Man, I tried to do public transport to work. I was in the best situation. I lived walking distance to the light rail, my office was on the other side of town, within walking disance to the light rail.
leave at 7:30, walk to the rail by 7:50, not bad
buy a ticket on the automated machine and wait, assuming 1 of the 3 machines was working. 50:50 honestly.
trains come every 15, except they don’t.
On a good day, the train would be there by 8, on a bad day, maybe 8:30
Ride it for 20 minutes, 4 stops, until I need to switch trains.
Get off train 1, buy a ticket if the machines there work, god forbid there’s no ticket on the first run and a train already there, i’ll be waiting for another train.
train 2 shows, on a good day, 30 more minutes to my work stop, on a bad day, 45.
i hop off at my stop, walk 15m to the office.
I’m at the office between 9:30 and 9:45. If it’s hot i’m covered in sweat. If it’s cold i’m freezing.
Luckily my job DGAF what time we show up.
2h there, 2h back.
except after 7:30pm, trains go to every 30 minutes, which means maybe every 45.
If there’s an accident, a bus bridge will easily make that one way trip 4 hours.
If I drive, I’m there in 27 minutes.
3.5 hours a day to take public transport here for a 30m drive.
We’re not clusters of towns with jobs where everything is near transport and even when things are close our trains are slow an full of homeless trying to stay warm in the winter. I would have loved to hell to get rid of one of the cars. but giving up 1/4 of my family time on a job that already wants 10 hours a day wasn’t negotiable.
Also light rail is not that fast. So if you have to wait a long time, you are probably better off riding a bicycle. Obviously infrastructure permitting. Your description sounds like that should be possible in a bit more then an hour, but I have obviously no idea where you live and your work is, so can not honestly judge. Just wanted to throw that out there.
No digital tickets when I was doing it (5 years ago). It’s a major metro, but the government here doesn’t take it seriously; they treat it as poor transport.
Can’t bike through the center of the city safely, no bike lanes. Many streets north and south of the city don’t even have shoulders.
40km each way, average summer temps in the 30’s
To bike, I’d need to move closer to work, I’d still sweat my ass off and show up stinky. Also, I can’t be sure I’d get employment near there if anything happened. Needing to sell my house everytime I change jobs seems like a rough time.
We’re just not architected for it. Busses take even longer and are more unpredictable.
Man, I tried to do public transport to work. I was in the best situation. I lived walking distance to the light rail, my office was on the other side of town, within walking disance to the light rail.
leave at 7:30, walk to the rail by 7:50, not bad buy a ticket on the automated machine and wait, assuming 1 of the 3 machines was working. 50:50 honestly. trains come every 15, except they don’t.
On a good day, the train would be there by 8, on a bad day, maybe 8:30 Ride it for 20 minutes, 4 stops, until I need to switch trains. Get off train 1, buy a ticket if the machines there work, god forbid there’s no ticket on the first run and a train already there, i’ll be waiting for another train. train 2 shows, on a good day, 30 more minutes to my work stop, on a bad day, 45. i hop off at my stop, walk 15m to the office. I’m at the office between 9:30 and 9:45. If it’s hot i’m covered in sweat. If it’s cold i’m freezing. Luckily my job DGAF what time we show up.
2h there, 2h back.
except after 7:30pm, trains go to every 30 minutes, which means maybe every 45.
If there’s an accident, a bus bridge will easily make that one way trip 4 hours.
If I drive, I’m there in 27 minutes.
3.5 hours a day to take public transport here for a 30m drive.
We’re not clusters of towns with jobs where everything is near transport and even when things are close our trains are slow an full of homeless trying to stay warm in the winter. I would have loved to hell to get rid of one of the cars. but giving up 1/4 of my family time on a job that already wants 10 hours a day wasn’t negotiable.
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I really wish it was a reasonable option. The only wine on the train near me is in a paper bag and the guy drinking it smells like old cheese :)
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My metro bus isn’t as bad, but i’m 5 miles from the nearest station and there’s no place to lock up a bike. and I’m suburbs, still not rural.
Do you not have digital tickets of some form?
Also light rail is not that fast. So if you have to wait a long time, you are probably better off riding a bicycle. Obviously infrastructure permitting. Your description sounds like that should be possible in a bit more then an hour, but I have obviously no idea where you live and your work is, so can not honestly judge. Just wanted to throw that out there.
No digital tickets when I was doing it (5 years ago). It’s a major metro, but the government here doesn’t take it seriously; they treat it as poor transport.
Can’t bike through the center of the city safely, no bike lanes. Many streets north and south of the city don’t even have shoulders.
40km each way, average summer temps in the 30’s
To bike, I’d need to move closer to work, I’d still sweat my ass off and show up stinky. Also, I can’t be sure I’d get employment near there if anything happened. Needing to sell my house everytime I change jobs seems like a rough time.
We’re just not architected for it. Busses take even longer and are more unpredictable.