Cost: The Other Annoyance

Now that we are about 2/3 of the way through October I have started thinking more and more about the other annoyance of mixed mode commuting. This is the big one, cost.

Currently ITTET with gas prices moderately low, it costs me more to commute in by train as it would to drive. To break it down, if I were to drive it would be about 18.5 miles each way. We'll say 40 a day for simplicity. I have calculated my fuel mileage at between 27 and 29 MPG depending on my driving style. I have done this with every fill up and its fairly consistent but for the purpose of this exercise, we'll say I get 25. This means I use 1.6 gallons of fuel per day. At 2.30/gal that works out to 3.68/day to drive. If you figure that in the average work month you have about 20 days, that's about 73.60 per month.

DART, in their infinite wisdom decided that back on September 14th they would up their rates. Citing low ridership, the rate for a all zones "premium" pass went from $5/day to $7.50. The monthly version of this pass went from $80 to over $100. This is the only pass that includes TRE access there is no TRE only option. If I were to purchase a ticket on a per day basis it would actually cost me twice as much to ride the Train as it would to drive.

Now, I don't so much mind that it costs me more to ride the train, though I probably should. What really gets to me is that there is a. no TRE only option, and b. they raised the rates due to "low ridership". Perhaps there is some greater logic in there somewhere, but if you aren't able to get enough people to ride, how is a 50 percent increase in the rates going to help.