Anything Goes Commute Challenge: Carpool Trip

After work, I will head up to the city for a performance by the world-renowned San Francisco Ballet. Which means I need my car. Technically, I could devise a mass-transit solution that entails less driving, but it would be ridiculously complicated and prohibitively time-consuming.

With back-to-back early meetings, I also need to get to the office before 8:30 a.m. I started the clock in my driveway, then cruised over to the shuttle stop to pick up a carpooler. Most people would actually prefer to board the wifi-equipped shuttle, but I got lucky. A colleague was happy to join me, and we had a nice conversation on the way to work.

Driving in the carpool lane is stressful (see Bliss factor, below). You are traveling at nearly the speed limit in the leftmost lane, constantly scanning the lane of (stopped) traffic to your right: Will that driver suddenly swing out in front of me? How about that one? That one?

I stopped the clock when I parked the car at work and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Stats:

Route: surface streets, freeway carpool lanes
Distance: 18.86 miles
Elapsed time: 27:43
Average moving speed: 40.9 mph
Exercise time: 0
Reading/relaxing time: 0
Bliss factor: -1
Cost per trip: $10.66
Enables: Cultural performance after work.

Later, the trips to and from San Francisco will not be solo drives—a friend joins me for the ballet.