My wife and I ride the bus from the city we live in to the city we work in. I then bicycle the rest of the way to work. The bus pass is $30 per month. With current gas prices, the commute would be $7 per day in gas (gas prices here are about $3.50 per gallon today). I keep close tabs on our expenses and find that insurance and maintenance runs about 2.5 times as much as we spend on gas. So, that's about $17.50 per day (a little over $350 per month) versus $60 per month for our two bus passes. We spend about a little under an hour each way. It's a chance to read, visit with friends (we have a good group of people on this bus that is usually full). I think the bus gets something like 5 miles per gallon and holds about 50 people, so that's 250 passenger miles per gallon. It'd be very difficult for a car to do that well. We used to live close enough to work that my wife walked to work and I bicycled. That was ideal, but, in order to buy a home, we had to move to another city. Per capita energy consumption is an interesting issue. So is the number of "capitas". Harold > Heck, even the bus is better than the rat race. > > I have an (almost) uninterrupted half-hour, twice a day, to read, > listen to music, and not have anything to worry about or feel like I > should be doing instead of what I AM doing. > > It's cheaper (in fact, with gas being as it is, even with car > ownership costs, it's cheaper). It's greener. It's better for my > mental health. > > Mike H. > > On 5/23/07, M. Adam Davis wrote: >> I know we have a few bicycle commuters/enthusiasts here, so I thought >> I'd share a message I got a kick out of: >> >> http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=touring.10604.1170.eml >> >> Snippet: >> >> "My commute is far from idyllic, it's downtown DC in the rush hour >> both ways. Five years of this, daily, and I feel I qualify as "not a >> newbie." But there is always something new to learn. >> >> The most difficult thing, I think, other than mastery of the machine >> and the environment, is to learn to abandon value judgments based >> on incomplete evidence." >> >> :-) >> >> -Adam >> >> -- >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> Moving in southeast Michigan? Buy my house: http://ubasics.com/house/ >> >> Interested in electronics? Check out the projects at http://ubasics.com >> >> Building your own house? Check out http://ubasics.com/home/ >> -- >> http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive >> View/change your membership options at >> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist >> > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com - Advertising opportunities available! -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist