Tuesday, August 07, 2007

A foray into commuting hell

This week I am attending a conference in downtown Boston. Since I live in NH, this means a commuting adventure. First, I drive about twenty-five or so minutes from my house to Lowell, MA, to a commuter railway station. There, I pay $4 to park my car. On Monday, I bought a week's worth of tickets, $6.75 each direction. If I time my arrival just right, I wait about 5-10 minutes for the train to leave the station. I arrive at North Station in Boston about an hour later. Then, I walk to the subway and take the "E" Green Line to Prudential Center. The cost is usually $2, but I bought a seven day pass, so it amounts to $1.50 each way. The ride is about twenty minutes. I typically wait 5-10 minutes for said train to show up.

OK, class, let's do the math.

my house -> Lowell = 25 minutes
wait = 10 minutes
Lowell -> North Station = 60 minutes
wait = 5 minutes
North Station -> Prudential Center = 20 minutes
walk to hotel -> 5 minutes
------------
total time one direction = 2 hours 5 minutes

Now for the monetary cost:

parking = $4
commuter rail = $6.75
subway = $1.50
-------------
total each direction = $12.75
total for the week = $122.50

Yes. This beats paying $30/day to park near the Prudential Center (not to mention the mental stress of driving into Boston).

There are people who live in NH who do this every day. ARE THEY NUTS???

Heck, I'm quickly tiring of my 'normal' commute, which involves a 60 minute each way commute, with only the cost of gas (and wear-and-tear on my car) to contend with.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Re: The Power of Positive Thinking. The one thing I know for sure is that when I read your blog, there will be a complaint. Instead of expressing joy that you can take a whole day to sink into a book, you'll tend to focus on the grief of it being the end of the series or the aches that so much reading produce.

Instead of focusing on the fact that someone else is likely paying your costs for the conference, and appreciating that you get the opportunity to spend a week percolating new ideas, you'll complain about the commute.

May I respectfully broach the idea that good comments and things that content you are as valid as things that piss you off?

I task you with the following. You don't have to share what they are, but for one week - I challenge you to think of 3 things that happened during the day for which you are greatful, learned something, or which you enjoyed. Crappy stuff will still happen but will you waste as much of your energy being pissy about it or will you have just a little more of a personal reserve to direct towards changing things that will make a difference, either for you or somebody else?

Just a thought.

2:47 PM
Kitten Herder said...

Sarah -

You are right. I tend to blog when I want to rant or whine about something. If I am content or happy about the way something is going, I am usually less inspired to write about it.

So, I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE! Starting with today's posting.

3:11 PM

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