Met some teammates at Alpine and Portola Valley Rd, Sunday morning. From there we climbed to Skyline Blvd and rode the Russian Ridge before cutting back across Skyline and down Crazy Peets. Thanks to Eric wrapping his derailleur we had time to take a few photos.
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So I've been playing with the idea of making use of public transportation for my daily commute.
I drive a not terribly fuel efficient vehicle -- on average I see about 22mpg (17 to 18 in the city, 23ish on the freeway). I could slightly improve this by removing my roof rack, but I'd end up putting it on and taking it off 2 to 3 times a week and I'm just not willing to deal with the hassle.
So based on my car's MPG and the current cost of fuel ($4.41 for premium), I've come up with the following metrics:
Costs:
- per mile: ~$0.20
- to visit GF: $7.15 (one way drive to SF -- $14.30 roundtrip)
- to commute to work: $1.60 (one way drive from Mtn. View to Palo Alto -- $3.20 roundtrip)
I happen to live pretty damn close to the caltrain station in Mountain View. From a cost perspective, it doesn't justify me replacing my daily work commute with the cal train on a day by day basis. Their costs are:
- One Way $2.25
- Day Pass $4.50
In a normal month I prob. commute from home to work, 20 days a week. In individual tickets, that would put me at $90/month -- up from $64 by car. But if I bought their monthly pass, I could make do at just $59.75 -- not a significant savings but perhaps worth the knowledge that I'm not using any oil in my commute.
To get to the city from my place or work, it would cost me either $8 roundtrip or $11.50 depending on which zone I arrive at (either Milbrae for a BART transfer, or 4th and King). If i transfer to BART I pay another $7.90 roundtrip which puts me to $15.90 roundtrip on Bart/Caltrain -- pretty damn steep.
There's actually a flat charge for extending travel to another zone if you have a monthly pass on Cal Train, however -- $1.75 each way. So for an extra $3.50 on top of my normal commute to PA, I could take cal train to the city and back for something like $6.22 which is quite a savings (cost of monthly pass divided by number of days used in a month plus the flat upgrade charge). Similarly, this method would see CalTrain + BART roundtrip costing $14.12.
So this certainly becomes financially justifiable.
(Car vs. CalTrain -- in roundtrip costs)
- to SF: $14.30 vs $6.22
- to work: $3.20 vs 2.71
On a month by month basis the savings would be thus calculated:
(14.30-6.22)*8 = $64.64 (saved taking the train to SF every month)
(3.20-2.71)*20 = $9.8 (saved taking train to work every every month)
total: $74.74
Other considerations
Cons:
- Planning; I hate planning (having to factor in departure times of trains, what the weather is like, rushing to not miss my train, etc)
- Transporting "goods". I train on the bike a lot and usually bring a good amount of equipment to and from work -- not convenient without a car
- Time: I can drive to the city in 40 minutes or less -- train will take anywhere from 30 minutes to 55 minutes just for one leg. Than there's factoring in getting to and from the station -- with a bike maybe another 10 minutes)
- Lagging: No just get-up and go like you can with a car
Pros:
- Cost: we've already seen it's cheaper -- particularly with the commute to SF
- Car maintenance: less wear and tear -- reduced risk of accidents
- Downtime: More reading/working time: basically an extra 30 to 50 minutes every trip SF to spend in a book or on the laptop
- Scheduling: Force me to adapt a more set schedule (good for training/recovery) -- I could train in the morning
- Greener: I'm on an anti gasoline kick right now and am dying for a hip electric car to call my own -- this could be a cool near term solution for me
Solution:
I think I'll go ahead and give this a shot. To do so, starting next month, I will:
- Purchase a monthly pass for Cal Train
- Drive to work only on Tues (so I can get to a mountain bike ride later in the day) or days I know before hand I'll need a car on.
- Get my training done first thing in the morning
- Use my Mountain Bike as my commuter
Interesting blurb in a howstuffworks writeup:
"If gas prices are influenced by the world supply of oil, what will happen when we run out of oil? The surprising answer is, we probably won't. That doesn't mean that the rampant use of fossil fuels isn't a concern -- they are very harmful to the environment, and dwindling supplies will still cause massive changes in our economy -- but oil will get too expensive to use long before we run out.
"If gas prices are influenced by the world supply of oil, what will happen when we run out of oil? The surprising answer is, we probably won't. That doesn't mean that the rampant use of fossil fuels isn't a concern -- they are very harmful to the environment, and dwindling supplies will still cause massive changes in our economy -- but oil will get too expensive to use long before we run out.
The world oil supply acts like an asymptotic value, which is just a mathematical term for a value that gets closer and closer to another value, but never actually gets there. In this case, the "other value" is zero, or no oil left anywhere. Why would we never get there? Oil companies start out with the easiest (and cheapest) oil to find and bring to the surface. Once that runs out, they have to find more oil, which might be harder to harvest. As time goes on and the oil supply dwindles, it will get harder and harder (and more and more expensive) to find what's left. Eventually, it will get so expensive to find and harvest the remaining oil that no one will be able to afford it. The rising costs will force us to develop other energy sources."
