Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit

>The final straw came when he put $100 of gas into his Pontiac over four days a couple weeks ago. "Finally, I was able to trade my independence for the savings," he said while waiting for the bus.

I leave my city apartment at 720, walk briskly to the train station (3/4 mile), take the 737 train, arrive in the suburbs where I work by 830ish, take the bus, arrive at work just before 9. Why? Because I wanted to escape the suburbs and my cube and experience life in the city and keep my decent software job. Because I choose to outsource commuting to my local public transportation authority.

Most people think I'm insane to spend three to four hours a day commuting. I usually don't bother to mention it to my friends who live and work in the city. Taking public transportation, your life is driven by the schedule - which is fine since most workdays are pretty structured. The more I use public transportation, the cheaper it is (unlimited use monthly pass)

I am writing this to explain that it doesn't matter how illogical your commute is - you can always (emotionally) justify it (as with most things in life)

For me personally, getting from school to home costs $22 of gas, or 45.75 via mass transit. So while I'm sure I would save a lot of money if I didn't own a car and only took mass transit, as long as I already have a car I have no incentive to ever use public transportation as long as the marginal cost of gas is cheaper than the alternatives. Especially since getting home by car takes 4 hours, whereas getting home by a combination of bus and train takes 7.5 hours. I'd like to use mass transit more, but it just isn't realistic unless the whole system gets a massive overhaul.

The article mentions the cost of gas reaching $3.60 a gallon - here in the UK, based on 3.78 litres per gallon, the cost is about £4.35 - thats over twice the price! I always knew gas was cheaper in the USA, but didn't realise how much.

I am lucky enough to commute to work in 10 minutes on a bike, but the cost of fuel here is starting to get a bit ridiculous bearing in mind 70% or so of it is taxes.

In Santiago, a lot of people use public transport. There is no stigma against using buses like there is in US; it's fairly common to see guys in suits taking buses.

I wonder if the Segway would have caught on if it were launched today. Or at least died a little more slowly.

Why is this here? Is this "Hacker News" or related to startups? This isn't reddit, digg, etc.