Public transit and electric vehicles.

[dsrtao]

By the straightest line on roads, I live about 9.5 miles from my workplace. Google Maps says that will take about 30 minutes, implying an average speed of about 20 mph. There are no roads marked for less than 30 mph along the route, but there is traffic and signals and turns.

Clearly I am the prime demographic for an electric commuter vehicle. A range of 30 miles on a charge would do. A top speed of 35 mph would be fine. I generally want to carry me and my lunch; a couple of bags of groceries or the equivalent would be acceptable cargo space.

Such a vehicle would have to be competitive with my public transit route, which generally takes me about an hour, and costs me under a thousand dollars per year. It would win on flexible scheduling, of course.

What it couldn't win at:

- parking costs. Parking anywhere close to work runs $250 or more a month. Even if we assume special half-size, half-cost slots, $1500/year for parking blows the comparison immediately.

- time costs. Even if I get back 30 minutes of my commute, that's an hour I was mostly going to spend reading and listening to music. Instead I would have to pay attention to traffic and drive.

This post brought to you after spending two hours on my commute home today because of a broken bus and poor timing.

Comments

[seawasp]

Of course, you're in the relatively unusual position of having a transit route that's vaguely practical to take. No such thing here.

[dsrtao]

True. It's also true that proximity to public transit was one of the factors we considered when buying this house.

[seawasp]

The only public transit that would work for me would be a single-person taxi. Oh wait. That's a car. :)

[hfcougar.livejournal.com]

Ergh, which bus broke?

I was wondering why 2 buses in a row (a 70 and 70A arriving simultaneously at WTown Square, both late) were the old style, somewhat worn out buses instead of the new kind. Those seem to mostly appear anymore when some other bus had to be taken out of commission.

NEV

[robertdfeinman.livejournal.com]

This is what you want:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_electric_vehicle

If you don't mind getting wet in the rain there is also the Vespa:
http://www.vespausa.com/

You do have to drive them, though. I think this is why audio books are now so popular and the Ipod makes them quite convenient. Notice the flap when it was announced the Kindle would do text to speech, the audio book vendors didn't want to see their niche get competition.

[malvinareynolds.livejournal.com]

the simple, low-power, 49 cc automatic scooters (also called "twist-and-go") are things that can go just as slow as a bicycle. But there's another reason - this is the joy of dreaming of flying! It doesn't have to be fast (I could operate my scooter at under 10 miles an hour with practice for balancing) and it doesn't have to feel like driving, but once you get over the learning curve, I predict you will get a lot of joy out of it. Wish I still had my scooter so you could try it.

Why shouldn't your commute be fun? It can be!

Will post pictures of the new baby shortly...