Commuters are leaving mass transit for their cars, and they have their reasons

[bananas]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/bay-area-transportation/ci_14142274

Commuters are leaving mass transit for their cars, and they have their reasons
By Mike Rosenberg
Bay Area News Group
Posted: 01/09/2010 10:21:38 PM PST
Updated: 01/10/2010 12:41:41 PM PST

The great debate for middle-class commuters — to drive or take transit — is now a no-brainer for many who are finding it cheaper and faster to take their cars.

The recession has changed the way commuters think. Gas prices are down and transit fares are up; freeway traffic is looser, while transit service is less frequent.

For three years, Veronique Selgado took BART from the East Bay to her job working for an airline at San Francisco International Airport. But she recently switched to driving because BART raised fares and upped its SFO round-trip surcharge from $3 to $8, boosting her daily trip cost to nearly $20.

"It's outrageous," Selgado said. "At what point do they stop raising the prices, when it's $50 a day to go round-trip to work? At what point does BART stand back and say, 'People can't pay that much to commute'?"

The math also stopped adding up for Castro Valley computer data analyst David Ross, 53. After BART and AC Transit raised fares, and BART started charging $1 to park at the Castro Valley station, he and his girlfriend began paying $14.25 each day on transportation. With gas at around $3 per gallon — the price in California has risen lately but is still down from the peak of $4.61 in 2008 — since October they have been paying $14.50 to drive and park in Oakland instead.

"The time savings is worth more than any costs," said Ross, who now leaves for work with his girlfriend each morning at

<snip>

[KamaAina]

1. Tip for the woman who commutes to SFO

the airport runs a free employee shuttle from the nearby Millbrae station, which is not subject to the exorbitant surcharge at SFO itself (they're trying to sock it to presumably well-heeled air travelers).

[Buzz Clik]

2. My son sold his car and takes mass transit in Boston. He's sold.

It takes longer, but he bought a new Droid to help him pass the time productively.

:thumbsup:

[One_Life_To_Give]

22. If you are near the subway MBTA is good, otherwise

your life is dictated by the commuter rail schedule. As in don't have a late afternoon meeting run long or have to come in early to conference call with the far east. And definatly don't have a child start to run a fever and have to go pick them up from School/daycare in the middle of the day.

[JackintheGreen]

3. It's an annual discussion in Philly with us

My wife works close to the commuter rail and I commute into the city to university. But it's cheaper for her to drive, by a lot, and the rail trip would more than double her commute time.

The train also doubles my commute time, but parking expenses in CC actually sway me the other way. But when there is no snow/ice on the ground I ride my motorcycle, which I can still park on (certain) sidewalks without charge.

Also, SEPTA (the PT company) is the devil. They train their drivers too aggressively and make bus stops literally every single block on many routes. I've almost been killed by buses far more often than by autos, though auto drivers here are awful.

[T Wolf]

6. I guess it depends on specifics. I ride SEPTA Regional Rail and have been doing so for quite

a while.

The cost savings is substantial. My monthly pass is less than I would spend on gas. Double the cost to add parking and if you add wear to the car, it would be even more expensive.

I walk to the train station and then to my office - five minutes on either end. Total time is much less than driving (I'll never commute on Broad Street again).

So, for me, public transportation is much faster, much cheaper, and the correct thing to do.

[JackintheGreen]

9. It really is! (about specifics, that is)

Our cars are paid for and she doesn't have to pay for parking at work. At productive time she would lose on the train is the last straw. The monthly rail pass + time spent is far more for her than gas+insurance+maintenance. For me, not so much. I get a lot done on the train.

But every year we reevaluate gas trends and SEPTA pricing and everything else. Only one year out of the last seven has SEPTA been cheaper. I don't get it. I love pt in Boston and Chicago both. But I sure hates it here in Philly.

[marmar]

4. This is not a good trend......

..... and I do think the BART airport surcharge is ridiculous.

[napi21]

5. Why in the world is the mass transit sdo expensive? How much

do you have to make in order to afford rates that high? I have to believe BART should be able to make money or at least break even if they had more riders, but raising their fares so high is only going to deter people from riding!

[T Wolf]

7. Auto travel is subsidized by the state to a much higher degree than public trans.

They want it that way.

