Caltrain vs car

Jonathan,

Sadly, you are mostly correct in your conclusion, unless one is driving one of those outsized, 12MPG SUV atrocities, or a high-priced exotic (whose owners could care less about the price of gas). Then, $46 to San Francisco might be cheaper than driving.

There are three reasons why this scenario exists:

1) The assumption - based on linear experience - that fuel costs will continue to be manageable by most individuals. That's a wrong assumption, unless one takes radical transport action, and grossly inconveniences oneself by going on to use the most inconvenient, poorly designed, expensive, and inaccessible mass transportation of any "advanced" region in the world. Humbling? yup.

2) A refusal of state and federal politicians to remove themselves form the tit of oil and auto company contributions. Throw them out!

3) An insufferable, inexcusable, slow-moving, visionless, approach to future transportation planning by policy makers in adjacent municipalities, in largely urban regions. The lack of forward vision and risk-taking on this issue has been pathetic. It's getting better, but it has 95% of the way to go before we get what we really need.

Solution? Force change.

Fuel prices are now out of our control, probably for good, as international arbitrage of fuel commodities (and their attached food commodities) are now being played for profit by usurpers who in my imagination should suffer the penalties that the then-Roman Catholic Church imposed for usury.

Bottom line: get used to paying a LOT more for transportation. We're up to 7% of gross income for personal transport costs, by latest count. Also, get used to a lot of backpedaling and lack-of-leadership, as policy makers in America are compelled to wrestle with problems that for the first time in our history are *not* going to go away.

"Comes the revolution, everybody will eat strawberies!"
'But I don't like strawberries, they make me break out."
"Comes the revolution, you'll eat strawberries or else!"
Mike, your open endorsement of coercion is refreshing. If you are willing to restrict your employment to those jobs within walking distance of transit so be it. I believe that concentrating businesses in one location where much of business is the exchange of information is going out of style. I have one associate who runs a drafting service out of a motor home. His commute, like mine, is a dozen slipper clad steps. Businesses that cling to the outmoded management philosophy that requires herding information workers all together under the whip are losing out to the pajama clad, work product measured staff.

"But if my family of four wants to take an outing to S.F. then the same trip costs about $10 roundrip to drive"

Let's review the math involved...

There are few vehicles on the road that can do that trip for 2 gallons of gas. 33.7 miles one way according to google

So lets say 3 gallons plus and call it $15
Whats it cost to park in SF for the day? Lets say $10
Maintenance at .08 per mile $6

But wait, maybe 2 people in your family are 17 or younger, so their fares are 2.75 each way, not $5.75.

so now its $31 vs $34

Your car is still winning, but not driving in SF has some value as well. ;^)

Jonathon

You have raised some good points. Of course for family travel a car would make a lot of sense.

What Caltrain (and other transport agencies should realise) is that if they can get their pricing sorted out better, then families would get into the habit of using Caltrain rather personal transport.

Take London for an example. If you live on the outskirts of London (beyond the London Underground system), you can buy an off peak family ticket for four (2 adults and 2 kids) after 10.00 a.m. weekday and weekend. This ticket gives your family not only train rides into and out of London, but also includes underground and bus fares. This means that it is much better value for a family doing a day out in London to go by train than to go by car. This system has been in place for a long time, much longer than the congestion charge for the city centre.

Bay Area transport is ridiculous. There are too many different organisations and too many different tickets to buy. Off peak trains are not full, so selling tickets to fill these empty seats that are going anyway makes sense. Getting people from one system to the other makes sense as one ticket serving all services makes it easier for everyone. Apart from the savings this may make for a family day out, it keeps traffic off the road which of course is a win win situation for everyone.

One last thought, I took my family to SF a couple of years ago and decided to ride Bart. There were no instructions for people like me doing a once off. I had no idea how to pay for parking and didn't know that I was meant to memorise my parking spot number as I paid after I went through the barrier (how dumb is that?). Also, when I got off at my station in the middle of SF,when I chose which staircase to climb up from, there were no maps anywhere to tell me which way to go, not even the name of the street I was on. If transport authorities want to attract day trippers and tourists, they must do a lot better on the signage front (but the same can be said for signs anywhere - have you ever tried to get to Stanford from Middlefield Road?)

Caltrain is not for everyone. I work near Hillsdale. For me, the round trip is roughly 30 miles - I have an older car, I need approximately 2g of gas. (No, I do not have the money to buy a new hybrid .. sadly )

The problem that I run into - go to the caltrain station, try to get a parking spot, pay for the parking, buy the train ticket, wait for the train, time on the train - get off at Hillsdale and spend 10 to 15 minutes walking to my work place ( they run shuttles every once in a while, but in most cases, on a good day walking is a faster alternative - I am not complaining about this ! )

Taking the caltrain doubles my commute time. Finding parking at the PA train station can be a nightmare if you reach after 8:00am.

The entire infrastructure to support public transport needs to be overhauled. The bus route 88 used to take me to the train station - that got cut out; so driving over there is the only option. They need to work out the parking structures, run trains more frequently and work on providing transport between work places and train stations.

This is not on any govt's chart / road map. We are stuck with the high gas prices unfortunately.

It is the apropriate function of government to respond to the needs of the people, not to mold the people into docile followers. Whoever invented the government practice of disincentive should be buggywhipped.

in response to "RS, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood"

my minivan seats eight, even with a few youth fares Caltrain would cost almost $100 roundtrip!

I worked with the scenario you gave.

"But if my family of four wants"

You had a family of 4, did you have had 4 more in the last 15 hours?

There does come a point where for a large group a van might be more effective. A family of 8 though is not typical, so if you just added friends for the day, I can still make a case for the train being cheaper, but not if you just want to be a moving target.

"It is the apropriate function of government to respond to the needs of the people, not to mold the people into docile followers. Whoever invented the government practice of disincentive should be buggywhipped."


LOL! Ha, ha, ha

And this statement is coming from a Bush/McCain supporter! Ha, Ha, Ha!

"my minivan seats eight, even with a few youth fares Caltrain would cost almost $100 roundtrip!"

4*2*5.75 + 4*2*2.75 = 68, 4 adults, 4 children

forgot to check your math

btw, if you can get your company to participate in either of these, vta and caltrans costs go down for you

Web Link

Web Link

My company gives us free ecopasses and $35/month in vouchers that work for caltrain. We are allowed to augment that $35 with pretax dollars.

I plan to use the vouchers that are good for caltrain only during the winter months when the its too dark to ride my bike without a light. I'll ride my bike to the caltrain station, take my bike on the caltrain, transfer to the lightrail in MV, then ride my bike to my building.

People at my work did not even know this was available to them, so anyone taking the VTA or Caltrain might want to check with their HR department.

"His commute, like mine, is a dozen slipper clad steps."

Any job that can be telecommuted can be offshored.