Do you use public transportation?

dartworth

Lifer
Jul 29, 2001
15,200
10
81
If so how long does it take you to get to work vs driving yourself?

How much does it cost you weekly?

How much are you saving weekly? (if any)

Do you enjoy using public transportation?

What would you do to improve it?
 

ChaoZ

Diamond Member
Apr 5, 2000
8,906
1
0
About 45 minutes to get to school, including 15 minute walk to train. 10 minutes if driving.
$45 for a monthly pass.
A lot?
Sure, I love having other people drive me.
More buses.
 

GTaudiophile

Lifer
Oct 24, 2000
29,767
33
81
Do I? Exclusively! (I live in DC.)

Depends: 10 Minutes (Metro Train only), 15 Minutes (Metro Bus to Metro Train), 25 Minutes (Walk to Metro Train station)
Versus: 30-45 Minutes (Driving only the few times I've done it)
Price: Usually $1.75 x 2 = $3.50/day x 5 days = $17.50/week. I am pretty sure I would spend more per week on gas in DC, not to mention insurance and car maintenance, etc.
Do I enjoy it? Most days during the week, yes. On cold, icy, rainy days it can be a pain. Really hot days too. Nothing like getting to work wet! I do miss having a car sometimes on the weekends. But I have a ZipCar account.
Improve it? I would improve the people in DC. The Metro Train is like a library in the morning. Talk about not lively and unfriendly people in general.
I would improve security too. We all know what happened in Madrid prior to their elections, and I am sure the DC Metro is a target...
The buses could run on a more accurate schedule too. Bus only lanes?
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,129
45,167
136
Trains are 30 to 40 minutes. Drive can be 25 minutes to an hour depending on traffic.

$75/mo unlimited pass

I haven't figured it out but at $4.50 a gallon for gas and $175/mo for parking I venture to say quite a bit.

It's alright, you get to see interesting people and chill on your way to work.

Improve the frequency of a line I transfer to or provide realtime train locations/eta's
 

LS21

Banned
Nov 27, 2007
3,745
1
0
Originally posted by: dartworth
If so how long does it take you to get to work vs driving yourself?

How much does it cost you weekly?

How much are you saving weekly? (if any)

Do you enjoy using public transportation?

What would you do to improve it?

ride bike: 10 minutes
public transport: 20 minutes
cost: free provided by company
enjoyment: id rather sit in a train then fire up my car, or sweat myself biking
improvement: nothing
 

dakels

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 2002
2,809
2
0
NYC
It costs way too much to drive in manhattan ($500-1000/month in parking and tolls*). Not to mention driving against the yellow wave of cabbies can challenge anyone's sanity.

*I know many people who drive to manhattan.
$8 tunnel/bridge toll
$17 day parking (reduced fare at employee garage, can be up to $40 easily)
$8+ gas?

Not hard to hit $30+/day. Thats before you have car payments, insurance, maintenance costs. Then you have the largest subway/mass transit network in the world. It's not hard to see why so few even own a car around here. Unlimited Metrocard = $81/month. zipcar when you need a car once in a while.
 

Xcobra

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2004
3,675
423
126
I drive to train station and park there, take train and get to SF in like 30 mins.

The fare itself costs me $40 weekly, excluding gas. If included it is probably $65 weekly.


I am probably not saving much but probably around $20, more if I drove since parking would add up.

It can be pretty annoying (i.e. people in your face when the train is full). Not bad though.

Cheaper prices? It is not that much difference than driving except that I would spend more time in traffic.

 

Deeko

Lifer
Jun 16, 2000
30,213
12
81
I could if I wanted to. 15 minutes bus vs 5 minutes drive. Bus is free. I'd save roughly $4/week. I despite public transit here.
 

thirtythree

Diamond Member
Aug 7, 2001
8,680
3
0
The actual travel time is maybe a few minutes more than driving, but I usually get to the stop like 5 min. early, and have to do a few minutes of walking.

I have a free annual pass from my place of employment. (A university, where the students also get free passes.)

I don't have to own a car, so that saves me a lot.

I like it fine. There are times when I enjoy it -- the light rail here is still a bit novel to me. Mostly I take buses though.

