As it turns out it doesn’t actually cost that much on regular transit, there’s an AIRPORT SURCHARGE because it’s an “airport train”.
No wonder Americans don’t use public transit, even when the system exists it’s ridiculously difficult and expensive to use.
Here is my daily commute to work:
The Public Transit option is literally greyed out, and Google goes “lmao get a fucking car, peasant.”
If I were going to minimize my car usage and strictly use public transit, it would be a ~20 minute bike ride (in the opposite direction of where I work) to the nearest bus station, to get to a public transit service that doesn’t even cover where I work. Then I’d take a bus to a train station, and ride it south through two cities. Then I’d make a transfer to a northern line, and ride it back north through those same two cities (and a third additional city) in order to get near another rail line. Then it would be another ~20 minute bike ride to transfer from one rail system to another, because the public transit in the southern cities doesn’t service the city where I work. Once I’m transferred to the service that covers where I work, it’s another ~20 minute rail ride, followed by a ~10 minute bike ride after getting off the train.
All in all, it would be about 2.5 hours of public transit riding, (and about an hour of riding my bike in +100°F/38°C weather), just to avoid driving 10 minutes. It would also require maintaining two separate transit passes, because the southern and northern transit systems don’t work with one another. Yeah, it’s no wonder I take my car to work.
May I ask how car is 10 minutes and bike 53? And walk over 2 hours? I ride the electric bike to work and it’s about 10 minutes ride, vs 4 minutes by car, so roughly double. 20 minute walk, not brisk. It’s hot here too, that’s part of why I got the electronic bike, walking was making me arrive sweaty.
American roads rarely have sidewalks. You have to have a different route entirely.
The routes are usually different for biking, walking, and driving. The speeds on the highway are also often several times the rate of speed you’ll be able to achieve on an e-bike and certainly much higher than you’ll be able to achieve on a manual bike.
When I was in college, it was a 2mile bike ride to campus from my office campus housing, conversely it was a 6h Transit ride on buses metros and all sorts of stuff. The lack of lockers ment carrying several bags to and from school on a bike, which sucked. I ended up driving cuz it was easier.
Might be better getting a moped/motorcycle and taking the car route. It’s more environmentally friendly than the car, anyway, but it doesn’t take your entire day away from you.
How many minutes would it be to cycle to work?
It’s written on their gmaps screenshot: 53 mins.
Also worth noting that the listed bike route requires riding on a 70MPH highway, which doesn’t have a shoulder, sidewalk, side street, or bike path. If I were going to avoid that highway, (because let’s be real, I’d be dead on day 1 after being hit by a car,) then it would be about two hours of cycling.
I live within a very reasonable distance of work. But there is literally no safe route to get there. Not even a longer alternate route, just no way to get there without a significantly hazardous stretch of road. Riding that as a one-off would be one thing, but riding it 240 (give or take) round trips per year for years on end are not odds that I am interested in taking.
I would love to cycle to work, which would both help the environment and improve my physical health with some much needed exercise.