By Dan Estabrook – July 10, 2008 (TNN)
As I sit on the train on my way home from a day of working on this Tonic blog, it occurs to me that I haven’t sat behind the wheel of a car for about 5 months. You see, I commute daily from San Francisco to Palo Alto and since I live within a 10-minute walk of the train station on both ends of my ride, it makes no sense for me to sit on crowded freeways. My door-to-door commute is about 45 minutes if I catch the so-called CalTrain “Baby Bullet” compared to an hour or more if I choose to drive.
Last night, as I faced a pile of daunting bills and attempted to figure out where to start the payment process, I thought about my $153 per month train pass and how much I was saving as a result of not driving to work. Car costs were quite clear in my mind as I put gas in my car yesterday, which made me about $75 poorer.
I figure if I drove five to six days per week to Palo Alto, my commuting cost per month would total almost $375. That’s assuming an 80-mile-per-day round trip, 20 mpg, and the current price of gas in the Bay Area. The vehicle depreciation, cost to the environment, and time lost due to an extra hour or so per leg of the commute are more complex for me to determine. As the infamous television commercial always reminds us, those costs are “priceless.”
I realize that I am lucky to have accessible public transportation just out my front door. But my point is not about everyone not driving. It is about making subconscious decisions to make our lives more simple that result in savings to us and to our world. Collectively, the results are priceless.
So, I feel a bit better about my 50%+ savings for utilizing public transportation. With a renewed energy (literally), I paid my bills online. Because of the analytical state I was in, I determined that I saved another $10 by not using postage, paper, and checks to stay current on my utilities, household expenditures, and student loans.
Being green can lead to more green.
And, as I sit on the train on my way home, I am thankful that I have this extra time to squeeze in one more blog post for today.
Priceless.