Occasionally it could be a bit cleaner, and the riders could be a bit less smelly. Sometimes it's difficult to get to a specific location, without transferring. But for the most part it works out. EDIT: Also, there's no late night service, like after midnight. Not that often a problem, but sometimes.
 

Mikey

Senior member
Jun 16, 2006
996
1
0
Living in southern CA, it's really hard to get around without a car. Our public transportation system is pretty weak and very slow compared to more metropolitan areas.
 

BurnItDwn

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
26,346
1,858
126
I could drive 10 miles to the nearest train station, ride the train SouthEast for 50 miles into downtown chicago and then ride another train due north for 40 miles, but it would take about 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours.
Currently, I drive 20 miles and it takes around 40-45 minutes usually.
It would cost a lot more to use public transportation since I'd only save 1/2 of the gas, and it's not cheap to get 4 train tickets every day.
 

oddyager

Diamond Member
May 21, 2005
3,398
0
76
If so how long does it take you to get to work vs driving yourself?

My trip to work consists of getting to a parking lot and hopping on board the Light Rail which stops right in front of my office. So it's either car or public transportation to the lot. The whole trip either way is less than 40 minutes.

How much does it cost you weekly?

58 per month Light Rail, 50 per month parking, 80 per month tolls, 80 or so on gas = $266 if driving.

58 per month Light Rail, 80 per month public transportation = $138 if taking the bus.

How much are you saving weekly? (if any)

I'm still driving at the moment...

Do you enjoy using public transportation?

For this trip probably yes since so few people take the bus to the parking lot so its never packed. However if you are like the other 98% of the workforce from my island then you would go into Manhattan and that trip SUCKS.

What would you do to improve it?

NYC has one of the oldest transportation systems around so prone to breakdowns in service. The buses and subways are a crapshoot depending on which you take. They can be very hot, smelly, jam packed with people, etc. Or they can be cool and clean... Best way to improve it? Change management in MTA.
 

illusion88

Lifer
Oct 2, 2001
13,164
3
81
I only use Public Transportation during the winter. The bus schedule is seasonal and it is only convenient during those months.
 

dartworth

Lifer
Jul 29, 2001
15,200
10
81
Right now I am using it for the job I'm on. I'm saving about $50-60 a week.

The ride is only about 5 minutes longer and I can catch up on my reading or nap;)
 

Linflas

Lifer
Jan 30, 2001
15,395
78
91
I used to when I worked in DC and hated every second of it. If I had to go back to work in DC again I would slug it rather than waste the enormous amounts of time I wasted using mass transit.
 

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
30,890
5,001
126
I take the bus to/from work 99% of the time. It ads about 10 mins each way versus driving (not including waiting time).
My office pays for a bus pass for any and all eligible employees... so $0 per week. Driving would likely cost me $40 per week in gas alone. If I had to pay for parking (though work would cover that for me too if I chose) that would be an additional $40+ per week.

In all honesty there isn't much I would change. I'm lucky that it picks up withing 3 blocks from my house and drops me off right on my works doorstep (though a tad earlier than I'd like but I'm not going to complain). The only thing that sucks about it is that my route covers a few inner city schools on the way in, so during the school months the clientele kinda suck and are loud/obnoxious. Tolerable but at 7am, I just want to read my paper in quiet.

I have to say too, that when I see the bus full even more so for when its business people who are choosing to ride it versus "having" to ride it, it does make me feel good that its 1 bus versus 50 cars on the road for that morning trip.


 

Capt Caveman

Lifer
Jan 30, 2005
34,543
651
126
When I lived in Cambridge and worked in Boston, subway pass was $45/month(company paid). 10 minute walk to subway station, 10 minute subway ride or I rode my bike 15 minutes. Though sometimes I used to take the subway into the city and ran home(25 minutes). Driving would take 10 minutes and cost me $30 a day in parking(never did it once).

When I lived in Berkeley and worked in SF, I took the casual carpool into the city(20-30 minutes) for free. And took the BART home, 20 minutes.

Live in Cambridge now and have a 8 minute walk to work. Though I still get a monthly subway pass from work(free). My current company reimburses employees up to $250 a month for taking public transportation.
 
Apr 17, 2005
13,465
3
81
i love to nap on the train :) i have a super awesome internal alarm that wakes me up just before my stop...it works whether i'm on the subway or the regional rail.