The cost of commuting
Three months ago I first heard about Walk/Ride Friday. This month, I am ready for it. Walk/Ride Days occur on the last Friday of every month - September 26th this month. On these days people everywhere are invited to go, and wear green! It is an initiative of Green Streets. Their vision is to create a monthly city-wide party, which celebrates alternative transportation, gives people an opportunity to make community connections, and promotes a festive local atmosphere. So far, there's a handful of businesses helping out in Boston, Somerville, Cambridge, and Medford. But this is a project that is just beginning to take hold.
It is not all that hard for me to do my part, with a little planning. Because I live in the city, I can get around without my car, except when I am showing properties that are far apart from one another. But I don’t want to be smug and say the cities are the only place for people who care about the planet. Because, that is just not so.
Take a look at the research on housing and transportation costs. The MIT Center for Real Estate has combined data about housing costs, transportation costs and income to make this map in Eastern Massachusetts. They also studied Springfield and Rhode Island. Adding transportation costs into the mix changes the picture some. Going farther from the center cities doesn’t always work economically.
The other change is the growth of worksites outside of the city, most notably Burlington and Westborough. These “sub-city” areas of employment opportunities make it more possible to live in the suburbs with a short commute. That same is true of the well established small city areas, like Worcester, Springfield, Lawrence, Lowell, Brockton, and the Pioneer Valley towns of Amherst and Northampton. The more jobs that can be developed in those places, the shorter our commutes can be.
Where do you live in relation to your job? Is your commute bad for you and for the planet? Will my western and southern Massachusetts readers please chime in; what is going on in your areas? It's clearly more affordable there!
This Friday I’ll be wearing green and riding a red bicycle. I hope it doesn’t rain! Can you bicycle to work? Would you want to?
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I carpool - we live in Cambridge and both work in Framingham. I realize we're very lucky to be working on the same office park. Can we wear green this Friday?!
Carpooling is a great idea, for those that can coordinate locations and commute times.
The idea for this last Friday program is to do something extra. You already save money and fossil fuel by commuting together. How about bicycling to do an errand later in the day? Walking to dinner? It will be Friday night!
I walk to the commuter rail and take a shared shuttle from north station from there to my job. i'm seeing an increased number of folding bikes around north station lately - i'm considering getting one of these so i can bike to work.
i wish they would introduce the bike-rack train cars on more rail lines.
I've said it on here before. It is all about the schools. Many folks live far from their jobs because you can get good, safe schools and affordable homes. All the talk about "bike riding" is a total joke to 98% of the readers of the Boston Globe.
I've tried biking to work several times, but have now given up. The majority of my trip is on the wonderful South - East Corridor. However, when I hit downtown Boston (or even the South End) the experience is treacherous, even in good weather. Maybe part of the Rose Kennedy Greenway could be devoted to bike commuting (or perhaps it already is)?
Great article! Developers have been exchanging your gas dollars for their cheap land since the 1950's. As Boston knows well-- Public transportation is the crucial equalizer. it makes it possible to live Car-free. The rest of the country is learning from Boston: in the Denver area we are expanding our commuter rail and light rail for a cost over over 7 Billion dollars. The key to fully capturing the value of transit will be to locate affordable housing near some 60 planned station areas planned for Denver. Please check out the trailer to the movie: "Sprawling from grace...driven to madness..." The Film fully explores the suburban commuting conundrum: we have built our cities and our selves into a corner.
The Feature Documentary film was directed and produced by David M. Edwards. It also addresses the energy and peak oil equations affecting the quality of our lives. Re-designing of our cities to become walkable live-work-play environments is an important part of the sustainable solution. The film was shot on location in Boston, Washington D.C. Portland, and the San Francisco Bay Area and Denver...
Sprawling From Grace; Driven To Madness now available on DVD. Visit www.sprawlingfromgrace.com to get your copy now-- Thanks to Boston from Denver, Colorado
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