Mass Transit & Gasoline Prices: Time to Go Public?
How do you get to work every day at the starting of your shift? How do you get home? For many of us, our commute is a habit as unchanging as eating and sleeping. A large estimate of us get to work every day by driving a personal vehicle. We take it for granted that we are taking benefit of the most cost-efficient and satisfying means available to arrive at once and ready to work.
But the fast rising price of gasoline should be an urgent stimulus to make us re-examine our commuting strategy. Over the U.S., the price for one gallon of regular-grade gasoline has risen from about .50 two years ago to today's .60, and it is uncertain that prices will level off any time soon, much less decline.
These realities prompt us to ask, does commuting by driving a personal car up to five days a week provide us the best mixture of cost, or time use, or life-style? Or should we seek a good solution?
Gasoline savings: compelling reason?
Many workers, including me, have opted to leave our vehicles safe at home and brave collective transportation. Each of us has our own reasons. Now the price of gasoline gives us one more, and we find it fairly compelling.
In my own case, I live about 17 miles from work. My 1992 Mitsubishi gets about 24 mpg, which means that if I drove it to and from work, I would be spending about .70 a week just for the gas. Instead, I buy a monthly Dallas Area Rapid Transit (Dart) pass and pay only .00 a week. By riding Dart, I cut my transportation costs nearly in half! If I had to pay for parking, as many of you do, I would save even more.
Other reasons count for more
But wait, there's more! In fact, saving on gasoline is not the primary infer I decided to "go public" any years ago. I used to drive the congested freeways of Dallas to get to work; during rush hours it would take me 30 to 45 minutes. I had so many close calls--so many split-second swerves and jamming of the brakes--that I began to think that it was obvious that I would be complex in an crisis of some kind, maybe even a life-threatening one. Do you ever feel that arduous sense of impending doom?
Now, I drive two miles to the Dart center in my suburb and ride the Light rail. I regularly get off at the Pearl road center and take a good, 15-minute, fast walk from one end of downtown Dallas to the other, a length of about a mile. There I catch a bus that takes me to within one block of my office, where I arrive approximately exactly one hour after boarding the train. In the afternoon, I reverse the route, often walking up to half a mile before boarding the downtown-bound bus.
When I have the time and inclination, I walk farther. I disembark from the train at City Place, climb the two extremely long escalators from the train center 160-feet below the surface, and walk all the way to the office, three miles to the west. At the rate I climb, I step up 42 times on the lower escalator and about 57 on the upper one. Then it's other 42 steps up to the face exit. Most of my hike to work is on Katy Trail, which skirts a string of parks along Turtle Creek. Katy Trail was recently extended to reach the American Airlines Center, which connects me to Hi-Line, Turtle Creek Blvd., and the office. This fall, a walking trail is being constructed that will lead from Katy Trail right past my building along Turtle Creek.
The exercise I get regularly, enforced by being integrated into my commute routine, is my main infer for "going public." But approximately as important is all of that ride time I get on the train and the bus. I can read at least 30 minutes each way. Do you have the opening for an hour of reading five days a week? I cannot begin to list all of the books I have read on my commute, but it is a long list.
What others say
Do other employees share my preference for collective transportation? Melissa, a Chicago customer service representative does.
She says, "I take the train (the el green line) to work every day. I work a split shift, noon to 8 p.m. I live in Oak Park, Illinois (the first western suburb), eight miles from the office. From door to door it takes 20 minutes. during my commute I enjoy reading, habitancy Watching, and defusing if it was a hard day."
"The best thing about taking the train is the convenience of not having to worry about parking. [I avoid] the congestion of traffic, and with the high pay of gasoline, it is very cost efficient. And I am always guaranteed some exercise every day with the walk to and from the train. The worst thing about commuting is that sometimes the trains run late."
With commuter trains, Light rail, subway, buses, and van pooling, Chicago seems to have one of the best collective transportation systems in the country. But other cities are rapidly catching up. Detroit, however, lacks a light rail system, beyond its "PeopleMover" that makes a tight loop in downtown. Agreeing to an report The Detroit News ran on July 7, 2005, "The region is the largest in the nation without a wide subway, commuter rail or high-speed bus network." Officials there, however, promise that this will change in years to come.
"Our collective transportation theory is terrible," says Nancy, a Detroit human resources assistant, "and we don't have a rapid transit theory in the Metro Detroit area. I wish we did, but I guess this is the Motor City; they want to make sure we all buy cars."
Mark, a Detroit customer service rep, agrees. "There is no viable collective transportation theory in Detroit. We make cars."
Eddy is a employer who lives about 17 miles from his work just out of downtown Dallas. He says, "I think we should all ride collective transportation at least once in a while to remind us how fortunate we are. That being said, I hold anyone's right to drive a car to work. As gas prices go up, I think we should figure out ways to reduce our dependency on oil products. One of the things I select to do is to ride the bus periodically. I think I am fortunate because I live colse to to a transit center (1/2 mile) and can walk to and from it. Most habitancy have to drive to a station.... I would like to see our company run a test to help fund riding collective transportation (maybe buy half of a monthly pass or something like that)."
Security issues
Eddy acknowledges, "Because of our shift work, many of our habitancy can't use collective transportation." This sentiment is shared by a second-shift typesetter named Brandy. "Dallas has no good collective transportation for me to use from North Richland Hills to my job, at the hours I work. I would have to take two buses, and as I work till 11 p.m. (at a minimum), the trains do not run. Also, being a female, I am not crazy about waiting face on the projection at 11 p.m. At night for a bus to take me downtown, then other bus to the train station."
These are easily valid concerns, and there are no easy solutions for our employees in Dallas. For other cities, however, especially Chicago and ultimately Phoenix, where the rail center is in the immediate area of our office building, collective transportation may be more viable even for second and third shifts. any employees walking together would be a partial solution.
Safety concerns
Another issue for bus passengers is the lack of seat belts and shoulder belts. I have been in two bus accidents without injury, but one sudden stop sent me pilotage four or five feet forward. I managed to grab a post and only received a minor bruise. Since then I have selected my bus seats carefully, opting for the three or four places where I am against something solid should the bus stop suddenly. Of course, I then have to worry about being the cushion for other people's landings. My seat of selection is right to the rear of the back door. Only one man is likely to slam into me there, and habitancy seldom sit in that singular seat.
Not "going public"?
Other workers have their own reasons for avoiding collective transportation. Violet, a Dallas sales hold supervisor, says, "I only live seven or eight miles from work, and I always get to work in 15 minutes. My commute gives me time to myself, and I like that." Gwen, a Denver sales rep, uses her 36-mile drive to phone clients and return calls. "It also gives me time to reflect," she adds.
Roberta, a staff accountant at Dallas, has a 25-mile drive. She says she spends the 40- to 45-minute commute listening to Christian music. "It gives me time to switch gears from work mode to wife mode," she says.
Do your own analysis: Is now the time for you to "go public"?
Take a serious look at the variables of cost, time commitment, condition factors, and available transportation. Your decision will probably depend on the priorities you have and the extra situation that you alone best appreciate.
One consideration should probably be left out of your analysis: class status. As Eddy says, "I also think we have many, many habitancy in America (and easily at our company) who think they are too good to ride the bus or train. We need to comprehend that we are all just 'folks' when it comes right down to it and that the man or woman next to us in the bus are just quarterly people, no matter what they look like or what color they are."
Friends Link : Buy Shopping Discount TCL L32HDF11TA LCD HDTV 58mm 045x SUPER WIDE Canon Macbook Charger for MC207LL
No comments:
Post a Comment