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J.A. Montalbano: Is this the cure for the common car?

By J.A. Montalbano
Monday, May 21, 2007

Did you bike to work on Friday to cap off the city's alternative transit week? Did you take the bus on Wednesday when it was free?

If so, good for you. But now I'm ready to raise the ante. I'm going to park my car in the driveway and leave it there for a week.

I'm going to get around this city all this week using these alternative forms of transportation:

Buses: I'll tax the resources of ABQ Ride, and I'll take Rapid Ride, which goes up and down Central and has a stop two blocks from my house, in front of Presbyterian Hospital near I-25.

Train: I can take the New Mexico Rail Runner Express between Downtown and the Trib's offices near Jefferson Street and Paseo del Norte Northeast.

Bike: I plan to use pedal power to ride the 8.3 miles from my house to work on Wednesday morning.

Walking: What a concept. Being near Presbyterian, I'm about equidistant between Downtown and Nob Hill. For entertainment (and work duties as the editor of the film pages), I'm about a 20-minute walk from the Guild Cinema and a 15-minute walk from the Century Downtown. If there's any action at Isotopes Park, I'm a 20-minute power walk from there, too.

Telecommuting: A form of anti-transportation. I'll work from home one day this week using the modern marvels of the personal computer and the telephone.

I'll keep track of my budget, too.

I have spent more than $400 on gas for my car during the first four months of this year, which comes out to about $20 to $25 a week just to keep the engine running. That doesn't count the insurance (about $400 twice a year), the new set of tires I just put on it (another $400), plus the oil changes and other maintenance.

So, this is what I'm looking forward to:

Saving a few bucks.

Getting more exercise and fresh air.

Meeting people out in the neighborhoods.

Catching up on my reading while someone else drives.

This is what I'm fretting:

Watching my main daily commute expand from a 10-minute car ride to an hour on the bus and train.

Losing the flexibility to get across town in 20 minutes at a moment's notice.

Keeping extra cash on me in case I need a cab in a pinch.

Carrying bags of groceries for six or seven blocks.

Having no buses and trains available after the evening commute ends.

I'm already concerned about covering events in the evenings. I want to go to an advance screening of the movie "Waitress" on Tuesday night at Century Rio near I-25 and Jefferson, but buses in that neighborhood aren't running at 9 p.m.

I'm not averse to public transportation. I moved here from commuter-friendly Chicago nearly five years ago. By coincidence I went back for a visit last week.

The train system there is extremely convenient. Not only does the El train crisscross the city and sync up well with the buses, but the commuter-rail system fans out far into the suburbs in every direction. And not only do the trains and buses get you to and from work on time, but they run well into the night. I could stay in the city till past midnight on a weeknight and still catch the last train to the suburbs.

On my return from Chicago last week, I chose the convenience of a cab over the bus that would have dropped me off on Yale, about six blocks from home. The seven-minute cab ride cost me $15. The bus would have been $1.

But how long would the public-transit option have taken me? And what mood would I have been in after dragging my luggage for six blocks?

This week, I hope to answer a bunch of questions like that.