How long does it take you:

I want to link here to this OP because it reminded me of something I have wanted to ask:

Does anyone voluntarily not have a car in places with little or no public transit?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1167252

I live about 5 miles from where I work. If I were to take a bus there I would have to walk 3/4 mile, wait on a bus, and the total travel time goes from 1 hour and 38 minutes to 1 hour and 58 minutes (based on the start/destination I plugged into the website for COTA)

Riding a bike would also take a good deal of time since I could not take the freeway, not to mention winter weather, storms, etc and so on.

I can be to work in 10 minutes by driving. I can sleep in until 8:50, get up, shower, get in the car, and be there early enough that I have time to relax before the 9:30 shift.

More time to sleep, to spend time with baby girl, etc and so on.

When I was in Chicago on business some years back I took a train to our data center, and then on another trip I decided to just drive there (from the same hotel). Much faster to just drive.

Outside of some of the big cities - why would I take public transportation when I could spend much less time driving myself? Sure, a bus pass might be cheaper than gas - but in places like central Ohio if I got a job on the west side (I live on the east side) I could spend hours just getting to work after walking through the weather just to get to the closest bus stop. An 8 hour and 20 or so minute day would turn into 11-12 hours.

They have talked about light rail here - but it keeps getting shot down because the jobs here are so spread out, and getting to the rail line, waiting to get on it, multiple stops, and you would spend less time per day driving then on public transport.

If you take public transportation how long does it take you to get to where you are picked up and how long does it take to get there?

I was a little thinner then.

but how long an economically feasible system would take. Also, you need to compare the stress levels of, say, 2 hours of hectic driving in heavy traffic to say 2 hours riding.

I used to live in Mt. Vernon, Ohio and drove to Columbus each day. Way less than 2 hours (I allotted 1.5 hours and only hit that if there was an accident).

Now when I was working on the west side it could sometimes an hour to get to the west side during rush hour (about 23 miles) but it would have taken way longer on a bus.

each day. It would be impossible even if I lived in an area with public transit. As it is, I have cut back on my workload because the price of gas made it difficult to schedule appointments to make the cost worthwhile.

takes me about 20 minutes to drive it in the morning and maybe 30 in the evening. No public transport option. But I do know when I go to the airport it is 45 miles and about a 50 minute drive and when I take the train it is a 30 minute drive (nearest station) followed by 45 to 50 on the train. Just doesn't work...

oh, and on the drive...no real stress as I am rarely in a hurry...pop in a book-on-tape and cruise/inch along.

sP

on mass transit solely. I usually make the trip last about 30 minutes by walking 1/2 mile or so rather than making a transfer.

I am a field staffer for political campaigns, and not only do I have to to the district I am working in (last 2-- 700 and 1030 miles away), but I also have to use the car while on the job to attend events, meetings, etc.

I am about to start a local campaign and I may consider walking to work on days I don't need to be somewhere else in the district. It all depends where we have our office though.

bus stops included.

faster in LA because both car and bus are caught in the same traffic

and the train would dump me a mile from work if I could get to it, and it would take almost an hour total where it now takes 15-22 minutes if I get the lights and there is no traffic. Unfortunately, the trains are always 15-30 minutes late because of problems way down the line in Jersey City and their schedule doesn't fit mine. Train ticket, $12.50 round trip. Insurance costs me $3.50 a day, gas $4 a day, car payment $5.45 a day car payment. And while I would waiting to get to the station where I work, I could have gotten a bagel and been to work for nearly a half hour OR still been home eating breakfast.

Both have jobs in a plaza not far from our house. If it is shitty out, my daughter will take a car. She works evening-close shift.

We have an express bus here. I never see any riders on it but I was curious so I plugged in a sample commute just to see, basically a straight shot down the interstate, about 20 miles. And the fares are more expensive than the gas would be in my guzzler, you'd still have to drive to where the bus stop is and wait and if you miss the bus, it's like 90 minutes before the next one. And even then the bus drives as slow as molasses.

When I was a kid growing up in Miami I'd use the transit there. It was a very good system compared to other cities that I've lived. Lots of logically planned routes. Buses every 10 minutes in many cases, plenty of service on sunday. Late night buses. The above ground rail system was excellent. Really my only complain was the sometimes scary characters that you had to share the ride with. Depending on where you were going it could be plenty convenient to use their buses and very worthwhile to use the trains. But that was a long time ago. Things may have changed. Would I still rather have a car? You betcha.

Did you mean 50 miles?