[lbo-talk] NY blocks mayor's congestion plan

shag shag at cleandraws.com
Tue Apr 8 14:06:54 PDT 2008


At 09:03 AM 4/8/2008, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:


>[WS:] I cannot help but notice that the pricing of
>public transit in this country is such as not to
>"dethrone" the car. Prime example - pre-tax commuter
>employee benefits (i.e. the amount of tax free dollars
>that can be used for commuting to work) are $110 for
>public transit, but $220 for car parking i.e. transit
>riders receive only the half of the tax break that the
>car drivers get. The pricing of trains and commute
>passes are such as not to offer any competitive
>advantage to driving (excluding the cost of the cars,
>of course.)

Yup. In house hunting, I've been desperately trying to 1. find a place we can afford that's within walking distance or, alternatively, within walking/bus distance such that I won't spend 1 hr 20 minutes walking/riding the bus.

Using Google Maps handy cost calculator for public transit v. auto, I noticed that buying a bus pass at $70/month is not a savings over the 3.00/day (x 5days a week) google says it would cost to drive 20 miles round trip. The bus would require 1 hr 20 minutes each way, the car would cost 20 minutes morning, 30-40 minutes evening. (Of course, technically, it is when you factor in oil changes, maintenance, cost of car. But the thing is, in a city like this, you may be able to go back and forth to work while living in the burbs, but it would be ridiculous to try to accomplish much else using public transit. IOW, you would still end up with car payments. We can manage by keeping my nearly 20 year old vehicle and running it into the ground, one car between us, but most people wouldn't bother unless committed some higher ideals.

For me, it is only a side benefit for it to be better for the environment. My primary motivation has been sheer and utter laziness and contempt for wasting my precisou time.

Living close to work and walking means that commuting time isn't wasted sitting on my ass in a car, going buggy about what I could be doing with my time. Instead, living close tow ork my time is spent getting heart healthy exercise. 10 minutes to the gym, 10 minute walk home. In the mornings, 10 minutes to the Net electic bus stop and 10 minutes riding the bus. Or, when I'm feeling super ambitious, a 25 minute walk to work when the weather isn't too warm or too cold.

I lucked out and found a place where I walked 10 minutes, take the free electric bus that courses up and down the main artery of this small city. But... that was lucky and that was with a concerted effort to find what I wanted. No lofty goals; just fucking lazy.

http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)



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