dUuUuDe - Apr 12, 2008 05:15pm

so yesterday was a beautiful day, so my friends and i decided to go to the beach.
we took the Sprinter, which is a train that goes from where i live, to the beach, in an hour. it drops oyu off right on the beach. and its only 4 bucks. it has lik 13 stops along the way, but they go by way fast, so its all good.
im getting into public transportation, since i dont have a license yet… but yeah, it’s pretty cool, just thought i’d share!

what a great option that is. I looked it up and and it’s pretty neat. it sure beats parking too...and on a day like today (I’m sure it’s as hot in SD as it is in LA), that would come in handy. I’m still kind of sick, so I’m going to take a nice stroll to the beach myself today, which is, ahem, 1/2 mile away. :)

Nice post!

wow that is convenient.  I wish there was some form of public transpo around here other than a drumb trolley that is more a of a tour than actual transportation.

omg we have like NO public transportation in FLA. I just recently went up north and there is no need for a car up there, they got all kinds of transportation!! which is great, it saves gas & money & really helps! public transportation should be availiable everywhere!

Bostons is really the only place near here to get public transport. I’m so jealous of people who have it so easy! :)

If you want to get anywhere in sydney you can take public transport...if you’re willing to pay.  Quite honestly traffic included, it’s cheaper to run a car here than use our failing public transport system.  I catch busses and trains and a tram every single day and not once have they been on time this week.  I never used to complain about the public transport system here but the prices have just gone up and if anything the service standard has dropped.  Its no wonder sydney siders revert to using cars.  let me put it in monetary value for you...If my boyfriend and i share fuel costs we pay $30 each a week for transport door to door including weekend outings and shopping.  If i catch my bus, train and tram to get to work it costs me $67 a week.  When i lived 100kilometres from work it still only cost me $60 a week if i shared costs with my boyfriend.
I’ve just changed work starting times and now i have to catch public transport which means between my boyfriend and i we average $110 a week in transport costs instead of $60 if we start and finish at convenient times.
The cost of public transport is ridiculous.

This discussion of the economics of automobiles from http://www.phillycarshare.org is interesting:

“Economics are a powerful force driving automobiles, because cars are such “lumpy” investments. It is possible to own one or two cars, for example, but not one tenth or one-and-a-half. Once a car is owned, almost all its costs become “sunk” and unrelated to miles driven. Consider that a ten-mile roundtrip in Philadelphia costs $2.60 on SEPTA but only 98 cents in gas. Driving seems cheap on the margin. Rationally, car owners choose to drive.

What if we could flip those economics—if cars were virtually free to access but expensive to drive? What if owning cost $0, while gas cost $15 per gallon? We might expect massive changes in travel behavior. People probably would drive much less, choosing more often to walk, bike, and take transit. “

jlc mom - May 10, 2008 09:18am

This discussion of the economics of automobiles from http://www.phillycarshare.org is interesting:

“Economics are a powerful force driving automobiles, because cars are such “lumpy” investments. It is possible to own one or two cars, for example, but not one tenth or one-and-a-half. Once a car is owned, almost all its costs become “sunk” and unrelated to miles driven. Consider that a ten-mile roundtrip in Philadelphia costs $2.60 on SEPTA but only 98 cents in gas. Driving seems cheap on the margin. Rationally, car owners choose to drive.

What if we could flip those economics—if cars were virtually free to access but expensive to drive? What if owning cost $0, while gas cost $15 per gallon? We might expect massive changes in travel behavior. People probably would drive much less, choosing more often to walk, bike, and take transit. ”

That’s all well and good if you bought your car and are paying it off...I bought mine outright, the insurance and registration costs are quite small and upkeep is done by yours truly.  It still ends up being about $45 a week for me which is still cheaper than catching public transport.  The economics of owning a car is different depending upon the individual.  I understand what this is saying, that people forget the cost of the cand the rego and insurance and the services etc...but if you don’t have those costs to deal with you don’t have the increased transport costs.
Environmentally its wrong, but i’d much rather drive if it saves me money.

emilythegreat - May 12, 2008 12:28am

jlc mom - May 10, 2008 09:18am

Environmentally its wrong, but i’d much rather drive if it saves me money.

You are just making a logical choice!!

Can’t figure out why that last one came out that way, I guess I shouldn’t mess with the quotes.

Just wanted to say Emily is only making a logical choice!