On Sat, 10 Mar 2001, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
> JDG wrote:
> >
> >As far as car-pooling, I take the bus to the Mero station. If I get the
> >timing exactly right, I can be from my door to my desk in 30 minutes. It
> >usually runs to about 40 minutes on most days though.
> >My car, meanwhile, gets used for groceries, Church, and road trips (of
> >which, there are an awful lot in my life.)
> >
> Isn't Car-pooling the act of several people sharing the same car?
Yes, but using the bus system to near its capacity is probably just a bit
better. And you avoid the problem of having to coordinate with everyone
else in the carpool, and if the public transportation system is good
enough, you can get to your kid's school when he or she is sick without
inconveniencing anyone or shelling out for a taxi, at least for getting to
the kid. Getting a taxi to take the kid home or to the doctor might be a
good idea, though -- it's pretty miserable, feeling like crap and being
dragged onto a bus.
I had an 18-mile (29km) commute at one point, and the last 8 miles (13km)
(the worst 8 miles) were serviced by a bus. So if I left the house in my
car early enough to get to the bus, I could spend some time just sitting,
not worrying about traffic or anything, reading a little, maybe dozing off
for 10 minutes, and getting into work a little more relaxed. It was a
great motivation for getting myself out the door sooner, actually.
But that only worked if I didn't have to make some sort of stop closer to
work on the way home. If I'd had something to do more than a handful of
km south of the bus center after work, it made more sense in terms of
timing to drive all the way to work and take care of the errand on the way
home. And the time I had to pick up someone about 2 or 3 miles (3-5km,
roughly) from work and I'd taken the bus, I ended up walking all that
distance (good thing it was only February, and the exercise keeping me
warm was a *good* thing!), and then navigating a part of the bus system I
wasn't familiar with to get my friend back to my car, and then take it
from there....
The area where John lives and works has a MUCH better public
transportation system than where I live. Which is a pity, because I kind
of like taking buses, but when they're too inconvenient, it's not worth
it.
Julia
