Metro Cheaper Than Driving?

It's possible for some. With the new expensive gas prices, it's more than possible, and may be the smarter choice for even more of the others.

You know the others, and not the “others.” Those are the folks that would never consider using public transportation. After all for them, public transportation is only for those that have lost their licenses, and the other “others.”

Part of the mindset is that driving puts you one rung on the ladder above “those people.” Of course, many of “those people,” who ride the bus and the Metro, just might make more money than the ones looking down their noses at them.

Let’s see, the educated class, looks down their nose at the working class, and a certain segment of the working class looks down its nose on “those people,” who also are working class. They won’t say it, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. It’s about a craving for status. You are now on the second rung from the bottom of the ladder, instead of on the bottom-most one. It makes you feel important and yes, even though it’s not 1965, there is still a racial component to it. The elites created this. It’s about divide and conquer.

There are some reports, if you Google, “gasoline prices will stay high,” you can find them. There are predictions that gas prices will stay high, until sometime next year. Gasoline and diesel prices pretty much drive the cost of everything. Pain at the pump, means pain at the grocery store. People are going to try to save money. Transportation costs figure into that equation. Yesterday, I filled up the tank on my 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan mini-van. Because the engine is old, over 143,000 miles, I have to use premium gas, if I don’t want a check engine light, and as a result, having to replace fouled oxygen sensors, to the tune of about $1,500 and change. $5.09.9 a gallon! In other words, $5.10. Ok, where did I put my bus schedule.

I’m going to predict that here in the middle-ring suburbs, you are going to see an increase in the use of public transportation, including buses. Good! The big picture here, is for Metro to keep as many of those new riders if and when gas prices go back down. I’m predicting if and not when. You make it as or better time effective, and as or better cost effective. You have to do both. You do that by offering frequent bus service, especially bus service in the inner-ring, and middle-ring suburbs, that feeds the Metrorail stations. Ideally, we should have safe, frequent, and reliable public transportation, 24/7/365. Right now, that is not possible. There is not enough demand for it. But as the suburbs continue to urbanize, increased density, means an increase in the demand for transit.

I’m seeing a lot of the so-called suburban sprawl, densifying into urban sprawl. Density means more people. People need to get from point A to point B on a regular basis. If their car is the most convenient option, they are going to drive. If the bus and/or train is the most convenient option, they will take transit. There is also a side benefit. Sorry liberal urbanists, but the more riders that can be lured onto public transportation, the better it is for drivers too. As Thomas Sowell once said: “There are no solutions, only trade offs.”

Less drivers means less traffic. It’s a full circle: Less drivers means less traffic, which means you get to where you are going faster. For buses without dedicated bus only lanes, that also means faster schedules. Faster bus schedules, means less drivers, which means…ok, you get the picture.

Do you want to get more people riding Metrorail? Have free parking during the week at the Metro stations. There are many in the urbanist community, that are against free parking at the Metro stations. They say it encourages people to drive. They are right. It encourages them to drive and park at the Metro station, and take the train or a bus into town. You are encouraging them not to drive all the way into the city. “There are no solutions, only trade offs.”

In a lot of areas, bus service to the Metrorail stations, is not frequent enough, and if you drive to the Metro station, you have to pay to park. The parking garage at the College Park Metro station is where I park, when I don’t have the time to wait for a bus. The garage is usually no more than half full. Most of time it’s about a quarter full if that. The parking fee is the tiebreaker for a lot of folks that would consider parking at a Metro station, and taking the train. When they add up the cost of the Metro during rush hour, and add the parking fee on top of that, it comes out to about the same as driving into the city, and paying to park downtown. Example: Shady Grove to Farragut North—$6.75 each way, plus $5.20 to park. That comes out to $18.70/day to get to and from work downtown. You can find parking for $15/day. That’s all they see.

People don’t count the cost of gas, plus the 52 cents per mile wear and tear their cars, when they figure out their transportation budgets. They just see that $15 is cheaper than $18.70. Plus, you get to have the “freedom” of driving yourself, sitting in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour and a half, to get into the city, and then back out at the end of the day. Consequently many choose to drive from the suburbs into the city.

If DC ever put in congestion pricing like they have in New York City, that might flip quite a few more commuters over to the transit side. From what I’ve read, it did in New York. If you had to pay a $9 congestion pricing fee to drive into downtown DC’s business district each workday, in addition to the $15 to park, that might be more than the tiebreaker when it comes to taking transit rather than driving into the city. Yes, the parking garage owners will pitch a fit, and probably file a lawsuit.

I just thought about another solution: If free parking is not feasible, implement this: Instead of charging the current parking fees at Metro’s lots and garages, charge the same amount that you would have paid, had you taken the bus to the Metro station. $2.25. $1.10 for us senior citizens. You basically become your own bus. Just like taking the bus, there would be no transfer fee to the Metro. Would the lots and garages fill up pretty fast? I think, yes! Isn’t that the point? It would also increase the demand for bus service. If the lots are full, the choice is either drive into the city, or take the bus to the Metro. Make taking the bus the better choice. I’m all for that.

