My car doesn't get used at work - it just sits in a parking garage all day. One of my co-workers mentioned riding an express bus that gets to work on time in the morning and arrives back in plenty of time to pick up Helen at daycare. I did a little investigating on all the different schedules, and I learned that I've got a lot of options. There are a couple of express bus schedules for the regular commute, which gets me to a spot downtown only a block away from my office door. In case I need to run home during the day (i.e., Helen's sick at daycare), there's a local bus that takes a little longer but leaves every half hour. I've also got a great option for those monthly doctor appointments that take me right past my doctors office. I decided this was worth a try, even for just a month, and if I hated it I could go back to driving.
After two days I was hooked. Public transportation gives me a lot more flexibility than I had imagined, and while I'm without a car during the day, I DIDN'T NEED IT ANYWAY. Lunch is usually within walking distance, or I can ride with co-workers if we're heading somewhere together. Errands after work? I never really had time since I was picking up Helen from daycare and had to race back in crazy traffic. I can plan ahead a little better, and combine trips on the weekend or evenings.
This first month, I saved a lot of dough on gasoline. Half a tank of gas lasted me through 2 weeks, instead of a full tank per week. Parking costs downtown dropped significantly, too. I expect in all to save about $150 this month, and as the cost of gas goes up, it will be even more.
Anyone else out there figuring out a way to save on gas? Feel free to share in the comments.
2 comments:
Now I'm at home with Wilson, I'm hardly driving at all so I don't have my own personal story, but I'll share what our neighbor, Ben, did last year. Now Ben is Mr. Renaissance Man. There is nothing he can't and won't do. Well, he decided he was going to bike to work to protest the price of gas. He works about 5 miles away, but unfortunately he has to travel down a main thoroughfare to get there. The first day he came home covered in scratches and cuts because he decided to shorten his route by going through some wild area. Determined not to give up, the next day he took a *machete* with him to cut his own path through the area. Just picture it - a 30 yr old man, dressed for work, riding a bicycle and carrying a machete through our peaceful, family neighborhood. I also think about Ben emerging from the wild area to the shock of the people stopped in traffic on that busy road. I can only imagine the calls the local police department received!
The bus sounds much better to me :-)
The scary part of that story is that he macheted his way through the wild area last year, when gas was still under $3 a gallon.
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