Why don't people carpool and use public transportation?

[ziasha07]

The PT System in my city is completly ridiculous. It takes 15 minutes to get to my school in a car. I rode the bus there because I was desperate one day... TWO HOURS! No no, I don't think so.

[KSigkid]

I used to take the T in Boston all the time when I was living there; my wife and I had a car, but parking is tough/extremely expensive if your office doesn't provide a spot. My wife ended up driving because her office provided one. If I end up working in the Boston area after law school, though, I'll likely have to get a car.

In CT, there's really no way to take public transport. Hartford has a bus line, but, I'm more than hesitant to try it. Parking isn't expensive at all, and you usually can find somewhere to park within walking distance, whether it be a lot, garage, or meter. My job has free parking, and the law school has plenty of parking on campus.

[ForeverRoses]

At a previous employer I did carpool with another employee for a while (we lived in the same apartment complex), however the company had a "nonfraternization policy" that employees could not date or even live with one another (as platonic roomates). So one day an HR rep saw us getting out of the same car and told us that we were not allowed to do that because the perception that we might be dating. So there went the carpool. It was actually pretty funny considering I was actually dating a different co-worker (who I ended up marrying a few years later).

[virgo921]

outside of the city proper, PT is very difficult for me but that's because I choose to work out in the burbs.

I'm cool where I am but I am starting to look at options closer to my home. I beleive there has got to be something fufilling within 15 minutes of the house.

[Glitter650]

I use PT... because it would cost me about 285 a month to park near my office. I would LOOVVE to drive though as my part of the city it takes freakin 45 minutes to commute like 5 miles or so (20 minute drive).

[susan314]

Originally Posted by kddani

Yeah, whether or not you have a car is not a recognized form of discrimination, to my knowledge. The EEOC is there to deal with racist/sexist/age related discrimination.

I've seen it flat out say in job ads that having your own car is a requirement for the position. I'm not sure that an even remotely savvy company would put that right out in an advertisement if it were an EEOC issue.

Conversely, I've also seen job ads specifically say that the location is "convenient to bus stops." (Of course, as I recall, the positions didn't appear to be terribly high paying or prestigious...)

[tld221]

Originally Posted by Dionysus

Did your employers know that you take the bus before they hired you? Sometimes, when I interview for jobs, they clearly let me know that they wouldn't want to hire me if I used public transportation.

Originally Posted by 33girl

If an employer even ASKED you that question, they need reported to the EEOC. They can ask if you have reliable transportation, but it's absolutely none of their business what that transportation is - you can ride a camel to work if you want to.

Originally Posted by Marie

Are you sure? I work for a Big 4 accounting firm, and having a car is a requirement of the job. I guess it would be alright if you got a ride to work everyday, but outside of NY relying 100% on public transportation wouldn't be acceptable/feasible.

Originally Posted by kddani

Yeah, whether or not you have a car is not a recognized form of discrimination, to my knowledge. The EEOC is there to deal with racist/sexist/age related discrimination.

Originally Posted by susan314

I've seen it flat out say in job ads that having your own car is a requirement for the position. I'm not sure that an even remotely savvy company would put that right out in an advertisement if it were an EEOC issue.

Conversely, I've also seen job ads specifically say that the location is "convenient to bus stops." (Of course, as I recall, the positions didn't appear to be terribly high paying or prestigious...)

RE: the bolded,

i think private companies are more likely to get away with telling you they wouldnt hire you if you didn't have a car... because theyre private.

my last job was in NJ and i didn't drive at the time i started the job. they directly said to me "there really isnt public transportation out these parts so you need to get a car ASAP." mind you, at the time, i only had a permit, anf if you know anything about NYC Tri-State traffic, especially NJ, its no day in the park. plus the drive from my house to the office, according to mapquest is like 2 hours, not accounting for rush hour traffic.

so i said, "im a city girl i can tough it out." found out the bus that went there from Port Authority stopped maybe a 10 minute walk from the office and ran every hour. fine, thats doable.

but as the days got shorter and the weather got colder, it got unbearable. sometimes the "hour ride" would take 2 hours. i'd get to work at 9, sometimes as late as 10am (hours were 8-6). and i could easily get home at like 10pm if i left my desk at 6. so i literally spent just as much time AT work as i did GETTING TO work.

sure i couldve moved to NJ, but it was an entry-level job in an industry i didnt care fore... no thanks.

there were others at the bank who took the bus, but theyd been with the company for years and had flexibility with their bosses to get in late/leave early because they understood. MY boss, OTOH, had a "i don't care how you get to work, it cant be that bad, you chose it" and complained how bad it looked to give me leneincy (sp?) on being late to work when everyone else made the effort to be there on time.

like i was PURPOSELY arriving late and leaving early.

anyway, when i announced my resignation to my boss and her boss, she pretty much played dumb to my situation and said "well we wouldve thought twice about making you an offer here - its one thing if you don't have a car, but you don't even drive."

sorry that was long, but it made a really uncomfortable environment being "the girl that didnt drive" because no one would offer me a ride to the bus stop or train station and then always to make smalltalk about "oh man your commute mustve been rough this morning." GTFOOHWTBS.


with all that said, im pretty sure after i left the company put a "must drive and have a car" clause in their contracts without any legal repurcussions. this happened to be their top reason for their high turnover.

[GMUBunny]

I'd have to get up 2-2.5 hours earlier if I wanted to take the HRT to work (and I only live 10 minutes away by car). At least I don't commute so far that I have to fill up weekly, unless my son is at grandma's for the day. Now my husband has to drive nearly an hour each way every day and it takes its toll. Of course, gas prices really aren't skyrocketing if you compare to the past few decades. Taking inflation into account, prices are no higher than they were back in the 80s when they spiked. It still sucks, though.

[jess_pom]

Philly has pretty decent PT. I take a regional rail to a downtown station and then either walk or take the El to the office. Door to door, it's about 45 minutes and it takes almost that long to drive into the city. I don't encounter tolls on the way in, but the cheapest parking I can find is $6/day.

I know the El/regional rail/trolly system doesn't cover all of Philly and there is a bus system, but it kind of scares me. I've only taken it once.

[KillarneyRose]

I would be all for carpooling or public transportation for myself if it were feasible, but it's not. There isn't any public transportation to speak of near me and even if I did leave near any coworkers, I never know when I'm going to finish most nights and I wouldn't like the feeling of being trapped without my own ride home.

My husband, however, is a different story. He works in D.C. so he drives to BWI airport (about 8 miles) and takes the Amtrak train then the D.C. metro and it deposits him underneath his building. Painless and cheap, he says.

[Rudey]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I used to take the T in Boston all the time when I was living there; my wife and I had a car, but parking is tough/extremely expensive if your office doesn't provide a spot. My wife ended up driving because her office provided one. If I end up working in the Boston area after law school, though, I'll likely have to get a car.

In CT, there's really no way to take public transport. Hartford has a bus line, but, I'm more than hesitant to try it. Parking isn't expensive at all, and you usually can find somewhere to park within walking distance, whether it be a lot, garage, or meter. My job has free parking, and the law school has plenty of parking on campus.

The cool thing about CT is the amount of offices along the metro north (new haven) line. So you can work in Greenwich/Stamford/Darien and just take a train there. And I'm not gonna lie, there are some gorgeous blondes on the train.

-Rudey