Real World Finance$

Part of a ballot initiative here today deals with increasing taxes to help fund our public transit system.  If this does not pass, it is almost a sure thing that my current bus line will be discontinued by the Spring.  If it does pass, there is a still a pretty good chance that service will at least be reduced.

If the line is cut altogether, I’m going to need to decide how I will get to work.  I’ve thought of several options and don’t really care for any of them.  We currently have 1 car for our family of three and it stays home with my wife and son during the day.  I currently work 4 miles from home.  It takes about 15-20 minutes to make it there through city traffic and all the lights.  My time actually on the bus is about the same as it takes the same path I would drive and makes very few stops after I get on and before I get off (there are a number of people on the bus, they just get on before me and get off after me).  My monthly expense for a Bus Pass is current $60 (and is likely to get raised to $70-75 by next year).

With that background information out of the way, here are my other options as I see it:

1. Stick with riding the bus.  There is still a couple of other bus lines near home, but they don’t take a direct path towards my work.  My current total time with walking to and from the bus stops is about 30-35 minutes.  If I take another line, I will have to go out of the way, wait and transfer to another bus or Metrolink which would make the trip closer to 50-60 minutes long.  I’m not exactly thrilled about spending an extra hour every day away from home.
2. Get a scooter.  With it being a short drive and city streets, a scooter is an option.  For about $1,500 you can get one that would suffice and get 80-90 mpg.  Still, I do live in St. Louis and we do get snow during the winter.  I’m not sure I’d feel safe on the road with other drivers during inclement weather.  I suppose a bicycle could work here as well, but again, I don’t trust car drivers on the streets during poor weather.
3. Get a cheap, used car.  This would keep me more protected from the weather and would still keep up front costs low, but I’m not much of a mechanic for doing my own auto repairs.  Anything cheap and used at this point is likely to be pretty inefficient fuel wise as people are finally getting rid of them and moving to better fuel economy.  In addition, with state personal property taxes and license fees, there is an additional cost for the car (a scooter under 50cc engine size does not pay those additional fees or taxes).
4. Get a new, fuel efficient vehicle.  If we did this, it would probably involve getting a new family car and me using the current Versa as my commuter vehicle.  It’s been getting nearly 27 mpg in purely city driving, so that would make me feel a bit better about gas, but I still have to deal with a new car payment, more insurance and the taxes and fees.
5. Carpooling.  This could possibly be an option.  I do know several people in the neighborhood that work near me or at the same place.  Of course, that always puts you at the mercy of their schedule as well.  At least with the bus it is a fixed schedule and I know that going in it’s not going to change by the afternoon.  Also, I suppose I could offer a carpool to some others on my current bus if I chose to buy a second car as well.
6. Force the wife and kid out of bed.  I could always force the wife and kid to get up early with me and take me to work and then pick me up as well.  They would only have to do that if they actually wanted to go out during the day (which is most days of the week currently, but they could probably rearrange things if they knew we were doing this).
7. Green Car?  If I knew of a viable, affordable alternative electric vehicle, I’d gladly consider it, but I honestly don’t know of any.
8. Any other ideas???

Any other ideas or thoughts on my alternatives here?  I need to come up with some sort of plan to try be prepared for this as part of our budget because it’s looking like a possibility.