Comments on: Atlanta Ranks Near Bottom In Transit Savings

By: Brianc

Brianc — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:42:06 +0000

Flaka,
Another way to look at it is like this: If China alone used the same amount of resources as we currently use, it would require two earths to support it. Something’s gotta give eventually; in the future, complaining about long commutes may be a laughably minor problem.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 19:22:57 +0000

Honestly I think it just made the comparison easier to compile. There certainly are other factors, some of which you mentioned, but I think they just didn’t have the time or money to get that detailed.

By: CSD Snowflake

CSD Snowflake — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:28:51 +0000

For me working downtown, MARTA is QUICKER! Walking to the Decatur station is an efficient way to get in my daily exercise. But if I need to be downtown quickly, I drive 6 minutes to East Lake, park and get to the platform in 2 minutes, and then catch an 11 minute ride to downtown. If I had to wind my way around a parking deck and then walk several blocks to my work, I’d add 15-20 minutes to my commute plus parking costs. Since I have to be “on-call” for any calls from school for sick kids or weather closures, I need the method of transportation that will get me back to Decatur as quick as possible…and its MARTA. Delays and shutdowns on MARTA have been rare on the East-West line in the four years I’ve done this. But I go in real early and leave early. Maybe peak commuting in the evening is different. I also hear that the North-South line is less reliable.

By: Flaka

Flaka — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:48:18 +0000

To me an $8033 annual saving is worth some inconvenience! I do commute on MARTA, and that commute takes about 55 minutes each way (versus about 35 when I drove).

I read a fact somewhere that the population of North America represents about 5% of the global population, but we use around 25% of the earth’s resources, so maybe that might also be a good thing to consider in the equation

By: Darrell

Darrell — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:27:19 +0000

What about transit times? It might take me 15 minutes to get to work in the car, or 45 minutes if I took MARTA. Do they factor in the cost of that 30 minutes I could be at work making money or the value of leisure time?