Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Taking the Bus

Gas prices hit $3.95 a gallon yesterday. I remember, in high school, I could get gas for $0.88 a gallon (this was less than 10 years ago.) I drive about 71 miles per day from my house to Eastern High School. It is about 36 miles round trip to College Park Church, which we usually make about twice a week. I won't have to drive to Greentown after May 30, but I'll start driving downtown daily starting July 15 to the Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, which will be about 60 miles a day.

According to my calculations, based on today's gas price, it takes me about $13.00 a day to get to Eastern., about $6.50 to go to church, will be about $11.00 to get to the Met.

The good news, IndyGo has a bus the runs from the North side all the way downtown for $2.00 a trip. So, I can get to one of the pick-up points (about 9.9 miles) for about a $1.75 a day. So, I'll be able to cut my commuting expenses a bit. $4.00 in bus fare and $3.50 in my gas is about $7.50 versus the $11.00 fee on my own. Monthly, I'll be looking at a savings of ($220 - $150) $70.00. Plus, I won't have to worry about traffic - I can read each morning! I'm sure the ICE bus route will eventually have a special, cheaper pass (I hope)... and I'm also sure gas will continue to increase.

They might also get a commuter train from our area to downtown in the next few years, should we still be in Noblesville. My friend, Joshua, recently wrote on his blog that he has been taking the train from Indy to Chicago and saving a bit.

I think the best thing of all of this is I'll be making a smaller ecological footprint. Now, if I can just move downtown, it will be even smaller!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Dont you think, moving closer to your job or getting a job closer to where you work would be more Environmentally friendly? If you truely wanted to reduce your impact you would live close enough to work where you could ride a bike or walk. Consume less is the idea, right? I afterall agree with you on this subject.

Dennis Swender said...

Yes, Louis who has no identity, it would make more sense for us to live closer. But, unfortunately, we bought a house closer to where we previously worked... and due to the housing crisis didn't think we could sell it. We eventually did and now I'm a 10 minute drive or 50 minute walk... which I have walked a few times.