So today I finally did something that I've been threatening to do for a long time, and hypocritically not doing: I took the bus to school! I have to say, it was sort of alarming how much anxiety I had over it. I didn't sleep well last night at all, I woke up really early this morning, nervous, and I had bizarro anxiety dreams about it last night. So, shame on me, I now have a little more empathy for people who are somehow intrinsically "afraid" of public transportation. I'm absolutely 100% in favor of it, and it still took me this long to finally embrace it in my own city (at least on a practical level).
Anyway, overall, it was a very pleasant experience. It means I have to get up about 40 minutes earlier in the morning (and for someone who's already a fairly early riser, that's painful, but I'll get used to it). My biggest gripe this morning was that the nearest bus stop for me to get on the bus I need is over a half-mile away. Which isn't bad in nice weather, but if it's raining, or 35 degrees outside? No thanks. Until I realized that there's a nice little "park and ride" lot right there next to the covered stop. So that alleviates that concern a bit.
So my total round-trip this morning from walking out my front door to walking onto campus was 38 minutes. My normal morning drive time is between 20 and 25. On the way back, the total round trip was about 53 minutes. My normal driving time back is between 25-40, depending which way I go. Which, I suppose, all added up is a pretty considerable amount of time, but if I subtract the stress of driving (every afternoon I get home frazzled, hot, pissed off, and anxious), the wear and tear on my car (I could have been saving roughly 10 miles on my car every day for the past 2 years and I haven't been doing it??!?), gas money, and time on the bus I can spend doing things like reading (both for pleasure and school), I think it's a pretty fair trade-off.
2 comments:
Is this one of the express buses or a normal city bus? I used to reverse-commute on the #983 most of the time (using the #3 if I got to the stop too late); the express bus, at least, is a smooth enough ride to allow reading or working, although you're likely overestimating your cost savings (see this post: http://mdahmus.monkeysystems.com/blog/archives/000440.html)
Have linked you from my crackplog.
Well, as a student, I can buy an unlimited pass for $8 a month. Even if all that saves me is a half tank of gas, that's $15, which is a savings of $7 a month. But I think it will add up to more than half a tank of gas, not to mention, I like the idea of starting to use the bus for things other than school as well. I've even considered running an experiment, where I don't drive for 2 weeks to see how easy or hard it is. But I prolly won't do that.
Thanks for the link!
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