By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer

This may be small comfort to those of you who travel on our freeways every morning, but the U.S. Census Bureau says your commuting time, statistically, isn't all that bad.

New information released last week shows that Ho-nolulu commuters spend an average of 26.7 minutes on the road between home and work, each way.

That's slightly above the 24-minute median for the nation's 219 largest counties.

Four places in New York (Richmond, Kings, Bronx and Queens) top the list. Residents there all spend an average of at least 40 minutes on the road each way. In New York City, that works out to the equivalent of a full week each year getting to work.

As you might expect, the shortest commuting times are in rural areas. Residents of North Dakota cities, for instance, spend only about 14 minutes on average getting to their jobs.

The findings were drawn from responses from a Census Bureau sampling of households interviewed in 2002.

Burgeoning bottlenecks

Here's one nationwide report that many Honolulu drivers will feel in tune with.

The American Highway Users Alliance reported last week that the number of U.S. traffic bottlenecks — places where highways can't handle all the cars — rose 40 percent over the past five years.

All you have to do is imagine your own favorite, often unexplained new bottleneck in Hawai'i, to make a connection with Mainland drivers everywhere.

The state of hydrogen

If fuel economy, rather than commuting time, is what drives your engine, you might be interested in this news item from California.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told lawmakers last week that he plans to have a "hydrogen highway" in place by 2010.

Schwarzenegger pledged to build hydrogen fueling stations every 20 miles along major highways, allowing motorists to buy clean-burning hydrogen-fueled vehicles that will spur the ultimate replacement of the internal combustion engine.

Some carmakers called the 2010 target date for hydrogen technology not likely attainable, but Schwarzenegger's top environmental aide likened the hydrogen-car challenge to putting a man on the moon and said California would lead the way in the effort.

Light-rail connections

California is also trying to take the lead in new modes of intercity travel.

A report released last month concludes that a high-speed rail system — and not more highways and airports — is the least expensive and most environmentally friendly way to solve the state's travel problems.

Voters in California will decide on a $9 billion bond referendum in November on whether to authorize the start of transportation improvements, which would link San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles and San Diego.

The best alternative, according to the study, is a 700-mile, high-speed rail system to supplement the planned highway and airport projects. Trains envisioned for this system would have top speeds of more than 200 mph.

The system would cost $33 billion to $37 billion in today's dollars and carry as many as 68 million passengers a year by 2020, the report said.

Mike Leidemann's Drive Time column appears every Tuesday. Reach him at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.