Driving > Metro

So when I started working at my current job, I had to drive every day because I still lived with my parents some 35 miles away.  A couple months later I had enough money to move down to Seattle, where there was, conveniently enough, a bus that I could get on that would take me all the way to work.  And it was only 20 minutes to walk from my apartment to the bus stop, so it allowed me to get some exercise in too.

But, after doing this for half a year or so, I'm calling it quits on public transportation, at least for commuting to work.  The fact of the matter is that it just takes too long.  When I drive to work in the morning, it's generally 30-35 minutes depending on traffic coming out of Seattle.  When I drive back home in the evening, it's 25-30 minutes usually since the roads are clearer by then.  In contrast, taking the bus, as I said before, it takes 20 minutes to walk down there, and then the wait which can be as much as 15 minutes, and then the actually bus trip is around 50 minutes on average.  This means the whole trip can be 70-85 minutes on average.  Back when I was working my old schedule, the trip back would include a wait of up to 15 minutes, and the bus would take anywhere from 60-90 minutes due to rush hour traffic, plus the 20 minute walk back up the hill.  Lately, with my new schedule, the wait can be up to 30 minutes if I happen to miss one, but the ride on the bus is usually 30-45 minutes.  So taking all that into account, taking the bus right now takes 120-180 minutes of my daily time.

So, take the bus, 2-3 hours gone.  Driving the car, 1 hour.

I've known the discrepency was there since I first started, but I had ways to justify it, which I will list here and then refute.

I'm too tired to drive in the morning

This was really my main reason, and it is true.  On the days when I do drive, I do have trouble keeping focus on the road in the morning.  Plus, who wants to add the stress of driving in the morning when you could have someone else do it for you?

Well, the fact of the matter is that the only reason this happens at all is because my current car has nothing to listen to.  When I was living with my parents, I would drive their car to work, which has a nice sound system for me to use.  Even with the fact that those trips were more than twice as long as my current ones via car, and I woke up at the same time as I do now, I never got tired in the same way.  So, my conclusion is, I just need something to listen to when I drive in the mornings.  Easily fixed.

I can do things on the bus

Sure, I can.  And admittedly I have played through a few games on my PSP and DS on the bus, plus listened to dozens of podcasts.  Never got around to reading.

The big problem is that it took weeks for me to get comfortable doing it.  I don't have motion sickness to the same level as most of my family, but I'm not 100% immune to it.  The thing is that when I do things like this in a moving vehicle, it causes my body temperature to increase very quickly, which in turn leads to me becoming nauceous and getting headaches.  I know this is true because I can do the exact same thing with less clothing on, and be completely fine.  On the bus, I already have to take off my outer clothing just to be comfortable at all.  It's weird to sit there in a T-shirt when everyone else is bundled up with winter coats and scarves, and I'm still hotter than I'd like to be.

And so even then, most of the time I just don't want to play stuff, which I would rather do than anything else while riding.  The only time I ever played on my PSP or DS was in the morning, never on the way home.  And a lot of times I'm too tired in the morning to do it.  So the only other thing I have to do is listen to podcasts.  Well, I can listen to podcasts at any time, I don't need to be on the bus to do it.  I can better spend my gaming time at home, which I do.

Taking the bus costs less than driving all the time

This is the one thing I cannot refute, because it is true.  To get a bus pass for a month, it costs me $69 (currently, it used to be $60).  Back before I started taking the bus, and I was just driving from Seattle to work, my gas bill each month was over $100.  Based on my gas mileage, the distance to work, and the current gas prices, it is overall cheaper to take the bus.

But really, what is a few bucks each month?  In the last few weeks, I heard someone say something that seemed so obvious, yet was something that I didn't really understand until I heard it.  What he said, in just as many words, was "time is the most precious resource you have."  And I brought that back to my goals this year, which is to use my time to its fullest.  Why am I wasting an extra hour or more riding this bus to and from work just so that I can save a few bucks and maybe get some things done while I ride?

So, I am quitting the metro as of today.  Well, I really quit a couple weeks ago since I haven't taken it since January.  Even if it is just an hour, I still want that hour to spend time where I want to, which is at home, where I can actually get things done.  I gave public transportation a try, but the fact is that busses just don't work well enough when the distance is further than five miles.  Things would be a lot different if I were going into Seattle for work, but that's not the case.  I just need to get used to driving in the morning again, and things will work out just fine.