Comments on: Money Saving Monday: the problem with mass transit

By: Festival of Frugality #200: The Fireworks & Bonfires Edition | Miss Thrifty

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:03:26 +0000

[...] @ GLBL presents Money Saving Monday: the problem with mass transit posted at Gather Little by Little. I have included Mike in this category because he weighs up the [...]

By: Roundup and Link Love: Will It Ever Stop Raining? | The Wisdom Journal

Roundup and Link Love: Will It Ever Stop Raining? | The Wisdom Journal — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:02:48 +0000

[...] The Problem With Mass Transit @ Gather Little By Little [...]

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:12:17 +0000

@CreditCardChaser, but you have to factor in that you wouldn’t get much done in the car. (Unless you’re a dangerous driver who puts others at risk, or in a carpool that lets you get things done.) On mass transit, you can use a laptop or read or craft or talk with friends and fellow passengers. Half the commuters seem to be reading something. For some, it’s productive time. For others, like me, it’s time spent relaxing and enjoying things that I spend my free time on anyway.

It’s actually faster for me to metro, but even if it weren’t I’d consider the time I spend in the metro as time well spent, vs. time spent in traffic.

So you have to consider the quality of the time you spend. I wouldn’t take a 35 minute bus-ride to my old job 10 driving minutes away because tripling the time wasn’t worth the better quality. However, sometimes a little more time is worth a lot less driving stress (again, I live in a horrible horrible area for driving) and a chance to put that time to use. That way I arrive at work without already having been put through the wringer.

@Stew, do you use taxpayer-funded roads? Or the USPS with its cheaper postage than UPS or FedEx? Not everything the government funds is necessarily a bad idea…though metro certainly has its problems.

By: Zella

Zella — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:51:19 +0000

My company will charge me for parking, or give me a bus pass + monthly bonus for riding… therefore, I ride. Well, hating driving helps tip the balance too

By: Lew321

Lew321 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:10:37 +0000

If I may add something here. Here in Iowa City which is not urban territory of course, a one way ride is 75 cents. But we offer a variety of passes to encourage more ridership. A frequent passenger may purchase an all day pass for $1.50. If he’s doing this every day, we offer a 31 day pass for $25.00. If he’s going to college, he can save more money by buying a Semester Pass for $68.00 which runs from late August to the end of December. And if he’s employed by the university, that employer picks up half the monthly cost reducing the employee’s cost to $12.50 per month. And those passes are good for unlimited rides, meaning that he can use the passes to go shopping, go to appointments, etc.

I am a bus driver. There are some routes that are under-utilized, few riders. But the route I drive is almost always full with every trip, even in the middle of the day. Not just college students, but low income people that can’t afford cars ride my bus. They’re either out looking for work, running errands such as grocery shopping, getting food stamps, post office, etc. Also disabled people, the elderly, young children that cannot drive are on board.

Oh, the elderly (60 and over) ride for half fare, 35 cents. The pre-registered disabled passengers carry a disability pass that admit’s them for free during “off peak” hours, meaning outside rush hour which is early morning and late afternoon. But, on my route, that’s almost meaningless. I can’t tell where one ends and the next begins when you drive full trips all day.

By: Stew

Stew — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:27:35 +0000

MITBeta, it is true that I am not a fan of overnment spending, are you? Every situation is different – as illustrated by MM and Peter. My main point is that mass transit is not always cheaper. You have to evaluate your situation using all of the facts. I have certainly taken the train on many occasions and most of the time saved a little money.

By: MITBeta @ Don't Feed The Alligators

MITBeta @ Don't Feed The Alligators — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:56:09 +0000

It sure would be nice if you had used some examples here instead of just, maybe this would save you, maybe it wouldn’t. There are plenty of examples of saving money using mass transit while simultaneously owning a car.

Backing up some of your conjecture with facts would have been nice too. Are you actually more likely to get sick riding the train, or are you just speculating?

This post smells to me like a thinly veiled jab at government spending rather than sound personal finance advice.

By: Stew

Stew — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:51:49 +0000

Whoa! No one said mass transit was evil. It is true that most types of travel are subsidized. It’s too bad.

By: Matr

Matr — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:25:11 +0000

Isn’t the use of a car also subsidized? I mean, keeping alive the big three now and in the decades by building a car centric country and car factory centric cities, keeping alive some wars and doing intelligence work to keep gas prices low, these things go with taxpayers’ money.
Use a bycicle or a horse, if you don’t want to use subsidized way of transportation!
I cannot see anything evil in the mass transit, at the end it will preserve the place where we live better than a mass of cars with no passengers after the driver.
And if as christians should love the next one as much as ourselves, thinking the next ones are our children or grandchildren, it might be also good if we try to use the mass transit more, enjoying the ride reading or chatting or writing blog posts along the way

By: Credit Card Chaser

Credit Card Chaser — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:15:27 +0000

The one hidden cost to people that use mass transit is the value of your time that you waste by having to wait, go out of your way, etc.