Commuting
One of the things I was sick of living in Austin was sitting in traffic. I even said, "I don't care if it still takes me 45 minutes to get to work. If I'm not sitting in traffic it is way better." Well, that is indeed the case. It takes me about 45 minutes door to door. But it is a much different commute here.
First of all, let me say that my friends that are used to using public transportation will not think anything of what I'm saying. To those friends I say this: I drove my car every day in Austin. I had no choice. I'm not even sure that was even a bus stop within a mile of my office. Cars are an integral part of life in Austin.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I will start out with the fact that I turned in our rental car last Wednesday and Lisa and I have done quite well without a car for a week and a half. Really, the only reason we are getting a car is for driving trips on the weekends, the occasional large grocery trip and, of course, travelling with visitors.
I decided I was going to write this blog post before I walked out the door today, so I actually timed the various segments of my trip. For those of you who are map geeks like me and want to play along, here is a the Google Map of my route.
I start out by walking 13 minutes to the train station. This is a nice walk through our little hamlet outside Munich.
Then I wait for the train. This is, frankly, the most exasperating part of any rail trip. Since we are in the burbs, we are on the S Bahn. These are larger trains than the subways and run less often. Every 20 minutes to be exact. Fortunately, there are two routes that run into Munich through our station (S4 and S6). They are not always evenly spaced (ie, it isn't always 10 minutes between them), but I still haven't had to wait more than 10 minutes for one to show up. Today, there was one at the platform, so I walked right on. Yay!
It is only an 8 minute ride to the stop where I pick up the S2 to ride back OUT to work. I walk out of my train and wait for one to show up on the other side. The train I rode in on is still there and the board says it is an 8 minute wait for the S2 out toward Erding. More waiting.
I wait my prescribed 8 minutes to get on the S2 for the 3 minute (!) ride to my final destination, Riem. Pronounced "Reem". It is then a 13 minute walk to the office through a much more commercial/light industrial part of town.
So, 13 minute walk, 8 minutes on the train, 3 minutes on the second train, another 13 minute walk. That adds up to 37 minutes plus The Waiting ("I hate waiting"). Sometimes the waiting isn't too bad (today in both directions I had very short waits). Sometimes, it really sucks. I had it take over an hour to get home one day as I just missed both trains. Grrrrrrrrr.
In any case, this is still WAY less stressful then driving with the added bonus of guaranteeing that I get at least 52 minutes of exercise every day. And I've learned some German. "Bitte links aussteigen!"
First of all, let me say that my friends that are used to using public transportation will not think anything of what I'm saying. To those friends I say this: I drove my car every day in Austin. I had no choice. I'm not even sure that was even a bus stop within a mile of my office. Cars are an integral part of life in Austin.
With that disclaimer out of the way, I will start out with the fact that I turned in our rental car last Wednesday and Lisa and I have done quite well without a car for a week and a half. Really, the only reason we are getting a car is for driving trips on the weekends, the occasional large grocery trip and, of course, travelling with visitors.
I decided I was going to write this blog post before I walked out the door today, so I actually timed the various segments of my trip. For those of you who are map geeks like me and want to play along, here is a the Google Map of my route.
I start out by walking 13 minutes to the train station. This is a nice walk through our little hamlet outside Munich.
Then I wait for the train. This is, frankly, the most exasperating part of any rail trip. Since we are in the burbs, we are on the S Bahn. These are larger trains than the subways and run less often. Every 20 minutes to be exact. Fortunately, there are two routes that run into Munich through our station (S4 and S6). They are not always evenly spaced (ie, it isn't always 10 minutes between them), but I still haven't had to wait more than 10 minutes for one to show up. Today, there was one at the platform, so I walked right on. Yay!
It is only an 8 minute ride to the stop where I pick up the S2 to ride back OUT to work. I walk out of my train and wait for one to show up on the other side. The train I rode in on is still there and the board says it is an 8 minute wait for the S2 out toward Erding. More waiting.
I wait my prescribed 8 minutes to get on the S2 for the 3 minute (!) ride to my final destination, Riem. Pronounced "Reem". It is then a 13 minute walk to the office through a much more commercial/light industrial part of town.
So, 13 minute walk, 8 minutes on the train, 3 minutes on the second train, another 13 minute walk. That adds up to 37 minutes plus The Waiting ("I hate waiting"). Sometimes the waiting isn't too bad (today in both directions I had very short waits). Sometimes, it really sucks. I had it take over an hour to get home one day as I just missed both trains. Grrrrrrrrr.
In any case, this is still WAY less stressful then driving with the added bonus of guaranteeing that I get at least 52 minutes of exercise every day. And I've learned some German. "Bitte links aussteigen!"
I love using all the public transportation systems when I travel. I have, on occasion, used the busses and train in Austin, but sadly, neither work well for me. The train station nearest my home doesn't have parking available (weird), and the busses make me car sick. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful that we'll figure out how to do public transportation well in this country ... someday.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, there are parts of the country that have good public transit systems. New York, Chicago and San Francisco are definitely places you can get around without the need of a car.
DeleteTrue enough, at least as to San Francisco -- I haven't tried the others. I can get around downtown Dallas well enough, and the parts of New Orleans that I'd want to go. I guess I'm just mostly disappointed in my own city's public transit, but they keep trying, so I remain hopeful. :)
ReplyDeleteMost cities in the US, and especially in Texas, simply don't have the population density to make good public transportation feasible. We're in a suburb here (think Round Rock or Manor, although not as far from Munich's city center), and we're in a 9-story apartment building, one in a complex of 9-story buildings. Not all of Haar is like this, but a lot of it is. It's kind of amazing that our permanent place is a free-standing house with a real yard and a garage. All those things are rarities here, and they generally come with a higher price tag than we're paying. And even here, much of the time, we get one train every 20 minutes.
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