This is a trip to my eye doctor. I have an appointment tomorrow at 9:30a, and it isn’t that far from my house – a bit under 10km (~6 mi) away, or a twelve minute car ride during rush hour traffic.

Via bus? 1h 12m with 19 minutes of walking included. Oh, and it’ll be -9C (~16F) outside, because this is winter in Wisconsin. Same for the trip back.

The way the bus works here, there aren’t any direct routes over there, so I have to make two transfers at two different transfer points. My eye doc is east-southeast of where I live, but my route goes east, then north, transfers, east again, then south pretty far, then north again to backtrack, then far too far east, then north, then transfers, then backtracking west, then south until it lets me out. I have to walk from there about bit over a kilometer (0.7mi).

So when people ask me why I take cabs everywhere when I’m such a supporter of public transit, this is why; my time is worth more then nine dollars an hour and the transit outside of downtown Madison is garbage. Certainly better than nothing, but sometimes not by much. I’m frequently faster on foot than via bus. :(