Public Transit And Telecommuting: Passing (Up On) Gas
Yesterday afternoon, I walked five blocks to the nearest Sacramento Light Rail station. I took Light Rail directly to the Sacramento Amtrak station. I took Amtrak to Richmond, where I walked less than a hundred yards through an underground tunnel to my Bay Area Rapid Transit connection. I took a single-connection BART train to the San Francisco Civic Center station. My hotel was a half-block away.
Today, as I type this, I'm reversing the process. When I'm walking, I'm getting fresh air and exercise. When I'm on a train, I can be eating, sleeping, reading a book or magazine, writing a blog post or print article, crunching through my unviewed email, surfing the World Wide Web, or just gazing out the window and soaking up the stunning California vistas. What's missing from the previous two sentences? Robotically staring at a dashboard, a steering wheel or the road ahead. Stressing out in heavy traffic. Finding (and paying for) a parking spot. Or spending over $3 a gallon for gasoline.
Total (admittedly tax-revenue partially-financed) roundtrip cost of this trip to San Francisco: $44. Total door-to-door one-way commute time (including the walking and waiting-for-train bits): 3 hours. Sorry if this post sounds a bit snobby or preachy. But c'mon, folks, what's it gonna take? Global warming potential aside, consider your wallet. Consider your health. And consider your sanity. Try public transit, even if the schedule seems slightly inconvenient, or if you have to stroll a few blocks in order to connect the dots.
And when you're not traveling, if your employer allows it (and if they don't, lobby for a mindset shift) try telecommuting, as I've done my entire 10+ years at EDN. For goodness sake, if any industry should adopt and encourage the concept, it's the technology sector! See here for more:
Rant off. Asbestos underwear donned. Lemme have it 
Brian Dipert commented:
Dick Friedman commented:
