers used modes other than car pooling to get to work, although not in huge numbers. Driving in a car alone was still the most popular in 2000.

In Bend, 75 percent of workers drove alone, which was higher than the 73 percent statewide. Deschutes County, La Pine, Terrebonne, Redmond and Deschutes River Woods are also above the state rate with Deschutes River Woods the highest at 79 percent.

But for those who opt for the sidewalks or choose two wheels over four, the choice has been a positive one.

Robert Uetrecht bikes or walks to work at Ray’s Food Place from his house on the west side of Bend almost every day. Even when he lived on the east side, he chose to bike most of the time.

”It only took me about five more minutes to bike than to drive,” he said. ”I do it because it’s easy and convenient. It’s no fun getting stuck in traffic. When I was driving a lot, it seemed like my patience was getting shorter and shorter. The less I drive, the more relaxed I am.”

Some area residents have to combine car travel with other modes.

Bend resident Libby Nickel walked, biked or took public transportation everywhere when she lived in Minneapolis. But when she moved to Central Oregon, she bought a car.

”There’s no way to connect to the cities nearby without a car,” she said.

She doesn’t use it unless she has to, she said. To get to work, she prefers to walk or car pool.

Whatever mode Central Oregonians used to get to work, it took them less time commuting than people in other areas of the state. The average commute to work in Oregon is just over 22 minutes, but people in Bend commute just over 15 minutes. Prineville residents commute about 16 minutes to work, while people in Madras and Redmond spend about 18 minutes on the road.

But the really good news is that our commute times haven’t increased much since the 90s, despite the area’s rapid population growth.

Steve Jorgensen, a Deschutes County senior planner, said most of the state highways, like Highway 97, are not at capacity like some of Bend’s local streets and intersections. Once you get out of the city, there’s really no traffic jams. Plus, intersections at places like Highway 97 and Deschutes Market Road north of Bend or Baker Road to the south have been improved, therefore improving traffic flow.

In Central Oregon, public transportation is not an option, unless you live in Bend.

In 2000, Dial-A-Ride, Bend’s only form of public transportation, was only available to seniors and disabled people. Despite that, 1.4 percent of residents managed to take public transportation to work. That number included people who took taxicabs.

Monson and Jorgensen agreed the percentage was high, considering the city had no public transit. But they speculated that it’s tied to Mount Bachelor’s well-used shuttle to the ski resort, where some 750 people work.

Since most of Central Oregonians drive to work alone, it should come as no surprise that we also own a lot of cars.

In Bend, 61 percent of households have more than one car. Prineville comes in second among Central Oregon cites with 53 percent, and Madras had the lowest percentage of multi-vehicle households, 52 percent.

Though Nickel has reluctantly joined the droves of drivers, she tries to minimize her car use and concedes that without it, her mobility would be seriously hampered.

”I decided to move here to have the experience of living in the mountains,” she said. ”The tradeoff is that you can’t get to those remote areas without having a car.”

Christian Trejbal of The Bulletin contributed to this report.

Melissa Bearns can be reached at 541-617-7829 or mbearns@bendbulletin.com.