Road Closed: How do Commuters Cope? UC Davis Researcher is Finding Out

If you commute by car to work and a major highway closes, what do you do? You may take a detour or find alternate routes. Or you may try something new, like carpooling, taking transit, shifting your commute time, or telecommuting if your employer approves. After the highway reopens, you may resume driving alone on your old route, or you may find that your new option is more appealing.

One such highway closure-the summer 2008 reconstruction of Interstate 5 (1-5) in Sacramento, CA (aka. "The Fix)-became the basis of a real-life experiment to determine how commuters react when forced to change their commute patterns. For 9 weeks, a 1-mile stretch of 1-5 was intermittently closed.