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Wednesday, December 23, 1998

Pedal Power

by Peter Warton ([email protected])

In a recent Fribble, Dan O'Brien expounded on Foolish driving techniques. Thanks to Dan for the analogy to investing. It got me thinking about my own Foolish commuting, and instead of asking "So what's a Foolish way to drive?" I've re-framed Dan's question for the rest of Fooldom to ponder:

So what's a Foolish way to commute?

And I'll give you my answer: the extremely Foolish commuter takes mass transit, rides a bike, carpools, or walks/skates to work and puts all that money not spent on a car into Foolish investments. (The average household spends 15-20% of it's income purchasing and operating automobiles). Consider these Foolish commuters...

Cyclist:
o Exercises while commuting to/from work (no trips to the gym during lunch)
o Arrives at work energized, arrives home de-stressed
o Rides past the Wise sitting in stop-and-go traffic
o Parks right in front of the building every time.
o Pays 2.5% of personal income for vehicle compared to the single-occupancy commuter (SOC), then two $0.50 bagels to run per day :-)
o Greatly reduces harm to the environment (air pollution from the car, the production/transportation of fuel; excessive consumption of resources from the widening of roads for more traffic, materials in the car, etc.; and noise pollution -- what's louder than a five-lane concrete highway filled with cars traveling 50 to 70 m.p.h.?)

Mass transit rider or car-pooler:
o Lets someone else do the driving (and the stressing)
o Can read the paper, relax, eat on the way to/from work
o Pays pennies to the dollar of the SOC
o Significantly reduces harm to the environment by sharing resources

Walker/skater:
o Exercises while commuting to/from work (no trips to the gym during lunch)
o Arrives at work energized, arrives home de-stressed
o Parking, schmarking!
o Pays 0% of personal income for vehicle compared to the single-occupancy commuter (SOC), then one $0.50 bagel to run per day :-)
o Greatly reduces harm to the environment (see cyclist)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance presents some thought-provoking analysis of the costs of auto use for both individuals and society.

Consider your own household. Could you get by with one less car? Certainly you could find interesting things to do with the thousands of dollars you would save. Think about it, and take the Foolish road home.

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