There is an article in today's New York Times about how the
rise in gas prices are causing more people to ride mass transit. A few weeks ago I tried to figure this out for myself. The break even point for me is for gas to be $5.25 or 5.75 a for it to be worth me taking the light rail to work.
The big problem is that I would not give up my car if I started to take the light rail. I would still have pay for auto insurance for my car. If I got rid of my car, it would be easy to switch to taking mass transit to work, but it would be harder to do everything else in my life.
Gas has to be very high before it is cause effective. This might be because I live close to work, I drive a car with good gas mileage, or that the price of mass transit is rather high. Right now cost is the number one reason for me to switch.
I like the idea of mass transit. I think it would be great for me to take the light rail to work. The biggest problem is time. The light rail or the bus takes much longer to get to work. Driving takes me 15 to 30 minutes while the light rail takes me 45 minutes to an hour to get to work. Time is important to me. I guess if the price gets high enough price will get less important.
Labels: gas, mass transit, New York Times, self
