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Your Commuting Costs By Car Vs. Train?
grepdisc writes "Newspapers in Boston are fawning over a report by the American Public Transportation Association that taking public transportation saves money over driving. How can one possibly save $12,600 per year, when the inflated estimates of 15,000 miles per year at only 23.4 miles and $2.039 per gallon costs only $1,310, and a high parking rate of $460 per month results in under $5600. Is the discrepancy made up of tolls, repairs, the cost of buying a car and ignoring train station parking fees?" Everyone's situation is different — and it's easy to have a chip on one's shoulder while estimating prices. But for those of you with the option, what kind of savings do you find (or would you expect) from taking one form of transport to work over another?
For me it's not the mode of transport but the number of transfers.
When I got my first professional job, it so happened that I could walk three blocks, hop on a bus, and ride it to a point just two blocks from work. I rode the bus a lot.
In a different job, I found a house just over five miles from work and could bicycle to and from pretty easily. So, I rode my bike whenever the weather permitted.
But jobs change, more often and more easily than one can buy and sell houses. My current situation is an ugly commute, but I'm not about to look for a closer job, or try to sell my house, in this economy.
I would have to drive literally halfway to work to get to the park-and-ride so I could take light rail to the bus stop for the final leg of the journey. Besides the time wasted on transfers, I'm not doing the environment much good either, because practically all the miles I'm putting on the car are "warm up" miles, when exhaust pollution is highest.
Due to poor feeder-line planning, it takes two buses to get to the light rail station, one of which is one of these huge two-part articulated monsters which never seems to have more than twelve people aboard. But that's a different story.
So, I have a choice of making the 45 minute drive each way in my vehicle, or spend a little over 2 hours each way, on average, doorstep to doorstep, to take mass transit.
That kind of commute time may be practical for a young single person, especially if they have no social life, but when you have a family, frequent interaction is required. I just can't spend that much time sitting on plastic seats reading Tolstoy. I need to be helping the kid with homework, not just looking from the doorway after they're asleep. If that makes me an environmental criminal, then bring out the plastic disposable handcuffs.
Mass transit is like recycling -- I'll do it if the powers-that-be make it worth my while. If it's quick and convenient, I'm up for some amount of extra effort.
Cost doesn't really enter into it. Light rail is usually heavily subsidized and the fares are often artificially low. But I'd gladly pay the real cost of the fare if I could walk to the station, ride one train, and then walk from the station to work. But it only works like that for a comparative handful of people.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
At home? who reads /. at home?