Public Transit to Work

I'm fortunate not to need it, but I tried taking public transit to work today! Simply as an experiment. I had mapped out a few different routes and decided on one that would have the fewest transfers, even if it took a bit longer. This will read a bit less like a story and more like a bulleted list of chronological events. So, if that's not your cup of tea, you might want to skip this one.

Captain's Log

• 5:50 AM: Woke up
• 6:20 AM: Leave home
  • Walk over to Novato transit hub on Redwood & Grant
• 6:27 AM: Get on 154 commuter bus (Golden Gate Transit)
  • The bus was really nice, clean, and really empty. Only 3 or 4 other people on board.
  • The Clipper card reader was broken, so I didn't pay for the ride. From an online search, my ride would have normally cost $7.80.
  • It made several stops in Novato before actually getting on the highway.
• 6:39 AM: Bus enters the on-ramp for highway 101 South.
• 7:05 AM: Bus arrives at Golden Gate toll plaza
  • It was awesome being a passenger while someone else was driving across the bridge. I got to take some cool pictures.
  • During this time, I also started my work day and got some work done on the bus.
• 7:27 AM: Bus arrives at my stop (Battery & Pine)
  • It's cold out in San Francisco, so I'm glad I brought a jacket.
  • Walk over to Embarcadero BART station
• 7:32 AM: Arrive at BART station platform
• 7:35 AM: The Red line to Richmond arrives at the platform
• 8:00 AM: BART arrives at the Downtown Berkeley station
  • Walk over to the lab shuttle stop
• 8:05 AM: Board the blue shuttle to Berkeley Lab
• 8:14 AM: The blue shuttle arrives at Blackberry gate
  • Walk over to NERSC
• 8:16 AM: Arrive at NERSC

Summary

Breakdown	Duration/Cost
Total time door-to-door	1:56
Total commute time	1:34
Total walk time	0:19
Total wait time	0:03
Bus fare	$7.80 ($0)
BART fare	$4.75
Shuttle fare	$0
Total cost	$12.55

Comparison to Driving

My drive to work is just shy of 30 miles. On a good day, it takes about 40 minutes, although can get up to an hour when there's a crash or construction on the roads. This is an average speed of 45 mph.

I estimate my transit commute distance to have been closer to 45 miles. This would be an average speed of 22.5 mph, which is exactly half of my average driving speed.

On highways, my mileage can be about 30 mpg, which makes the math easy. It takes 1 gallon of fuel to get to work (and another gallon to return home.) From my bridge toll story, we know that the Richmond/San Rafael bridge is $7 and only tolled in one direction. For a one way commute, we'll take half of this as an "average" cost.

Parking is free.

Therefore, the total cost of driving is 1 gallon of gas plus $3.50 toll. If gas is around $5/gal, then it costs me $8.50 to get to work. This does not include other costs such as maintenance, insurance, and registration that is required to own and operate the vehicle in the first place. Assuming an arbitrarily-chosen "wear-and-tear" cost of $0.05/mi, that would bump up my cost to $10 for a one-way trip to or from work.

Surprisingly, driving is still cheaper, but 100% of the time spent driving is lost, I cannot work while driving. (Except for maybe join a Zoom call, but a cop could stop you if they see you messing around on your phone.) On public transit, only about 20% of the time is lost - the remaining 80% can be used to start (and end) your work day early. This also assumes you can manage to get a seat on the bus or BART so you can open a laptop. One final argument for public transit is that I don't have to worry about getting a parking ticket, or having my car broken into while unattended. However, you run the risk of pickpockets or thieves on BART.

The Verdict

Driving is the clear winner for my situation. I love driving, except in traffic jams of course. I could save a bit of time by working on public transit, but the difference is marginal, and it's not very comfortable to work like that. One of my main fears of driving is having my car broken into, but Berkeley Lab is badge-in only and extremely safe. I was especially surprised by the fact that driving turned out to be cheaper (at least, when the Clipper card reader is working on the bus!) I could even cut costs down further by carpooling.