There are many good alternatives to driving yourself everywhere you need to go. Why not try public transportation or carpooling? These alternatives are cheaper overall, produce much less or no greenhouse gasesC and you might find that you enjoy them in unexpected ways as well.
What You Should Know
- Carpooling to work with one other person instead of driving by yourself halves the greenhouse gas emissions that would have been produced by driving separately, cuts the costs of gas and parking, and saves wear and tear on your car.
- If just 500 people took public transportation to work one day a week instead of driving, they would prevent approximately 300 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted each year.
- Commuting by public transit will save you thousands of dollars a year. Commuting into a city by car costs from $1,050 (San Jose) to $4,020 (San Francisco) a year for a permanent parking space, plus an additional $1,350 (SJ) to $2,610 (SF) or so in gasoline costs plus wear and tear on your car. By contrast, taking a commuter train costs roughly $1,272 (SJ) to $1,830 (SF) a year, while commuting on the bus or lightrail costs only $674 (SJ) to $1,536 (SF) a year*. All in all, commuting to San Jose by public transportation can save you $2,268 a year and commuting to San Francisco can save you $5,049 per year!
Easy Things You Can Do
Take public transportation more often. One full city bus means about 40 fewer cars on the road. The environmental benefits of public transportation are enormous, but there are personal benefits too: you won't have to pay for gasoline or parking, you won't have to drive in traffic jams, and you can read, get work done, listen to music, or even sleep during your commute. If you don't currently take public transportation, try replacing one or two car trips a week with trips using the bus or train. You can always add more commutes later!
- Check out http://www.511.org or http://www.commute.org to learn how to get from point A to point B without having to drive yourself.
- BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) quickplanner
- Caltrain schedules for train service between San Francisco and Gilroy
- VTA and SamTrans schedules for local bus service and light rail options.
Combine biking with public transit. Whether for your daily commute or a casual outing, you can travel to places beyond the reach of public transportation if you take your bike along. Both trains and buses allow bikes to be either brought on board or provides storage for them. FOr ore information, visit http://bicycling.511.org/transit.htm
Carpool. Find a colleague who lives in your area to share a ride with a few times a week, or a close neighbor heading to a similar part of town. Carpooling is fun,fast (the Carpool Lane is a joy on a crowded highway), saves you gas and parking money, time, and most important, takes CO2-emitting cars off the roads. Carpooling isn't just for commuters, either. You can carpool with other parents to take your kids to school, carpool with friends to go out to dinner, and more. If you can't find people you to know to carpool with, try a ride matching service: http://rideshare.511.org/ridematch/.
Carshare. Carsharing allows you to enjoy the benefits of having your own car without having to foot the whole bill. For a monthly feeyou can reserve a car, van, or SUV for four hours or four days, pick it up at a convenient location, drive it, and return it when you're done. If you currently own a car but drive fewer than 7,500 miles a year, joining a car-sharing network will save you money. Carsharing is catching on around the nation, which is great news: People who switch from owning their own cars to joining a car-sharing network usually reduce their total car-driving time by 50%. Talk about a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions!
- Zipcar - Cars available in the South Bay/Peninsula area
- CityShare - Cars available in the San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley areas
Source: You Can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) 51 Easy Ways by Jeffrey Langholz, Ph.D., and Kelly Turner
*Based on 5-day per week commutes, 25 mpg (national avg), $3.75/gallon, distances calculated from Palo Alto (34 mi.round-trip to SJ, 66 mi round-trip to SF), Caltrain Monthly pass fares, VTA and SamTrans (Express) monthly pass fares.