Now that we’ve reached the era of $4 gas, it’s time to take a look at the reality of alternative methods of transportation. Anti-oil activists have always told us that once gas hit $4 per gallon, we’d discover it was cheaper to use public transportation. Guess what?
I’ve used Google’s excellent trip planner to find out just how cheap and easy it would be to take public transportation from my house in northern San Jose, within walking distance of the Santa Clara CalTrain station and a few blocks off The Alameda, route 82, which is a main thoroughfare around here. Keep in mind that San Jose is the third largest city in California and the largest in the Bay Area, and my office is 14 miles away in South San Jose in a technology park that even gets street signs as a biotech incubator. I’m not working in the boondocks.
Here’s the QUICKEST, CHEAPEST route:
6:38am Walk to The Alameda & Newhall (About 4 mins)
6:42am Depart The Alameda & Newhall
Bus – 22 – Eastridge – Palo Alto/Menlo Park – Direction: 22 EB Eastridge (14 mins)
6:56am Arrive Santa Clara & 1st
Light rail – 901 – Alum Rock-Santa Teresa VIA Baypoint – Direction: LRT Alum Rock – Santa Teresa
9 mins to make transfer
7:05am Depart Santa Clara Station (1) (23 mins)
7:28am Arrive Blossom Hill Station (1)
Bus – 27 – Santa Teresa Hosp – Good Sam Hosp – Direction: 27 EB Santa Teresa Hospital
11 mins to make transfer
7:39am Depart Blossom Hill LR Station (12 mins)
7:51am Arrive Cottle & Pougkeepsie
Walk to [office] (About 20 mins)
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 33 min (and I’d still get to work about 11 minutes late)
TOTAL COST: $5.25 in fares
Now. Let’s see how my commute by car stacks up:
7:45am Leave my garage. (2 minutes)
7:47am I-880 North to I-101 South to Blossom Hill Road. (13 minutes)
8:00am My desk.
TOTAL TIME: 15 minutes.
TOTAL COST: $2.02 in gas.
I think that $4 per gallon gas is still gonna beat public transport. At least, around here. Even if the cost were the same, my time is worth something, whether it be sleeping or working; and that figure is a lot more than $5. So, while I might take public transportation if there was a light rail station within walking distance of my home and office, I’d do it for green reasons rather than financial ones. I would still be penalized financially and chronologically.
