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I'm fortunate I live where I have options (NE Ohio). I find the short commute to train station (8-10 minutes to go 4 miles) much better than taking a bus there, and the train to downtown central business district is conveniently connected via free trolleys which run a couple well placed loop routes.
If you have an employer who reimburses for a monthly transit pass it is ideal. It is a great way to
a) save money (free auto parking at station vs. cbd / insurance - low miles / longer life to vehicle)
b) insure you get a certain amount of exercise - I often skip the trolley and walk the ten minutes (and stair steps)
c) gain personal time of the train commute to read / sleep / etc..
d) when train does malfunction or is shut down (snow / ice issues) a bus shuttle is used to replace route
Having traveled to variety of cities I find the high density cities with good transit a good experience (NYC, WAS, CHI, SFO). Never tried LA's transit as there is too much inaccessible (at least when I was last there).
Like jtur88 mentioned, sometimes it is varied and it is usually due to having to get someplace that is best accessed by car. On a corollary side note, it is a major factor in the reversal of corporations now moving back to CBDs after moving out to campus like settings.
Much better to be near your constant partners and better environment for collaboration versus an island campus someplace. I've worked in both types of locations from corporate perspective and the free standing campus in suburbs is non desirable. Too many limits caused by auto centric nature of locations. Wasted time if you want to go out to lunch with colleagues, less chance for collaboration, if they do have a walking path it is boring circles, no chance for happenstance of seeing a delightful lovely woman sashaying by, etc.
My family came to the U.S July 26 1980. Got our first automobile. December 1980.
No one in my family or extended family has ever been without a car since. Myself, I have three now. Doesn't include my wife or kids car... In all the states I have lived in, I have never been on city bus or taxi. One time in 2013 I rode a cab home because I rode in a group.
I have visited NYC Boston Europe etc. I see people ride the train home. How miserable..
If ever I have a job that gave me a choice to take the bus or train option. I d still keep all my cars.
For an American to be without a car. You are going backward.
If it doesn't save me any time to take a train and parking is free or relatively close to it, I'd rather drive. But around here the train is likely to take less time if you commute during standard business hours, and it'll cost you a LOT less thanks to high parking costs downtown. When I went to school and/or worked downtown, I took the train 95% of the time.
Of course it would be cheaper to take the train. For the average mass transit system, fare revenues cover about 20% of operating expenses so your ride is highly subsidized. Figure out for your transit agency what is the actual cost of that train ride.
Also, that cost per mile for your car is including all the overhead which you will be paying anyway if you own a car at all. Cars depreciate as a function of time as well as miles. Insurance and registration fees are paid annually. Drive your car less miles and your cost per mile increases.
Commuter rail is often much less subsidized, BART is around 35% subsidized for example.
BART costs me around $8/day to take into the city after taxes.
Driving costs me nothing per mile. Marginal cost is around 25 cents, but then I write off 57.5 cents a mile and my marginal tax rate is 42%. Parking is reimbursed at cost. So total driving costs me around $3.50 after taxes.
I take BART probably 80% of the time as I can get around 45 minutes of work done on BART. If it's not rush hour, I usually drive as outside rush hour it takes longer to take BART. I don't find the drive into San Francisco stressful at all. I just listen to music/podcast/audible and enjoy my coffee. Very low stress. Getting out of the city is a different matter, however. Going in there's nothing really going on. You just sit at the maze for 30 minutes or so rolling forward a car length every 20 seconds or so. Getting out... well, I usually wait until around 7 or 7:30 until traffic dies down. It's awful. The entire FD going to the on-ramps basically gridlocks so you might move forward one car length every light cycle or every third. Then you get to the front and you have to jump on an opening where you'll block just enough of the intersection that you can move forward without blocking too much of it so the cross traffic can't squeeze by. If you actually were to wait until you weren't blocking the intersection or even just the crosswalk you'd literally sit there forever. Meanwhile SFPD goes around on bicycles writing $260 tickets like there's no tomorrow for blocking the intersection which unless you want to spend around two hours to get through a light, you have to do. Yeah, BART is way less stressful.
What if the choice was driving for one hour vs. riding the train for 90 minutes, what would you all choose?
The choice for me is fairly close to that; I can drive for 60-75 minutes, or make it there on transit in around 105 minutes. My current solution is to carpool. Dividing the costs of driving between two or more people makes it both quick and economical. When I was driving alone, I often mixed in transit when it was convenient for me. It's nice to have the choice.
My family came to the U.S July 26 1980. Got our first automobile. December 1980.
No one in my family or extended family has ever been without a car since. Myself, I have three now. Doesn't include my wife or kids car... In all the states I have lived in, I have never been on city bus or taxi. One time in 2013 I rode a cab home because I rode in a group.
I have visited NYC Boston Europe etc. I see people ride the train home. How miserable..
If ever I have a job that gave me a choice to take the bus or train option. I d still keep all my cars.
For an American to be without a car. You are going backward.
You do understand that most people that take the train into work, especially from the suburbs and for those outside of NYC, do still have a car. If you lived in Chicago burbs and had to commute downtown everyday, or on Long Island and had to drive into NYC, you would happily take the train. Its just easier.
I live in NYC (queens) and although I have the option of taking the train to work, I'd much rather drive than deal with the overcrowded, smelly, hot and delay ridden subway system in this city. I work in midtown Manhattan and pay a company discounted rate of $13/day to park. Its only a 6-mile drive each way and the cost difference is $7.00. I balance it out by eating breakfast at home and packing a lunch. Before I would just buy breakfast and lunch which would run me around $12.00 per day on average.
Like jtur88 mentioned, sometimes it is varied and it is usually due to having to get someplace that is best accessed by car. On a corollary side note, it is a major factor in the reversal of corporations now moving back to CBDs after moving out to campus like settings.
Much better to be near your constant partners and better environment for collaboration versus an island campus someplace. I've worked in both types of locations from corporate perspective and the free standing campus in suburbs is non desirable. Too many limits caused by auto centric nature of locations. Wasted time if you want to go out to lunch with colleagues, less chance for collaboration, if they do have a walking path it is boring circles, no chance for happenstance of seeing a delightful lovely woman sashaying by, etc.
Interesting...here in Houston, the opposite shift is taking place. More and more big employers are moving from CBD locations to campuses located partway between the suburbs and the city center. Generally considered a win-win for companies and employees:
-Companies pay lower rents in suburban locations, and get more space.
-Employees who live in the suburbs (majority of employees) get a MUCH shorter commute.
-Employees who live in the city center end up with a palatable reverse commute.
-Those who insist on living close to work (me) get a nice older suburban home on a good-sized lot, for the price of a condo or townhome in a CBD-adjacent location.
-Everyone gets free parking.
Only compromise is that those who insist on taking public transportation to work are left in the lurch - there are few options to get from the suburbs to suburban "sub-markets", or from one suburb to another. But I maintain that most people care less about what mode of transportation they take to get to work, and more about how long it takes. Autonomous cars, once they arrive, will be the ultimate in convenience - you'll be able to relax on the drive to work, you'll have privacy if you desire, and you'll be able to tell your car to find free parking once it drops you off at work. And if autonomous cars can "network" with one another, they'll be able to drive at high speeds, several feet apart, in a dedicated lane, greatly increasing the capacity of the road network.
Just reread the OP and saw that he was specifically asking about car vs train for commuting from the suburbs to the CBD. I would do everything I could to avoid such a commute, whether by car or public transport, but if I had no choice I'd probably carpool or take public transportation, rather than drive in every day.
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