My good friend Floating Foam inspired me to start taking the bus to work ... Well, he and the annoying routine of moving my car every two hours to avoid a $35 parking ticket—sometimes unsuccessfully. I took the plunge a little over a week ago, and I am a believer.

Comparing the cost of commute

I looked into bussing it when I first took my job in Sacramento at BKWLD, but the location of our office back then required a transfer to the Sacramento RT system. That translated into a $80/month bus pass, and a 80+ minute commute each way. At the time, my Ford Ranger cost me about $85/month to take to work—a 24 minute drive. It just wasn't cost effective enough to justify the extra commute time.

BKWLD has since moved to midtown Sacramento, which has Yolo Bus service directly from Woodland—the town where I live. The trip is about 60 minutes with waiting and walking included. Driving my truck is 34 minutes on a good day, but gas prices have dramatically increased since I last calculated my monthly fuel expenses.

My midtown commute is 22.8 miles each way, which coincidently is exactly how many miles per gallon my Ranger has averaged since February of this year. The average price per gallon of gas I've paid this year is $3.81. Since I use exactly two gallons of gas per day to get to and from work, the average 22-day work month costs me $168. A monthly Yolobus pass with an Express sticker costs $80 per month. Taking the bus saves me $88 per month, or $1,056 per year. These savings are significant.

The pros and cons

The bus takes longer. Almost twice as long. To help offset this, I work an earlier schedule. I used to go into work at 8AM, now I go in 7AM and leave at 4PM. This puts me home at 5PM on the nose. I have to get up painfully early to get to work at 7AM, but maximizing family time is my biggest priority.

There are significant benefits to not having to spend your commute time driving. On the bus, I catch up on all my email and can brain dump into OmniFocus on my iPhone before I get to work. I know exactly what I need to do the moment I sit down at my desk, and my time at the office is MUCH better used these days.

I'm also getting more exercise. I walk a total of two miles per day to get to and from bus stops. A brisk walk before and after work, really clears the mind. I look forward to it quite a bit.

Mysteries and misconceptions

I think public transit misses out on a huge chunk of business, simply because people don't know how to use it. The learning curve isn’t insignificant. There is a bit of trial and error involved that I think most bus lines could significantly decrease with better websites and marketing.

It was easy for me to determine which bus to take, but it wasn’t completely obvious which bus stop I should catch it from. The schedule says that the bus stops at the mall near my house at 6:31 AM. This is fairly close, but it is a bit of a walk. It makes more sense for me to ride my bike or drive there. I don't currently have a bike, and once you’re in your car, it’s very easy to just drive past the stop and keep going all the way to work.

I resisted the urge, though and parked at the mall for the first week before I realized that the bus actually stops much closer to my house before it reaches the mall stop. I caught wind of this when I noticed that all the stops the bus made before we got to the freeway weren't on the schedule, yet the rout number was clearly printed on all the bus stop signs along the way.

The Yolobus schedule lists timed stops on the schedule only, and puts little dots on the map where additional stops on the rout occur. They don't list these stops inline on the schedule with the timed stops, though. This could be much more obvious in my opinion.

Another snag I hit was with my bus pass. I decided a little late in the month that the bus was totally for me. Late enough that buying a pass would have been the same as paying cash for each ride. I rarely carry cash, though, and I didn't want to have to deal with digging up bus fare every day.

When I got home from purchasing my pass, I realized there was a spot on it for an "Express sticker." I take the Express bus, which gets me to Sacramento much faster. I figured I would run back to the grocery store the following day to get the sticker, rather than pack the kids back up again. When I returned to the store the following day, they informed me they stopped selling the stickers the previous day.

The Yolobus website lists where passes can be purchased, but not when they can be purchased. Thankfully my wife has been stockpiling quarters from my laundry in an olive can for the past four years. Yes, you can show your pass and pay the ¢50 difference for the Express rout.

The most common thing I’ve been asked about from other folks about the bus is how bad the weirdos are. The reality is that most people who take the the commuter bus in the morning appear to be as normal and friendly as me. Take what you will from that statement. I don’t personally feel like a weirdo, nor have I ever been labeled as such to my face, but my bus is as free from trash, plasma and hobos as my truck is.

Don’t fear the bus

Give the bus a try. Take it to the bar, have a few drinks and come home. See what it’s like. Grab a few schedules. Ask the bus driver your stupidest questions. Most of the drivers I’ve encountered are exceptionally nice and go out of their way to help you. You may find it saves you quite a bit of money. Who knows, you may also find that you can actually ditch your other car!