[marmar]

10. Exactly......The polar opposite of Western Europe and Japan.

nt

[phantom power]

8. Easy to see their point.

On the other hand, when more commuters return to the freeways, they are likely to see their fuel prices go back up, and the traffic get worse again.

[kestrel91316]

11. I'm not, but then I am currently car-free. I walk 12-15 minutes to the

bus stop in the AM (briskly, to get the blood flowing), then a 5-10 minute bus ride on either the slower one with more stops or the faster one with fewer stops, and then either get off right at my office, or a 5 minute walk down the street depending on which bus I caught. PM I either walk home (briskly, 40-45 minutes, something I SHOULD do every day) or go across the street to catch the slow bus which is <10 minutes to the stop where I then walk 12-15 minutes back home.

Fare is $1.25 per ride. If I still had the old clunker, gas alone would have cost me as much each way (it still got great highway mileage, but in the city it stunk), let alone maintenance and insurance and registration prorated.

I am financially and physically better off without the damned car, lol. I do miss the freedom, so will get another eventually. Not this week, when I am doing my own No Impact experiment a la No Impact Man.

[NNadir]

21. Well, that sort of makes up for all the questionable stuff you've done.

I lived more than 3 years in LA without a car, pure bicycle.

I had no TV either, no media of any kind in fact. All I ever did was work, read and play the guitar, and sometimes make love. (It is true that some of the women I dated had cars, and sometimes I'd ride in them, but not very often.)

Mostly I lived on rice and mushrooms, sometimes with peas. No meat, no animal products.

It was better for my health generally than driving a car, except that cars kept hitting me, sometimes deliberately.

Still, it wasn't "no impact." The books I read, for instance were made of trees which may not have been sustainably harvested, in fact, the probability that they were sustainably harvested was something like, um, zero.

But about that "no impact" thing... If you're really having "no impact," how do you explain being here on a computer? Even a bicycle chain powered generator has an impact, and let's not even talk about the toxicological nightmare of semiconductors. Are you, um, living in the dark and using your cat's computer? Are you collecting all the cat's carbon dioxide and keeping it in a big balloon in your bedroom? If so, what about the rubber from the balloon? Did you grow your own rubber trees, and process them in a sustainable way?

If so, how can you be sure that the balloon will stay in your bedroom for eternity?

Do tell...

[kenfrequed]

12. Am I confused about this?

"But she recently switched to driving because BART raised fares and upped its SFO round-trip surcharge from $3 to $8, boosting her daily trip cost to nearly $20."

Wouldn't a 'round trip' be a daily trip? My definition of Round Trip usually means there and back again. Was the author doubling this number because they did not understand it?



As to the increase in costs I would pin that on the Death before any Tax crowd. Republicans love to cut public transit for some unknowable and illogical reason. Maybe it is the word 'public.' Does it cause them to twitch and spasm like biblical passages are supposed to cause discomfort to the demonically possessed?

[kenfrequed]

13. Oh...

The article really IS a piece of crap now that I read it more thoroughly.

[bananas]

14. Yes, you are confused - google "sur-charge". nt

[kenfrequed]

16. Uhm no.

http://www.bart.gov/tickets/calculator/index.aspx

I dare you to create a round trip ticket (which does mean there and back again) using BART to invent a trip that costs $20.


Do you know why you can't? Because it doesn't exist. This journalist either decided to omit crucial expense details or didn't bother checking his facts. Which, by the way, I would recommend you ought to do before tossing off with a definition of 'surcharge.'

[bananas]

18. $21.10 Round-Trip from Fremont to San Francisco Int'l Airport

[kenfrequed]

23. So...

The rate ONLY increases JUST for the airport?


How interesting... it STILL undercuts the damned article. The author was drawing from some specific arcane airport case an assumption that ALL public transit users were switching because of it. Additionally the article was front loaded with the wild airport estimate to scare people off the damned train.

The article may as well have been written by the Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers or the American Petroleum Institute.

Still...Feh

[bananas]

19. $21.80 Round-Trip from Pittsburg/Bay Point to San Francisco Int'l Airport

[bananas]

20. $21.10 Round-Trip from Dublin/Pleasanton to San Francisco Int'l Airport

[depakid]

17. "Republicans love to cut public transit for some unknowable and illogical reason."

It makes absolutely no sense- but indeed, they have a pathological hatred. One of their many contributions to America's continuing decline.

[kenfrequed]

15. deleted

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