Silicon Valley Becoming More Car-Centric

The car is king in Silicon Valley.

Commuters in Los Angeles use public transportation more often than workers do in Silicon Valley, where 86.8 percent of commuters make their trips via automobile, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.

In LA, the rate is 83.1 percent.

The reliance on cars as the region grows means that there's a risk of "terminal gridlock," the newspaper reported.

A main reason why is the abundance of free parking: Silicon Valley has large office parks with large parking garages, compared to costly and few parking spaces available in San Francisco.

Santa Clara County also has very few public transit users: 3.3 percent of commuters use bus or rail, compared to 7.1 percent in LA.