A year of savings
Just about a year ago, Charlotte opened it's first rail line, the LYNX Blue Lin e . It was a big deal for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which being that it has far-surpassed the ridership forecasts its supporters had (much to the chagrin of people who think we should just pave more highway b/c, as Los Angeles has shown us, more lanes means traffic moves. Oh, wait...). Anyhow, I just did a tally. I've kept most of my train tickets for the year just for this purpose. Give or take a few trips on top of this, I have spent $51.10 on transportation from South Charlotte to Uptown. Parking is free at the transit stops. That's about 19 trips Uptown. Usually, parking up there can run anywhere from $5-$10, depending. So let's say, conservatively, if I had driven instead of taken the train, I would have spent $133 on parking up there. That's uh... some savings over driving. Furthermore, it's about a 20-mile round trip to Uptown. I get 40 miles/gallon on the h...