Not riding is spurring our economy

Wow…  Who’d have thought that me taking a day off of my bike for the daily commute could be such a huge boon to the economies of the areas that I travel through?  The lack of a bicycle, coupled with delays a getting out of the office has pushed my normal transit agency up 100%.

Normally, I use both Amtrak and Capitol Corridor trains – coupled with my bike – to deal with my commute.  Well, technically speaking I think that even both of those two servers are technically Amtrak, but we’ll consider them two for the time being.

Today, however, without the bike I actually used 4 distinct transit agencies.  Here’s the lowdown:

Departure

  • Leave house to bus top.  Unfortunately, at the bus stop I realize that I forgot something and go back to the house, missing the bus.  Beg the wife (who was happily snoozing in bed until my rude interruption) for a ride to the train station instead.
  • Board Amtrak capitol corridor bound for Emeryville
  • Transfer to bus, across the Bay Bridge to the Caltrain station
  • Caltrain to Palo Alto

Going Home (this is where things get more interesting)

  • Meeting at the office runs a little longer than hoped.  Catch a later Caltrain that wanted at Palo Alto
  • Since I won’t make the Amtrak connecting bus leaving Palo Alto at this time, and missing that bus would result in me getting home about 90 minutes or so later, I start to scheme and plan.  I could take a taxi from the Caltrain station to the Ferry building and catch a different Amtrak bus ($10-$12 with tip)  However, I’ve got some Bart tickets in my wallet with balances left on them.  After a whole bunch of time schedule cross-referencing between Caltrain, Bart and Amtrak, I opt to get off of Caltrain at Milbrae and take Bart out to the Richmond Amtrak stop.  Haven’t been on Bart in a while, otta be fun…
  • Get off Bart, stand around for 20 minutes waiting for Amtrak
  • Get off Amtrak in Sacramento, walk 3 blocks to bus stop
  • Take Sacramento RT home

I think I may have been less complicated for me to cross three or four countries in Europe compared to this.  However, I did get to catch up on a bunch of podcasts during my little experiment in mass transit.