National Dump the Pump Day

[monsoon]

Today is National "Dump the Pump" day. So my question is can you use mass transit to get to your job? I would like to hear peoples experiences good and bad with trying to use public transit for work. (Bus, Train, and even Carpooling)

[brick]

I could technically use mass transit. It would require me to get in my car and drive to a commuter rail lot about 2 miles away. I suppose I could take the bus into Providence and take commuter rail from there. Then I would take the train into the center of Boston. Then I would take the HRT red line out of Boston and into Quincy, where I would have to get on a local bus to a local hub, switch to another bus, and then walk the last 1.5 miles from the bus stop, an exercise that would take me something on the order of 2.5 hours as opposed to my 45 minutes drive, so it's just not in the cards.

[Recchia]

I WISH I could take transit to work everyday. But unfortunately, I have to work 7-5 everyday, and the last bus leaving the entire city I work in leaves at 4:30pm, so I'm screwed. Not to mention I work in another state than I live in, requring me to take two different transit authority buses, which I still wouldn't mind if the schedules actually matched. So instead I have to drive the 15 miles daily which I absolutely abhor. I've even considered biking the 15 miles to work but then I'd arrive smelling like I just walked out of a gym.

[PghUSA]

I dump the pump everyday, if you are able to do it you really owe it to the country to do it, bike, run, or transit. It is a stopgap for me before I start running on bio-diesel!

[FromCityToRural]

I've never lived in a place with good mass transit, and where I'm at now, they really just don't have any. And even if they did, I highly doubt they'd run it down my way, being 9 miles out of town and all.

Besides, these one day boycott things don't have a chance in hell of working. Oil companies don't set oil prices anyway - oil traders do.

[PghUSA]

^^there is not much difference between the oil companies and the oil traders, they are all members of the same club.

Sorry to hear about your predictament FromCity, there are great things being done with biodiesel though, and ethanol check out what Brazil has done or Charris Ford in Colorado (do a google or vivisimo search). Not something you can change overnight or even tommorrow but if you have the time and passion you can live oil independent in about 6 months to a year.

[FromCityToRural]

I imagine there's a few in the oil company's pocket, but the pricing of not only oil but also gasoline is not really that much in control of the oil companies. I don't think their hands are completely washed of all responsibility, but they certainly are much less culpable than most people think.

As for energy independance...I don't really have the time, but I do what I can. I am, for instance, a nazi about turning lights off that aren't on for any good reason, and I keep the a/c at 79 during the summer (which in Texas is still cold...), and I have changed my driving style to maximize fuel efficiency. In my last truck, for instance, I was able to post better MPG than the EPA rated it for in city driving.

[Cotuit]

I walk one mile to work every day. I could take the bus, but it's faster to walk.

[suburban george3]

My job doesn't even allow me to consider mass transit as an option, I hop from town to town over 10 states during the week. However, if I don't have anything scheduled that day, I do telecommute.

[PghUSA]

Different towns each time or do you go on a circuit suburban george?

We should have dump the pump monthly, anyone seeing what Jesse Jackson and gang are doing against BP now in Cali?