Having taken the bus to work for two years now, I have to say… The complete and utter lack of responsibility has been liberating. Like, sure… There’s still some stigma there where I feel kind of poor or something standing in my uniform at the bus stop while cars whiz past me, but I only spend $70 CAD /mo on my commute, and it I want, I can travel anywhere in the city using that same pass. That’s pretty reasonable.
Plus, as someone actively engaged in nature-based spirituality, it feels kind of nice knowing that I’m traveling a bit more responsibly than I would have with our vehicle.
I would love to have this opportunity because I fucking hate maintenance on my car. As soon as my car senses my bank account reaching a certain threshold it decides that the starter should die the next weekend.
I feel you friend, I’m the same way. I’ve told so many people that and they are so carbrained that they refuse to understand anything beyond time to get there. Yes my bus takes about 10-20% longer, and they immediately augh at me for being a fool, such a fooly fool.
But my ride is mine. I read a book, I think about other things, my time is mine. It’s not worried if the asshole will cut me off, the heightened blood pressure, the anger, the worried if I’m in an okay parking spot. None of that exists. I’ll gladly take 45 minutes on the bus over 30 minutes of stressful driving.
Yeah, I can tolerate up to 2x the length of the drive, above that is where I start to get annoyed. I know transfers happen, and they are unavoidable, but a well oiled system keeps them to a minimum and keeps bus routes direct.
Where I live, and for the places I want to go, typical travel times are:
car: 15 minutes
bike: 25 minutes
walk: 1.5 hours
transit: 45 minutes
Or:
car: 20 minutes
bike: 35 minutes
walk: 2 hours
transit: 1 hour
And, that’s if it’s a good time of day for transit. If I’m coming back home near 11pm the transit option can be essentially the same as walking. If I have the option to leave at 11:15 so I can arrive 5 minutes before the bus instead of leaving at 11:00 and waiting 20 minutes for the bus, and the bus is on time, and the bus I’m supposed to connect to is on time, then the bus option can be noticeably faster than walking. But, if the first bus is running late (which happens all the time) it can mean missing the next connection, and walking is actually faster than taking the bus, even if it’s a walk of more than an hour.
So, needless to say, I bike whenever the weather permits. But, unfortunately, winter is awful here, the bike lanes and trails aren’t plowed in the winter, so biking for roughly half the year isn’t a real option.
Having taken the bus to work for two years now, I have to say… The complete and utter lack of responsibility has been liberating. Like, sure… There’s still some stigma there where I feel kind of poor or something standing in my uniform at the bus stop while cars whiz past me, but I only spend $70 CAD /mo on my commute, and it I want, I can travel anywhere in the city using that same pass. That’s pretty reasonable.
Plus, as someone actively engaged in nature-based spirituality, it feels kind of nice knowing that I’m traveling a bit more responsibly than I would have with our vehicle.
I would love to have this opportunity because I fucking hate maintenance on my car. As soon as my car senses my bank account reaching a certain threshold it decides that the starter should die the next weekend.
I feel you friend, I’m the same way. I’ve told so many people that and they are so carbrained that they refuse to understand anything beyond time to get there. Yes my bus takes about 10-20% longer, and they immediately augh at me for being a fool, such a fooly fool.
But my ride is mine. I read a book, I think about other things, my time is mine. It’s not worried if the asshole will cut me off, the heightened blood pressure, the anger, the worried if I’m in an okay parking spot. None of that exists. I’ll gladly take 45 minutes on the bus over 30 minutes of stressful driving.
god, I wish. bus routes here are generally 3x longer at minimum
last route I checked against a 22min drive was 90min by bus
Yeah, I can tolerate up to 2x the length of the drive, above that is where I start to get annoyed. I know transfers happen, and they are unavoidable, but a well oiled system keeps them to a minimum and keeps bus routes direct.
Where I live, and for the places I want to go, typical travel times are:
Or:
And, that’s if it’s a good time of day for transit. If I’m coming back home near 11pm the transit option can be essentially the same as walking. If I have the option to leave at 11:15 so I can arrive 5 minutes before the bus instead of leaving at 11:00 and waiting 20 minutes for the bus, and the bus is on time, and the bus I’m supposed to connect to is on time, then the bus option can be noticeably faster than walking. But, if the first bus is running late (which happens all the time) it can mean missing the next connection, and walking is actually faster than taking the bus, even if it’s a walk of more than an hour.
So, needless to say, I bike whenever the weather permits. But, unfortunately, winter is awful here, the bike lanes and trails aren’t plowed in the winter, so biking for roughly half the year isn’t a real option.