How the coronavirus spread is affecting air travel, bus service and your Sacramento commute

Have you noticed your car commute suddenly got easier?

Anecdotally, that is what we’ve heard in the last two days. If true, it’s no surprise. The coronavirus is starting to warp every day life, and that could well mean fewer cars on the road and fewer riders on transit and planes.

Elk Grove parents are no longer driving students to school this week, taking a load off local roads such as Highway 99 and Interstate 5. Some area employers are telling workers to work from home. And some leaders are suggesting event organizers think twice about bringing large groups of people together.

While it might lower our blood pressure, lighter traffic is not a good thing. The economy depends on people getting out, going to work, living their lives and taking buses, trains and planes.

The next few weeks could be telling. (Are you cutting back on your driving, transit riding and flying? Let us know in the comments section below.)

Here is a quick look at the local transportation scene:

BART sounds an early warning

Bay Area Rapid Transit officials have sounded an early warning: Ridership has dropped notably in the last week. There were 25 percent fewer riders on Monday of this week than Monday two weeks ago. That’s a dramatic drop.

It’s not that commuters are jumping back into their cars, afraid of train crowds, BART officials said. It’s that some major employers are ordering people to work from home.

“What we can say without question is that when employers such as Salesforce institute widespread telecommuting it leads to a decline in ridership,” BART spokesman James Allison said.

Bay Area news media were reporting late Tuesday that Google, a major Northern California employer, also told employees to work from home.

Sacramento International Airport

The airport has put out hand sanitizers and airlines report they have ramped up cleaning of their planes in hopes that fliers won’t be scared away.

So far, Southwest, the main airline out of Sacramento, said it has not canceled or suspended any flights. The airline just published advice and information on its website.

But two airlines that fly out of Sacramento, Delta and American, announced Tuesday they will cut international flights this summer. Though those airlines don’t fly internationally out of Sacramento, that could affect connecting flights to and from Sacramento.

Airport official Mark Haneke said passenger numbers at the Sacramento airport were up in February, but industry analysts are saying aviation will see a dip in passengers because of coronavirus, starting now, which could lead to flight cancellations.

Just how steep will the dip be?

It won’t be like after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when suddenly no one flew, then after a brief period, travel ramped back up very quickly. This time around the dip could be more gradual and the return to normalcy will be slower.

The crisis has brought out some bargain hunting fliers looking for discount fares.

Department of Motor Vehicles

The virus scare hits just as California officials are expecting more people to come to field offices to qualify for Real ID driver licenses prior to the federal October deadline: After then, anyone who wants to fly must have a federally approved Real ID, or use their passport as ID. The current California license will no longer be allowed as identification for flights.

The coronavirus doesn’t appear to have daunted many, though, based on the latest statistics.

“Yesterday, almost 96,000 customers were served in DMV field offices, which is on the high end of normal these days,” DMV spokeswoman Anita Gore said.

DMV offices are cleaned daily and employees are being told to stay home if they feel sick. “We ask our customers to do the same,” Gore said.

DMV also wants people to check out online services at www.dmv.ca.gov to avoid coming into the office if possible. The DMV has instituted several changes to speed the process.

Sacramento Regional Transit

SacRT officials say ridership was up in February. It would be surprising though if there isn’t a drop off in March, given that more workers are staying home when feeling ill, others are telecommuting and some people, especially the elderly, have been told to stay away from crowds.

“Knowing viruses can spread in confined spaces similar to the flu, SacRT has been proactive in sanitizing its buses and light rail vehicles every day,” the transit district said in a press release. During flu season, trains and buses “are fogged with Chlorine Dioxide to sanitize every couple of weeks. With the discovery of coronavirus, we are increasing that practice to every five days.”

The agency has supplied hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and disposable gloves to employees who deal with the public.

Amtrak and Capitol Corridor

Amtrak is operating normal service nationally and in California. But the company made news this week when it suspended three Amtrak Acela nonstop trains that run between New York and Washington, D.C. Other Amtrak trains continue to operate in that corridor, officials say.

Amtrak this week on its website listed steps it is taking, including more cleaning, to reduce the risk of coronavirus on trains.

This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.