Rubbing shoulders

I drive a car to and from work every day. I have some environmental consciousness, enough to pay extra for "Green" electricity, but not enough to take my polluting car off the road and take public transport each day.

Today, and indeed for the rest of the week, I am on public transport, rubbing shoulders with the masses. My car is at the panel beaters, who are going to take all week and a great deal of money to repair a small dent on a single panel of the car. Before I get started on a rant about cars, panel beaters and insurance costs - back to public transport.

I have no real objection to public transport. Like most people, I used it extensively as a student. Cost though, is an issue. It costs me $5.80 a day (or $93.80 a month if I want to buy in advance). My parking is free and while petrol is expensive, it just doesn't come close to $5 a day.

However, if you add up petrol, registration, insurance and servicing for the year it probably comes to $2,500 a year for the car versus about $1,125 for monthly transport tickets. That's a saving of over 50%! So why don't I catch public transport? Well setting aside my general laziness, the flexibility of the car makes it easy for me to justify spending the money. In this I feel I am not alone.

Still, when I have to, I enjoy public transport. You get out of the little private bubble that is your car and have to mix with others. You feel that you are living a life a little more rather than watching it pass by. You are forced to relate to others, even if it is only a small shuffle to let people pass or grab a hand hold. It probably should be compulsory for everyone to catch public transport once a week. It might make us more understanding of others and cut down on a bit of road rage.