If you've been keeping up with my Flickr page at all, you'd notice 2 things: 1) I'm way better at posting frequently there than here and 2) I downloaded AirMe: an iPhone app that let's me post pictures directly to Flickr (or Facebook) as quickly as I can snap them with my phone. Pretty cool. (So yeah: definitely better at that then "blogging", what can I say. I'm workin' on it.)
I've been pretty pleased with myself for navigating Portland via public transit. While I sometimes do a fair amount of planning the day before if I know I want to make a pretty extensive trek, other times I just wing-it (though with an iPhone it feels like I'm downright cheating. Well, almost: if Trimet had an iPhone app, then it would be cheating. Hey, Trimet: make an iPhone app!!).
Yesterday I made a pretty sweet loop spanning both sides of the Willamette (rhymes with "Will, dammit."), and it mostly started on a whim. After my doctor's appointment in Southwest, I traipsed around Multnomah Village since I hadn't seen it yet. Then I remembered a store I wanted to visit in Southeast, so I hopped on a bus.
When you get on a bus in Portland, you pay your fare and are handed a transfer ticket. This transfer lasts roughly 2 hours. During those 2 hours you can jump on as many buses as possible before it's time to pony-up more fare. The initial cost when you first get on? $1.75 -- this is mostly true everywhere, but I haven't figured out the exceptions ("Fareless Square" is still a mystery to me).
Basically, I went here:
Because I got to all these places in under 2 hours, it only cost me $1.75. I rode a total of 4 buses. Google's Public Transit v. Driving calculation said this route by car would've cost about $5.80. This got me thinking, what if I had driven it in my car?
As previously mentioned, my car gets pretty good highway mileage but terrible fuel economy when "city driving". Since my last fill-up, I've only driven about 100 miles and I'm down to half a tank. That's not quite 17 miles per gallon! Gross. My journey covered 9.9 miles, or, .59 gallons (in my car). The 76 station near me has regular unleaded at $3.75/gallon. That means my trip would have cost $2.23 in my car.
It's good to know that in under 2 hours, public transit is cheaper than driving around in the 'Wo. And since those buses are moving anyway, I'd much rather hop on one then start up my car.
Nice post, especially regarding the 2 hours for free. I swear that if you are on the West side of the river near Portland State U, the public transit (train) is free for travel on that side of the river and in the Norther part of the city (up to and a little beyond the mall with the Apple Store).
Also, about the price of traveling on your personal budget in the ’Wo, you also have to figure in maintenance, registration fees, and insurance. The other part which is difficult to calculate is the reduction of congestion and the collective carbon footprint.
Public transportation = massive social good.
w00t 4 u!
It's true: I recognize that Google's estimated driving cost includes "variable costs of operating an automobile" (and I did not include that consideration in my calculations). Yeah: taking the bus probably only costs about 1/3 or even 1/4 of what it would driving my car around (which is teh awesome, for sure).
What you're remembering is Fareless Square that runs through most of central downtown. Most of the time, I have already paid a bus fare when traveling through it, so it doesn't much matter. There is, however, a streetcar (light rail train) that goes in and out of this fareless zone, and while there are ticket machines on the car if you feel like paying a fare, it is not regulated in any way.
Once, I put money in ('cause I got on outside of the fareless zone) and it spit my money right back out at me. A mother of two quipped behind me, "the machine is broken -- Fareless Square just got a little bigger!"
:)
Hi there,
Just thought I would let you know - while it's not an app, someone has created an iPhone-friendly website for transit tracker. I wrote about it here:
http://www.trimetiquette.com/trimet-transit-tracker-on-your-iphone/
Thanks