RSS LJ

February 24, 2011

Killing the planet, saving my health (, , )

by fluffy at 9:01 PM

For the past two and a half years, my commute has been slowly wearing me out and killing me. So for the past week I've been driving to work, and the difference is profound. When I get to work I'm immediately productive instead of taking an hour or so to get into the swing of things. When I get home at night, even after an 11-hour workday (due to my own recent obsessiveness over my project) I still feel energetic and don't feel like just collapsing on the couch and crying for an hour. It's an amazing difference.

I'll still try to ride my bike on nice days (since it's good exercise and doesn't wear me out like the bus or BART), but holy cow, I am so over mass transit now, at least for my daily commute. (I'll still use it for going downtown to meet up with people, since it's still cheaper and quicker than parking and of course leaves more drinking opportunity and whatever, but work pays for my work parking.)

Basically, San Francisco mass transit sucks and it was pretty much killing me. And I'd rather be alive (and even happy!) than smug.

Comments

#13800 02/25/2011 08:44 am
For comparison:

Taking Muni requires 1-1.5 miles of walking and a 30-minute bus ride; total time is nearly an hour each way. There's an added wait of up to 20 minutes in the morning and 30-40 in the evening. The bus is usually crowded, filthy, and extremely jerky which makes it a workout just to stay upright.

Taking BART requires 1.5 miles of walking and a 5-to-10-minute train ride; total time is about 45 minutes each way. There's usually a wait of 2-3 minutes in the morning, and 10 or more in the evening. The ride itself is usually fairly pleasant, at least.

Riding my bike is 3 miles and takes 20-25 minutes, but is infeasible on rainy days and I don't have the stamina to do it on subsequent days (yet). I also have to worry about getting hit by cars a lot.

Driving my car is 3 miles and takes 10-15 minutes, and works in all weather. I watch out for bikes and pedestrians. There are a lot of stupid people who want to get hit. Avoiding them is a lot less stressful than being avoided by ignorant drivers.
#13802 02/26/2011 10:52 pm alive and happy is defininitely better!
it's nice to have decent public transportation as an option but there is a lot to be said for preserving one's sanity too. and i hardly think you are killing the planet by driving only 3 miles. by the way, i'm glad for you that it is only 3 miles - did you see the drastic increase in gas prices this week? anyway, i'm with you. would love to ride my bike to work everyday but i don't always have the energy and sometimes i just have too much stuff to transport from one worksite to another (drums, xylophones, etc.). for 7 years (where i used to live, where it was flat) i used a bike as my main (or my only) mode of transportation. so i do feel like i tried to do a little bit to save the planet. i hope to work things out in the future so that i can maybe ride my bike to work regularly again. in the meantime, looking forward to seeing what creative things you do with your extra time and energy! =)
#13803 02/26/2011 11:56 pm
For now I'm just funneling the extra time and energy into working more, because I'm in obsessive get-everything-done mode. Hopefully I'll have more time to work on music and comics soon though.