I think everybody likes to see a dollar benefit comparison from public transportation versus personal transportation. Well, here's mine:
My car (on a good day) has a fuel efficiency of 28 miles per gallon. My daily commute would be about 4 miles round trip every day. This means that for a daily commute, I would consume .14 gallons of gas. Not bad! This multiplied by 20 gives an average monthly gas consumption of about 2.85 gallons a month for getting to and from work. Now, take this and multiply by the cost per gallon of gas, currenly around $1.85 and I have a monthly cost of about $5.29
To put this number in perspective, I would have to work roughly 16 minutes per month to afford my gas. Now before I continue, I should mention that my public transportation pass is $25 a month, so thus far public transportation seems like a bad deal. The real cost of commuting to work is in parking the car. Downtown Dallas doesn't let you park for free, there are metered spots, which are not appropriate for 8 hours a day, then there are pay lots. The cheapest is one with a price negotiated by my office for $25 dollars a month. So add this in, and now my public transportation saves me $5 dollars a month! (I just got 15 minutes of my life back!)
The public transportation is also pre-tax so the real cost is likely somewhere around $22. All of these numbers are conservative. My car is probably not as efficient in the city as 28 MPG, so all the better for public transportation. One other benefit is that I recieve a discount on my insurance for utilizing public transportation more. I wish I knew the actual dollar amount...
The next factor in cost is time. I used to walk to work every day, and it took me about 25 minutes to get there, a little longer to get back because of vehicular traffic. If I leave the house at 7:15, I can usually be at the office by 7:40, so 25 minutes. Getting home, because of the bus schedule, takes me roughly 35 minutes (right on par with walking to our previous residence)Driving myself, as I do on occasion due to inclement weather, I can get parked and in the office in about 20 minutes. So to me, the issue is a wash. It just happens to take a while to get there, even within 2 miles of my office.
Simply put, until traffic and commute times get worse, the public transportation will probably be no more or less efficient. However, for remote cities like Plano or Garland, the idea of a trouble free 'park and ride' commute would be a tremendous added benefit. To me, it would be worth it to avoid all of the crazy drivers in Dallas!
My car (on a good day) has a fuel efficiency of 28 miles per gallon. My daily commute would be about 4 miles round trip every day. This means that for a daily commute, I would consume .14 gallons of gas. Not bad! This multiplied by 20 gives an average monthly gas consumption of about 2.85 gallons a month for getting to and from work. Now, take this and multiply by the cost per gallon of gas, currenly around $1.85 and I have a monthly cost of about $5.29
To put this number in perspective, I would have to work roughly 16 minutes per month to afford my gas. Now before I continue, I should mention that my public transportation pass is $25 a month, so thus far public transportation seems like a bad deal. The real cost of commuting to work is in parking the car. Downtown Dallas doesn't let you park for free, there are metered spots, which are not appropriate for 8 hours a day, then there are pay lots. The cheapest is one with a price negotiated by my office for $25 dollars a month. So add this in, and now my public transportation saves me $5 dollars a month! (I just got 15 minutes of my life back!)
The public transportation is also pre-tax so the real cost is likely somewhere around $22. All of these numbers are conservative. My car is probably not as efficient in the city as 28 MPG, so all the better for public transportation. One other benefit is that I recieve a discount on my insurance for utilizing public transportation more. I wish I knew the actual dollar amount...
The next factor in cost is time. I used to walk to work every day, and it took me about 25 minutes to get there, a little longer to get back because of vehicular traffic. If I leave the house at 7:15, I can usually be at the office by 7:40, so 25 minutes. Getting home, because of the bus schedule, takes me roughly 35 minutes (right on par with walking to our previous residence)Driving myself, as I do on occasion due to inclement weather, I can get parked and in the office in about 20 minutes. So to me, the issue is a wash. It just happens to take a while to get there, even within 2 miles of my office.
Simply put, until traffic and commute times get worse, the public transportation will probably be no more or less efficient. However, for remote cities like Plano or Garland, the idea of a trouble free 'park and ride' commute would be a tremendous added benefit. To me, it would be worth it to avoid all of the crazy drivers in Dallas!
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