SMALL SACRIFICES ARE STILL SACRIFICES

I took the 13 downtown to Washington and Lark yesterday, where I picked up the 55 to go to Colonie. At first, I thought I'd have to walk all the way to Central and Allen to grab it, but my brilliant roommate said, "There's always a 13 running. I used to take that all the way down to Lark and get the 55 there." I felt stupid for not having thought of it earlier. Not being well acquainted with the many ways to get around town by bus, it never occurred to me to go in the opposite direction to get to my destination.

It's yet one more difference between having a car and riding a bus. Driving a car allows me to pick my own route, and in most instances, is probably more efficient. It's certainly more intuitive, and if intuition leads to easier decision-making, it provides at least one more answer to the question, "Why do so many people think using public transportation is inconvenient?"

I'll be honest. I haven't yet calculated cost versus mileage for either my car or the bus yet. While I'm still working on the same $10 of gas I put in my car on 11/9/07, and I've spent at least that much in bus fares (my swiper isn't effective until December 1), I'm predicting that it's going to be about equal per mile. For the amount of miles I'm actually on the bus, as I take mainly short trips, I'm not entirely sure "a buck a ride" is much cheaper than $3.35 per tank of of gas, especially since I go fewer places without my car. To get the most for a dollar in any one direction, I need to take longer trips. Maybe riding the 55 into Colonie from downtown Albany was cheaper than taking my car, but on most days when I ride the 12 four or five blocks, and I'm on the bus no more than five minutes, I'm not sure how much money it actually saves. I could walk the distance for free.

Committing to using public transportation as my primary source of transportation will mean changing my lifestyle. Even if the changes are positive, it will require sacrificing time and convenience. I may willing to do it, but I'm only one out of hundreds of thousands locally (The U.S. Census Bureau reports the population for Albany-Schenectady-Troy was 875,000 in 2003). If public transit providers wanted the industry to make a comeback, they would have to redesign their services to make the transition more seamless.

To be fair, looking back at numbers of commuters from 1985-2001, there weren't many transit riders to begin with. When people have access to cars, they drive them. It may not even be significantly better for the environment to share rides, as they would on a public transit system or through car-pooling, but it's hard to pin down those numbers. For public transportation to work as an environmental solution, it obviously cannot be the only one, though I don't think most people would attempt to argue that it should be.

Public transportation boasts greater success as a tool for mobility for those individuals that don't have, can't drive, or can't afford cars, like the elderly, the poor, and the disabled. In addition to providing mobility for people who would otherwise be challenged to get around, public transportation is useful in reducing traffic congestion, especially in highly urbanized areas. As a means for the average middle- and upper-class American to travel, however, it probably can't compete with the car, which affords a much greater sense of freedom and convenience.

Sources:

U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Profiles/Single/2003/ACS/Narrative/380/NP38000US0160.htm

Table 1-35: Principal Means of Transportation to Work. U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration.
http://www.bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/2002/html/table_01_35.html