Why drive? Take the bus!
The Seattle Metro is one of the finest public transportation systems I have ever experienced.
[Of course, I must qualify that statement with the fact that I have only used public transportation in four cities: Chicago, New York, Madison, and Seattle. My 22 years of living in Texas wasn't altogether friendly towards hopping on a bus to go anywhere, although I did successfully ride my bike from Rockwall to my home-dizzle of Bedford, a 60-mile trek which was made possible only on four-lane highways and the DFW Airport. See, when the best public transportation one can find is taking a grueling bike ride literally through the tarmac of an airport (shady but legal), you know that there's a problem. But I digress.]
A mix of underground tunnels, a water taxi, inter-island ferries, trains, and electric buses, Seattle is as progressive as a transport network can get. And it seems this trend of public transit is on the rise in the oil-starved century we are carving out for ourselves. In 2007, ridership of our nation's subways increased 3%, for a total of 3 billions trips. Beijing projects to complete what will be the world's largest underground public transit system by 2015. And don't forget our nation's capitol, which completed its $10 billion subway system, making it the most expensive single public works program in the US since Boston broke ground with the original subway in 1897.
But public transit is just a way for the big cities to save money and draw revenue, you say. It may benefit people without cars, but does it help my personal budget?
Well, thanks to our friends at the American Public Transportation Association, you can calculate the savings down to the exact penny. Try the link below to calculate the difference you save.
http://www.apta.com/services/transit_calculator/index.cfm
Besides adjusting for gasoline prices and the cost of two-way public transit, the calculator configures for wear-and-tear on your vehicle, including maintenance as well as tire replacement. Using Kyrsten's 22 mile roundtrip drive to her school this past year, we could save $1843. If we input '$0' for the cost of public transit (since we as AmeriCorps volunteers get free bus passes), the savings are even more ridiculous...$1350.14! Now, imagine we sold the car--a viable option for living in the city where we reside--and thus jettisoned the yearly vehicle registration and auto insurance premiums. Oh geez, now my head is swelling with pompous eco-snobbery...I need a doppio of shade-grown fair-trade espresso to recover...
Alas, the savings are phenomenal. Granted, the other hand to this equation is the amount of time one spends on the bus, which can add up to be as big as three hours daily. That's a lot of riding time. But think of all the books you could read along the way. Gosh, Crime and Punishment would take two or three weeks, and you could probably balance your checkbook too.
So go! Take the bus! Have a smaller carbon footprint! And watch out for that lonely biker in Texas who is trying to save gas by riding alongside the airplanes...he just missed his fourth near-collision with a SUV, and all he wants to do is save the world, one middle school student at a time.
[Of course, I must qualify that statement with the fact that I have only used public transportation in four cities: Chicago, New York, Madison, and Seattle. My 22 years of living in Texas wasn't altogether friendly towards hopping on a bus to go anywhere, although I did successfully ride my bike from Rockwall to my home-dizzle of Bedford, a 60-mile trek which was made possible only on four-lane highways and the DFW Airport. See, when the best public transportation one can find is taking a grueling bike ride literally through the tarmac of an airport (shady but legal), you know that there's a problem. But I digress.]
A mix of underground tunnels, a water taxi, inter-island ferries, trains, and electric buses, Seattle is as progressive as a transport network can get. And it seems this trend of public transit is on the rise in the oil-starved century we are carving out for ourselves. In 2007, ridership of our nation's subways increased 3%, for a total of 3 billions trips. Beijing projects to complete what will be the world's largest underground public transit system by 2015. And don't forget our nation's capitol, which completed its $10 billion subway system, making it the most expensive single public works program in the US since Boston broke ground with the original subway in 1897.
But public transit is just a way for the big cities to save money and draw revenue, you say. It may benefit people without cars, but does it help my personal budget?
Well, thanks to our friends at the American Public Transportation Association, you can calculate the savings down to the exact penny. Try the link below to calculate the difference you save.
http://www.apta.com/services/transit_calculator/index.cfm
Besides adjusting for gasoline prices and the cost of two-way public transit, the calculator configures for wear-and-tear on your vehicle, including maintenance as well as tire replacement. Using Kyrsten's 22 mile roundtrip drive to her school this past year, we could save $1843. If we input '$0' for the cost of public transit (since we as AmeriCorps volunteers get free bus passes), the savings are even more ridiculous...$1350.14! Now, imagine we sold the car--a viable option for living in the city where we reside--and thus jettisoned the yearly vehicle registration and auto insurance premiums. Oh geez, now my head is swelling with pompous eco-snobbery...I need a doppio of shade-grown fair-trade espresso to recover...
Alas, the savings are phenomenal. Granted, the other hand to this equation is the amount of time one spends on the bus, which can add up to be as big as three hours daily. That's a lot of riding time. But think of all the books you could read along the way. Gosh, Crime and Punishment would take two or three weeks, and you could probably balance your checkbook too.
So go! Take the bus! Have a smaller carbon footprint! And watch out for that lonely biker in Texas who is trying to save gas by riding alongside the airplanes...he just missed his fourth near-collision with a SUV, and all he wants to do is save the world, one middle school student at a time.
posted by Steve Pratt at 5:26 PM
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