I don’t like driving. It has nothing to do with the traffic, expense of owning a car, or the idiots out there that don’t know how to drive. I just don’t like driving, period! I would hate driving just as much if I were driving a Rolls Royce, BMW, or Ferrari, on a country road with zero traffic. First of all, I don’t really care for the rural countryside. I’m a city person. I’d rather take the bus or the train. If the trip is over 300 miles, I’d be inclined to head to the airport.

Flying is a necessary evil, now that there are no more ocean liner routes, and few long distance trains. The only choices are not travelling, or tolerating airport bullshit. I can remember when there was no security “theater”, and your family could see you off, and/or meet you at the gate, rather than at the entrance lines at security, or at the baggage claim.

Maybe someday, we will have a retro-transportation rebirth, coupled with a modern lifestyle, enhanced with all the conveniences modern technology can provide. Let’s see: high-speed long distance rail travel, with affordable sleeping accommodations, and real dining cars; as well modern high-speed passenger ships making the crossings of all three oceans, with the passage being a pleasurable experience, no matter what class you were traveling in—not like the days of the Titanic not having enough life boats.

Like high speed rail, they could build high speed sail. I can see a ship taking about two days to cross the “pond,” from New York City, to Southampton, England. That’s not much slower than a C-130 cargo plane (4 props, no jet engines), and on the C-130, you get to sit the entire time in web seats. There is no five-star cuisine or shuffleboard either. You can order and pay for a box lunch. Been there done that, many times during my 26 year career in the Air Force.

I’m a regular user of Metro, both rail and bus, and have been since 1980. I’m glad the new Better Bus Network (BBN), was put into place. It’s nice to have a bus than runs right down Route 1, to the Rhode Island Avenue, Brentwood Metro station. The P1X bus, runs every 20 minutes (I wish it ran every 15), 7 days per week, and runs until midnight on weekdays, and until 10 pm on Sunday (maybe 24/7 someday?). The old #86 bus ran once an hour, and stopped running at 7ish pm on Sunday’s. I’m a lector at the 6:30 pm Mass, at St. Anthony Of Padua Catholic Church, at the corner of Monroe St. NE, and 12th Street NE. When you don’t get out of church until 8 pm, it’s not going to work if you are taking public transportation home after Mass, and the last bus stops running just after 7 pm.

The P1X has been an answer to this conservative urbanist’s prayer. I use it on a regular basis. I do wish it stopped at Berwyn Road and US 1. That’s where the Lidl grocery store is located. The M44 does. It’s the other option close to my house. It has 30 minute headways during the week, and 60 minute headways on Saturday and Sunday. Then, I could use the bus to get to the grocery store instead of driving there, and not just using the bus to get into the city. 60 minute headways are not acceptable, if you are grocery shopping. Think of the poor ice cream you just bought. Besides just liking to ride both buses and trains, there is a cost factor too. It’s especially nice, now that I’m a senior citizen. I’m 71. For us old folks, Metro gives us the privilege of travelling for half fare.

‘Metro is always going to be cheaper than driving a car’: GM eyes ridership uptick – NBC4 Washington

This link to an article in NBC Washington, is worth the read.

When you think about it, gas prices are only part of the equation. You’ll remember that, when you have to replace both head gaskets ($1,500 and up), or a new catalytic converter (again, $1,500 and up), because the one on your car was stolen in the middle of the night. Oh I forgot. They stole your radio too. How about insurance and in some states, a personal property tax? Then, there are the routine maintenance costs: brakes, tires, alignments, shocks and struts, oil changes…

The infamous “They,” claim that the gas price spike is just temporary. Let’s just say I’m more than a little bit skeptical. This could be just the beginning. I think prices are going to continue to rise, even as supply chains open back up. After the various oil crises over the years, have prices as the pump gone down more than slightly after the crisis was over?

A gallon of gas in 1971 when I first got my license, was 36 cents per gallon. After the 1973 oil embargo, which brought about the national 55 mile per hour speed limit (1974-1995), gas surged to around 70 cents per gallon. Remember odd-even gas rationing in 1979, with a gallon of gas finally hitting the $1.00 mark? Not only that, the gasohol (E-15) that was mandated in a lot of areas, reduced your gas mileage by about 20%. I was a two-striper in the Air Force at the time. Money was tight anyway. It just made matters worse. Gas cost more, and you used more of it.

With the cost of gas right now, and the weather getting nicer, I’m planning on leaving the car at home a lot more often. It’s parked on the street in front of my house. I’m going to have to remember to move it every 48 hours, so I don’t get a ticket.