What's interesting here to me is that it is a simple refutation to
all the doomsday preachers out there -- it predicts the rise of oil
prices to climb over time thereby allowing that same time to
be used in developing alternative means for fuel (i.e. all electric
and in the near term electric-hybrid vehicles).
I love my m3 -- but if an electric or electric hybrid were released sometime in the next year or two that doesn't utterly effeminate me (inner dialog: yes, I want a gas efficient/independent car, but I also want one that looks nice and performs well -- don't make me choose something only a hippie could ever love!), and cost less than $40k, I'd buy it. General Motors: prove me wrong!
full article: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm
I left work yesterday at 5 to make a 6pm mountain bike ride in
Pleasanton. On my way through the side streets of Fremont, I
pulled up to a stop light alongside an elderly couple in a white
Cadillac. Just behind them was a 20-something-impatient,
honking and yelling at them to pull forward so he could make a
right hand turn. I saw this, and thought to myself: just let
them be man, they're like 80!
The light turns green, and as I wait for people to make left turns in front of me, the white Cadillac rolls on down Peralta and the huge vehicle that had spent several minutes honking at them made his right turn.
When I finally catch up to the elderly couple they're going about 30mph max down this single lane road. No biggie though, I know in ? mile or so that it splits into two lanes. And when it does, I accelerate a bit and move on my them.
This is where we both come to a stop at Paseo Padre. Ahead of us is an immediate merge, back from 2 lanes to 1. I don't think anything of this though, because based on how the couple were driving on Peralta, I'll move by them and be able to merge left with no problem at all.
The light turns green. I gently accelerate. I switch to 2nd gear.
And the elderly man driving the Cadillac on my left? He floors it!
I don't know what's going on. He's old. He was driving 15 mph below the speed limit just a few seconds ago. And now I have 150 yards to make my merge.
He's still a ? length behind me and I can't convince myself that he's intentionally flooring it. So I keep accelerating in a controlled manner ? surely if I go just a bit faster I'll be able to move in front of him.
To the left, I see his car violently jerk as his automatic transmission engages and upshifts. I apply a little more pressure to the gas pedal.
Still, I'm no farther in front of him and I have just a few more seconds to go before the lane ends on me completely. I look in my rear view mirror. Every car that was with us at the stop light is just now getting through the intersection. What's more, there's a huge cloud of brown dust following behind us in our mad drag race down Peralta.
At this point, I say fuck it and let him pull away. I slide in behind him and 20 seconds later he pulls into the turn lane to make a left hand turn. I look over at him utterly dumbfounded at what just happened.
I'm still not sure what set him off but I wonder if he thought I was the one honking at him at the first stop light. If so, I'm chalking it down to road rage by senility.
The light turns green, and as I wait for people to make left turns in front of me, the white Cadillac rolls on down Peralta and the huge vehicle that had spent several minutes honking at them made his right turn.
When I finally catch up to the elderly couple they're going about 30mph max down this single lane road. No biggie though, I know in ? mile or so that it splits into two lanes. And when it does, I accelerate a bit and move on my them.
This is where we both come to a stop at Paseo Padre. Ahead of us is an immediate merge, back from 2 lanes to 1. I don't think anything of this though, because based on how the couple were driving on Peralta, I'll move by them and be able to merge left with no problem at all.
The light turns green. I gently accelerate. I switch to 2nd gear.
And the elderly man driving the Cadillac on my left? He floors it!
I don't know what's going on. He's old. He was driving 15 mph below the speed limit just a few seconds ago. And now I have 150 yards to make my merge.
He's still a ? length behind me and I can't convince myself that he's intentionally flooring it. So I keep accelerating in a controlled manner ? surely if I go just a bit faster I'll be able to move in front of him.
To the left, I see his car violently jerk as his automatic transmission engages and upshifts. I apply a little more pressure to the gas pedal.
Still, I'm no farther in front of him and I have just a few more seconds to go before the lane ends on me completely. I look in my rear view mirror. Every car that was with us at the stop light is just now getting through the intersection. What's more, there's a huge cloud of brown dust following behind us in our mad drag race down Peralta.
At this point, I say fuck it and let him pull away. I slide in behind him and 20 seconds later he pulls into the turn lane to make a left hand turn. I look over at him utterly dumbfounded at what just happened.
I'm still not sure what set him off but I wonder if he thought I was the one honking at him at the first stop light. If so, I'm chalking it down to road rage by senility.
Found this walking out of the church st. Safeway. A crazy woman
freaked out when she thought I had taken a photo of her too.
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So I dont own a house, nor do I live someplace I expect to still be in for another 15 years. But if I did, Id totally be all about getting these installed TODAY.
http://www.solarcity.com/tabid/315/Default.aspx
You no longer have to buy Solar Panels up front you can lease them! This to me makes a lot of sense, as it allows you immediate benefits without the massive cost normally involved. And in 15 years, when your lease is up, you can purchase, or just as likely, enter into a new lease agreement with better/newer panels.
Hilarious.
A list of pretty awesome tools for web-development. I want to start playing around with Java Script soon, hopefully I can start to make use of some of these.
http://sixrevisions.com/tools/20_web_development_tools/