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(Fox News)   Americans are now using public transportation in record numbers. Apparently it came down to whether people wanted to have their pockets picked at the gas station or on the subway   ( latino.foxnews.com) divider line
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    More: Interesting, public transports, record numbers, transit hub, Caltrain  
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281 clicks; posted to Business » on 12 Mar 2014 at 9:39 AM (4 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook   more»



27 Comments     (+0 »)
 
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
Langston [TotalFark]
2014-03-12 09:51:37 AM  
I prefer my wallet emptied at home, like regular married men.
 
Nonrepeating Rotating Binary
2014-03-12 09:58:17 AM  
12 miles each way to work.  Figure 1.2 gallons of gas per day round trip in city traffic.  $3.65 a gallon this morning.   $4.38 per day for Gas.

Secure ramp 3 blocks from work.  $115 per month, tax included.
Figure 235 transit days per year after holidays and PTO.
$5.87 per day to park

Total $10.25 per day for gas and parking.  Not to mention stress, wear on car, etc.

Express Bus:  $6 a day.  Less when you calculate it as both a pre-tax commuter benefit and the 10% bonus the transit company pays on pre-pay cards.  I sit back and watch movies and tv shows on my iPad on the way to work and don't even look at the traffic.

Why would I even think of driving?
 
Gestalt
2014-03-12 09:58:18 AM  
The transit system where I live in Louisville means taking a bus which is generally unreliable and uses the same overcrowded roads as everyone else. Locally it's considered sort of a disguised form of discriminating against the poor in that it's not something that could get you to work on the regular but also the only alternative to owning a car for many people. We could use something better but the political will hasn't been there so far.
 
HMS_Blinkin
2014-03-12 10:04:59 AM  
Probably has a lot to do with more people living in urban areas as well.  Public transportation makes a lot of sense in dense urban areas; driving makes more sense in suburban/rural areas or midsize cities.
 
Wellon Dowd
2014-03-12 10:06:56 AM  
I was mugged on the Washington Metro, so I'm getting a big kick out of this thread.
 
phaseolus
2014-03-12 10:06:58 AM  
...except in Wisconsin.

1. State government cuts funding
2. Local transit systems cut routes
3. With fewer buses to ride, ridership goes down. Big surprise.
 
monoski [BareFark]
2014-03-12 10:07:04 AM  
It may also have a lot to do with the lack of any real increase in wages for a decade. People are losing the ability to afford a car. TX boasts about the number of jobs they are adding but fails to mention the state hosts more min wage jobs than any other state.
 
H31N0US
2014-03-12 10:09:38 AM  
My train ticket is $275 a month.

If I drove to work, it wold cost $12 for the toll, $20 at a minimum to park and I haven't even bought gas or taken vehicle depreciation yet.

I guess what I am saying is that NYC is really a shiatty place to work if you can't afford to live well here.
 
HotWingConspiracy
2014-03-12 10:13:12 AM  

H31N0US: My train ticket is $275 a month.

If I drove to work, it wold cost $12 for the toll, $20 at a minimum to park and I haven't even bought gas or taken vehicle depreciation yet.

I guess what I am saying is that NYC is really a shiatty place to work if you can't afford to live well here.


If you aren't a delivery person, you're kind of insane for wanting to drive in there anyway.
 
albatros183
2014-03-12 10:13:50 AM  
Or people are to poor to have a car.
 
farkeruk
2014-03-12 10:18:21 AM  
4 things:

1. Smartphones/laptops now mean time on the train/bus aren't wasted
2. Smartphones mean that checking bus/train times are now easy
3. Cars are just no fun. When I was growing up, you could drive real fast out on country roads. You could go and have a few drinks. Roads were empty outside of rush hour.
4. Cars are no longer status symbols. No-one cares that you have a car any longer.
 
Rapmaster2000
2014-03-12 10:29:54 AM  

Nonrepeating Rotating Binary: 12 miles each way to work.  Figure 1.2 gallons of gas per day round trip in city traffic.  $3.65 a gallon this morning.   $4.38 per day for Gas.

Secure ramp 3 blocks from work.  $115 per month, tax included.
Figure 235 transit days per year after holidays and PTO.
$5.87 per day to park

Total $10.25 per day for gas and parking.  Not to mention stress, wear on car, etc.

Express Bus:  $6 a day.  Less when you calculate it as both a pre-tax commuter benefit and the 10% bonus the transit company pays on pre-pay cards.  I sit back and watch movies and tv shows on my iPad on the way to work and don't even look at the traffic.

Why would I even think of driving?


Because buses have THOSE people on them and if you keep riding buses you will get raped and murdered.  Meanwhile, I am safe driving for two hours a day to my exurban home.  While you're watching movies, I'm listening to the Morning Zoo Crew with Skeeter and The Butt.  I win.
 
HMS_Blinkin
2014-03-12 10:34:59 AM  

Rapmaster2000: Morning Zoo Crew with Skeeter and The Butt.  I win.


NPR is the only reason I turn on a radio while driving, morning or any time of day.  The rest of terrestrial radio is just hideously bad.
 
Gonz
2014-03-12 10:36:53 AM  
When I was going back to school, I had two choices:

Drive 20 miles each way, usually hitting rush hour traffic coming home.

Ride bus, with most of the trip on an express bus with cloth seats and wi-fi. Cost $35 a semester for a student pass.

This was not a tough decision. Now that my commute to work is an 11 minute drive, I don't take the bus anymore, because it's worth my time to not wait for the next route. But some days, I still kind of miss it.
 
