Route 66 in the News

Family Drives Getting More Rare

2008-03-09 09:36:51

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - There once was a time when Sundays meant piling into the family car and leisurely cruising around the Southland simply to experience the joy and peace of a relaxing weekend activity.

A form of homemade entertainment, Sunday jaunts could lead to Grandpa's farm in Acton via winding country roads. The family could drive to see the jacaranda trees in full bloom on Kenneth Road in Burbank or to gawk at the glitzy new homes under construction in the hills of Glendale.

It was a time when gasoline cost less than $1 a gallon, and getting behind the wheel made for an enjoyable pastime.

But today -- with millions of vehicles jamming the freeways and roads at any given minute, the price of gasoline rapidly approaching $4 a gallon and increasingly fast-paced lifestyles -- those Sunday family drives could be fading from our culture.

"When we were growing up, all we could afford for an adventure was hopping in the car and driving somewhere," said David J. Rizzo, a Fullerton-based transportation expert.

"Now, people fly to Las Vegas and go overseas. Or they look at a computer for entertainment."

In his reviews of traffic counts, Rizzo notes fewer cars are hitting the roads on weekends as high gas prices and recession concerns curtail free-spirited travel for some motorists.

For others, such as Richard and Bonnie Haviland of Tarzana, the madness of L.A. traffic has kept them from taking leisurely Sunday drives for years.

Long gone are the Sundays when favorite afternoon spins in their Volvo used to take the couple to the beach for some fresh air or to scenic Malibu eateries for lunch.

To help save money, the Havilands sold their car 15 years ago and get around by walking or riding the bus.

"I don't miss the car at all. Now we do a lot of walking," said Richard Haviland, 68. "I see car accidents all the time and say, `Boy, I don't miss this at all.' Everyone is in a hurry."

Championing the idea of the wide, open road, the California Historic Route 66 Association is seeking to preserve the history of the legendary roadway that began in 1929 and first linked Chicago to Malibu.

The original intercontinental [sic] road eventually was built to unite the country and became Route 66 -- traveled heavily for those searching for better lives out West, said Jennie Avila, vice president of the group.

Although Americans still travel Route 66 today, they do not put on the same high mileage they once did right after the invention of the Southern California freeway system in the early 1950s, Avila said.

Instead, many of today's visitors to the famous road come from Europe and Japan and arrive on tour buses, Avila said.

Gone are the days when American families packed into the station wagon for drives on the highway and played games together to pass the time, Avila said.

"You put the kids in the car, and they're not even looking out the window because they're playing with their video games," said Avila, 50.

"Gone are the days when you checked out license plates together."

Sy Cohn, a Claremont-based driving therapist, said it's no surprise that Sunday drives are fading from the American way of life because many families today do very little together.

"People were sitting together at the dinner table a lot until TV came along, and then they started staring at that instead," Cohn said.

"Now, you're sitting in front of a computer all day, and you can get everything you want from it."

At the same time, Cohn said families are increasingly stressed out by financial and time pressures.

"Everyone is going in different directions, like ships passing in the night," Cohn said. "It's not just the Sunday drive anymore. There are a lot of things people don't do together."

Comparing the cozy two-bedroom stucco homes built in the 1950s with the mega-size McMansions being built today, Matthew Roth of the Automobile Club of Southern California said people have much more "stuff" to keep them entertained than in the past.

"I wouldn't want to say the NFL replaced the Sunday drive, but it's an example of entertainment that has replaced it," the historian said.

The dwindling Sunday drive pastime has a certain irony, since cars were introduced at the start of the 20th century as a way to restore health by giving city people access to the country.

But having greater access to the country actually led to urban sprawl - from strip malls to miles and miles of housing developments, said Paul Mason Fotsch, communication professor from California State University, Northridge.

"There just aren't too many places to escape to for our scenic drive anymore," Fotsch said.

"And it's harder to escape. You have to drive farther."

~Sue Doyle, DailyNews.com