Takes longer, less convenient AND more expensive

[telerib]

With gas the price it is, I figured it was high time to look into my mass transit options.

An all-bus-and-train option would take me 2 hours one-way and is a non-starter.

Driving to the Metro, then Metro-to-bus, would take an hour. Daily cost would be $13.75, after travel subsidy roughly $10. Plus some amount of gas to get to/from the Metro station (20 miles round-trip, call it .67 gallons or about $2.) So $12 and 20 miles of wear-and-tear on the car.

I'm spending about $7.50/day on gas for a commute that takes 30-60 minutes (avg. 45) and 60 miles of wear-and-tear on the car.

If I value the 15 minute difference at my hourly pay rate, and the 40 additional miles at a government reimbursement standard of around $0.50/mile, driving still wins.

Comments

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

So, the next question is: How high does the price of gasoline have to get before the drive-to-Metro-to-bus cost equals the all-driving cost?

(Just curious ... I'm sure everyone has their own "price point" at which they start cutting back on driving.)

[telerib.livejournal.com]

I tend to discount wear and tear on the car and the time difference (since a longer trip is expected on public transit). So when cost of driving > cost of public transit.

I get a ~30 mpg (a little more if I've had a recent tune up), so it's about 2 gallons of gas per day to drive. To compare to the cost of transit, gas would have to be $6/gal.

The kicker is the parking fee. (Not that the $9 Metro/bus fare is anything to sneeze at.) But since I'm outside of PG County, an all-bus route would be:

Howard County Ride-On Connector to the mall.
Bus from mall to Metro.
Metro to Anacostia
Bus from Metro to work
.5 mile walk from main gate

Just getting to the Metro takes an hour in this case, as opposed to 10-15 min driving. (Oh right... so it's not an hour via public transit, it'd be an hour-fifteen, or 30 minutes more than I drive now.)

And I tend to get motion sickness if I read on the Metro. :( Otherwise, it wouldn't be so bad.