Burr
2014-03-12 10:45:37 AM  
3 hour (round trip) commute.  Of course, that is 3 hours of actual driving on rural state routes with no traffic other then the odd semi or amish buggy.

Also, lots of hills, so the roads are curvy and driving it is actually fun, and lots of trees, so the scenery is pretty (especially in the fall).  I get to work from home on snow days right now.  I am working on figuring out how to get a better internet connection so I can work from home more, might just come down to getting a cheap office in the nearby town (15 min drive) so I can have access to cable internet.
 
CanisNoir
2014-03-12 10:54:21 AM  
In my case it came down to a car repair I can't currently afford, at least not while maintaining rent, heat, water and food. So yea, Bus Pass it is. Seems a little cheaper on the gas too now that I just drive to and from the end of the block or the grocery store every so often.
 
Burr
2014-03-12 10:58:10 AM  

HMS_Blinkin: Rapmaster2000: Morning Zoo Crew with Skeeter and The Butt.  I win.

NPR is the only reason I turn on a radio while driving, morning or any time of day.  The rest of terrestrial radio is just hideously bad.


NPR for the afternoon commute is nice.  In the morning it was usually Bob and Tom in the hopes that they had a good comedian on for a laugh or two.  Now I am switching over to podcasts for my morning drive.

I don't mind the commute that much.  I can usually lose myself in my mind or in the drive.  It is my unwind time honestly.  I did spend a couple of weeks working for a client in L.A. and I understand how it can be stressful, when you are spending 60 mins in bumper to bumper traffic to drive less then 20 miles.
 
groppet [TotalFark]
2014-03-12 11:44:36 AM  
I am 40 miles from work and it's not in an easy place to get to via public transport. It takes me about an hour to drive it. If I took public transport I would have to take a bus, the metro, then the marc train, then a mile walk. It would take at least 3-4 hours. I'm trying to get a transfer to a site about 10 miles from home. The only thing I liek about the commute is it is a reverse commute so I dont hit much traffic.
 
JolobinSmokin
2014-03-12 12:00:18 PM  
I'm an appraiser so I drive A lot, but the other day I had to take comp pics in owasso, ok north of Tulsa in 5pm traffic.

So I'm sitting on hwy 169 that has turned into a parking lot thinking what the Fark is wrong with these people for continually voting down any form of rail or public transportation.

Ifni had to sit in that shiate everyday back and forth to work I would drive off a bridge.
 
Nonrepeating Rotating Binary
2014-03-12 12:34:12 PM  

JolobinSmokin: So I'm sitting on hwy 169 that has turned into a parking lot thinking what the Fark is wrong with these people for continually voting down any form of rail or public transportation.


30 years of Republican Propaganda.  "Taxes are Evil", "Government spending is waste"
 
anfrind
2014-03-12 12:35:00 PM  
My typical daily commute to work:

1. 10 minutes to bicycle to a bus stop about two miles away.
2. 15 minutes on a "limited" bus to downtown.
3. 5 minutes to bicycle to my office.

The trip home is usually longer, because the limited buses going in the reverse direction stop running at 5:30pm:

1. 3 minutes to bicycle to bus stop about a block from the office.
2. 10 minutes on a bus to the nearby light rail station (which, strangely, does not go to downtown).
3. 15 minutes on the light rail to the station nearest my home.
4. 10 minutes to bicycle home.

On most days, it does take a little longer than driving would, but it's cheaper, and I can use my phone to check the news et al. while commuting.  At one point I did calculate that it might be even cheaper if I had a hybrid or electric car for commuting, but since my current car is fully paid off and requires very little maintenance, it's not clear that I'd save money overall once you factor in the cost of a new car.
 
YixilTesiphon
2014-03-12 12:51:47 PM  

monoski: It may also have a lot to do with the lack of any real increase in wages for a decade. People are losing the ability to afford a car. TX boasts about the number of jobs they are adding but fails to mention the state hosts more min wage jobs than any other state.


This is a BS talking point, as shown by this report from the Federal Reserve. Go to the chart on Page 2. Context is good.
 
robbiex0r
2014-03-12 02:25:17 PM  

phaseolus: ...except in Wisconsin.

1. State government cuts funding
2. Local transit systems cut routes
3. With fewer buses to ride, ridership goes down. Big surprise.


you miss the next steps:

4. "parking crisis"
5. parking infrastructure improvements in the millions of dollars
6. city wasteland of parking lots/structures
 
stewbert
2014-03-12 02:38:18 PM  
After 5 years of daily commuter train riding, I'm sick of it. But, it's still easily far cheaper than driving. And, when it works, it's not more of a hassle. But, those days when the system snafus really suck.
 
H31N0US
2014-03-12 03:07:23 PM  

stewbert:  But, those days when the system snafus really suck.


At New Jersey Transit, those are all the days that end in "y".
 
RightWingWacko
2014-03-12 07:40:39 PM  
I commute 45 miles one way, so a total of 90 miles each day.   I was costing me a bundle to drive.

However my employer will pay for a bus pass that covers the whole cost, so I decided to try it.   The bus ride doesn't take much longer than it took to drive, in fact some times it's faster.  I get to nap on the bus in the way to work, so there is an extra hours sleep.   And... it's like a $200/month raise, since it costs me nothing
 
Silly_Sot
2014-03-13 11:02:40 AM  
Of course, dipshiat lobbyists intentionally refused to adjust by population growth.

On a population-adjusted basis, the recent total is actually 46% LESS than in 1956.

But lobbyists are paid liars.
 
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