Public transit lightweight
May 5, 2008
Posted by CindyW in : Green Journal , trackback
This past weekend, we went to visit friends at Berkeley, about 50 miles from our home. Normally we just get in the car and head out. But inspired by arduous, the new public transit convert, I decided to follow suit. My irrational fear about public transit is getting off the wrong station and missing an important appointment. Well it was Saturday and arriving at our friends’ house on time wasn’t exactly critical.
My local train station is about a mile away from home. Our friends’ house is also about a mile away from the arrival station. After a bit of debate about how long it would take our 5 and 3 year olds to cover the 4 miles to and fro, we decided to drive to the starting point.
If you live in the San Francisco bay area, 511.org is a fantastic planning tool for public transits. After I put in starting and ending address, it showed which trains to take and where to connect.
The first leg of our train ride was beyond exciting for my normally car-bound kids. Not being able to modulate their voice, the kids were talking and singing with such enthusiasm that it made fellow passengers wince. “Push the mute button”, they must be muttering to themselves. My husband yelled at the kids to pipe down every two minutes, while I was busy chatting about San Francisco with an old couple from Spain, in my broken Spanish and their less than fluent English. Moments like this made me want to travel the world that much more. One chaotic hour went by pretty fast.
The second and third legs of the train ride were 30 minutes each. We played animal alphabet game in which we took turns to spell out animals in alphabetically order.
My 5-year old: “A is for armadillo”
I: “B is for buffalo”
My husband: “C is for Cheetah”
My 3-year old: “D is for Zebra”
By the time we got to Z, we stepped off the last train and walked into the sunshine of Berkeley.
Surprisingly, the one mile walk was a breeze, as Berkeley streets on a Saturday morning showcased a plethora of fascinating characters. Before the kids could utter “are we there yet”, we were at our friends’ front door.
It took us about 2.5 hours and $29 (for two adults and two kids) to get to our friends’ house. On the way back, we got a little smarter (so we thought) – borrowed a couple of kids books for the return trip. Turned out we should have borrowed books for us; the kids napped more or less the whole way. We were pathetic public transit novices 
Will we take public transit to visit these friends again? Occasionally. We were at our friends’ house for 4 hours, but we spent 5 hours on the road. That being said, it all depends on one’s perspective. If I (as my kids surely) regarded the train ride and the walking as a part of the totally experience, then we had 9 hours of great family and friends time.
It is however fairly expensive for a family to take public transit. The totally cost was close to $60 for the 4 of us, much more than if we drove our car. Then again, the way my kids are still talking about their train rides and the statue of liberty mime on a street of Berkeley has convinced me that it was money well spent.
Note to self #1: bring books for both adults and kids next time.
Note to self #2: It’ll be a quite while before I can become a public transit black belt. But there is hope.
CindyW at Organicpicks
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Comments»
This sounds like such a great adventure! Like your “bike-train” adventure, it’s such a memory maker, it just has to be worth the time investment. It’s too bad it isn’t cheaper, but if you had gotten to another city and done some things like restaurants and zoos, it would likely have cost as much, so surely it’s entertainment or vacation spending.
I’m surprised they charge for the little ones. That seems like it would make it really prohibitive for most families. I am guessing Bart is more like our LIRR, which goes out to all the towns on Long Island, than our subway. Neither charges for kids under 8 I think. If they did it would never be even remotely cost effective for family trips. Removing the fee might be a good step in policy change to encourage PT… especially on weekends.
Glad you enjoyed your adventure!
Yeah, I used to take Caltrain to the city every day when I lived near San Jose and had an internship in San Francisco, and it was EXPENSIVE! But then again, so was parking in the city, so I actually did okay.
I saved $20 last month because of the PT challenge. I think people assume you will save a lot more, but the truth is that the real savings come if you get rid of your car which isn’t something I’m really willing to do yet. The only thing I was saving was gas, and while gas is really expensive, it’s not yet SO expensive that it is much cheaper to buy a monthly mta pass.
Joyce and Needle: It was definitely a worthwhile experience for my suburbia car-bound children. Was surprising to me that the Bay Area Rapid Transit charges kids under 5, albeit at a discount. Caltrain does not charge them. I actually think the public transit should have a few free trains on the weekends to encourage people change their car habits. My car goes 50+ miles per gallon. So the round trip to Berkeley would have cost me only $8 even when the gas was at $4 per gallon. The challenge for the public transit is to make it financially competitive.
arduous: You are absolutely right in that if you still keep a car, the savings of PT are fairly minimal. The issue in the bay area is that the towns and cities in the bay area are fairly spread out, so many smaller cities only get one stop. To completely eliminate the need for a car, one has to take buses. That would definitely stretch out one’s commute time from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Most of the people who take PT still drive to the stations. They do it mostly to avoid bumper to bumper traffic. I imagine it is quite challenging to solve the PT accessibility in the suburbs.
Perfect timing! I was just talking to my sister, who lives in Berkeley, about the possibility of taking the train/BART over to her place. With the usual east bay traffic, we can make it from our place to hers in about 1 hr so the 2.5 hrs is a bit daunting. How long was the BART ride?
Thanks for being my guinea pig!
I grew up in the bay area and was pretty young when BART opened. I still remember a special trip we took to S.F. just to ride on the trains — what fun! I’m with you, though, on the cost and time considerations. But rest assured, your kids will probably remember your trip long after they are old enough to qualify for a discount!
GB: we live quite a bit of more south than you (I think), so we had to take Caltrain to SFO first, which was a bit of a time sink; it was an hour long ride. BART is no more than 1 hour, if the connection works out. Have fun riding the train(s)!
Donna: you are so right. I always have fond memories of my train rides as a kid. Something about it just meshes so well with childhood.
I’m chuckling to myself here. We don’t own a car and take BART and buses everywhere we need to go. We sometimes rent a Zip Car when going far away or needing to haul big things. But every day we use our feet and BART or bus or bike, so I have to say there’s no romance in it for me. It’s just as mundane as driving, except much better because you can fall asleep and wake up still alive.
So the challenge for myself tomorrow will be to ride BART as if I had never ridden it before and try to see the journey from home to work with new eyes. Kind of a Zen practice, if ya know what I mean.
Beth: isn’t it funny that we, the suburban car-bound folks think of public transit as a treat rather than a mundane mode of getting somewhere? It’s the novelty factor, I suppose. Hard for me to believe that fighting to get on and off subways in Boston, New York or Tokyo can be remotely fun or romantic
I guess while your challenge as a regular PT rider is to find some freshness to it, mine is to drive less.