Friday, March 09, 2007

Because you have an extra hour to waste

Here's a fun excercise:

Go to http://www.mapquest.com/ and plug in the start and stop address for your morning commute. Scroll down and look at the estimated time it will take.

Now go to http://www.trimet.org/ and do the same thing.

When your on the bus/max you can spend that extra hour commute time talking earnestly to your favorite city planner/urban designer because I'm sure that they are taking mass transit to their job. Really sure.

11 comments:

R Huse said...

Ok - Now that is pure brilliance.

I know what I would do with that hour I was wasting. I would sit there and ponder "Geee, now that we have a one year extension on the Secure Schools act, I wonder if Lane County will still go ahead with the income tax?"

Anonymous said...

Yep, 30 minutes (18 miles) getting to work by car, or nearly 3 hours by mass transit with mutiple changes, waiting, and walking. An extra 5 hours wasted riding mass transit doesn't sound all that good on top of the 10-hour work day. No time to sleep.

Anonymous said...

ERROR:

There are no TriMet stops within walking distance of where you are starting .

Anonymous said...

Hey, Daniel, just wanted to invite you to check out OregonCrossroads.org, a new blog sponsored by the Oregon Family Council. Check us out!

Troutdale Canfield said...

Doesn't everyone ride Tri-Met everywhere? You burst my bubble, Daniel. . .

Anonymous said...

My trip cannot be done by the time I have to be at work (6AM) How sad. Unless I increase my walking distance...

It takes me 30 minutes by car I can only imagine how long it takes by buses!

BEAR said...

There is only one thing slower than mass transit.......government health care. It comes in just behind trimet.

Anonymous said...

There's one little problem: the times that mapping sites such as MapQuest show are general times and are often not achievable during rush hour. TriMet's trip planner, on the other hand, shows what time the trip should actually take.

And while you're on transit, you can rest (OK, sleeping's a stretch), read, relax, think, and do other things. But a better idea would be to live closer to work.

Anonymous said...

Mine gave me 2 choices. They averaged out 90 minutes for what takes me 15 in my car. Hmmmm....that would be 4 times longer if I am not mistaken?

Anonymous said...

But a better idea would be to live closer to work.

C'mon, you're really Rex Burkholder, aren't you?

In case you've not been paying attention, Rex, you and your ilk have "planned" Portland right on out of the realm of affordability.

In my case, being one of the lucky ones - I live only ten minutes (by car) from work. Or only two hours by Tri-Met.

Greg said...

Well call me a trouble maker or a 'Hold Out' but I'm waiting for the city to build an Aerial Tram near my house so I can ride it to work.

What? You say that doesn't make sense? Yeah, how about that.