Last week I tried taking the train to work for the third time or so, training myself on the new routine. I took the 8:27 from San Antonio station on this beautiful sunny California morning. It would be 30 minutes to the San Mateo station, and another 5-minute leisurely walk to the office on Third. Plenty of time for an important 9:30 meeting.
Or so I thought.
8:56 My train went right past San Mateo. Having experienced commute train service elsewhere, it took me 5 seconds to realize I was on an express train. It took considerably longer to decide what to do. That 9:30 meeting could not be missed! Could I get off at some appropriate station beyond and catch a southbound back to San Mateo? Would I still make my 9:30 meeting?
8:59 My train pulled into the Millbrae station. I could see a southbound pulling in from the other direction, perhaps just about 30 seconds ahead of ours. I rushed to the door, willing it to open. The southbound was still on the platform. Following signs, I ran up the stairs, through the overhead walkway, back down on the opposite platform, just in time to watch the southbound depart right on time, at 9:02. Missed it by a hair.
9:03 Do I call someone from the office to come out and pick me up? My sister, who lives nearby? Maybe I should just call a taxi. Just then I caught sight of a taxi line. "How long to reach San Mateo from here?" I asked. "Just 10 minutes," said the driver. "How much?" "About $20. We'll go by the meter."
Ouch.
9:15 About 10 minutes, 1 very enjoyable chat, and 2 handshakes with a self-described Persian-solar-engineer-on-a-temporary-cab-driving gig later, I was in front of our office building. I would make my 9:30 meeting.
This whole episode reminded me of something. Certainly the Googles and eBays and Alibabas of the world have made discovering and connecting supply to demand so much more efficient, and in the process have cut distributor margins to the bone. I would never pay $40+tax+travel for that Rustic Pewter Kwikset door handle that I can reliably get on eBay for $7 net, delivered. But the premium given to locality and immediacy have not diminished---not for a long time to those of us still living in space and time. We're still willing to pay $1 for a quarter to feed that parking meter at 3rd-and-B, a 100% premium for that last-minute ticket to see Hannah Montana Live at the HP Pavillion. If anything, the value ratio between the here-and-now over the there-and-later is probably expanding.
There are things for which we will still pay a significant premium, and we will pay because we need it here, and we need it now. This violates no efficient-market hypotheses. My train commute averages to about $2 per ride. And that urgent short hop from Millbrae to San Mateo cost a good $22.
So the next time someone asks you how much a mobile web user is worth compared to a desktop web user, you can tell them confidently, "Empirical evidence suggests that it's 11X."
080424 Update: someone forwarded me a news clipping containing this timely article from Sid Yadav at rev2.org that I have to place in the this-guy-gets-it bin.
4 comments:
I have giving up the dream of living green by taking public transportation in the US. It's not worth it.
Your experience with CalTrain is somewhat similar to mine at the Milbrae station one time. I used to take the train from California Ave. to SFO last year to fly to Europe many times. In Jan 2008 BART decided to change the route. You have to go one more station north to take BART going south to SFO. I stepped out of the train at Millbrae and was not able to catch the airplane in time if I took another train and BART. A United airline pilot was also surprised and stranded, so we decided to take a taxi together. It was a nice short conversation in the cab which cost $10.- and 5min., since I also used to be a pilot. On the return from Europe, I took BART and train again to arrive at California Ave. after a 2hr exhausting ride.
Another not too positive experience is taking bus in SF. I am used to taking bus and train in Europe. So I decided to park the car in the city and take my family for a bus ride one day. Unfortunately, you often ride the bus with lot of homeless people and other not so pleasant guests. The bus was smelly, dirty and definitely not recommendable.
I try to bike whenever I can and I stay away from train and bus for trips that you have to be somewhere at a certain time (meeting, catching planes, etc.). You can take public transportation in most countries in Europe and be on time and have nice experience, not in the Bay Area.
@tvn, thanks for your observations. I'm impressed that you would do the planes-trains-and-automobiles thing in one long stretch.
I actually find the commute train ride a quite enjoyable chance to watch people & building & cars or otherwise get some work done in a well-focussed chunk of time. I've used HKG's MTR, SIN's MRT, KUL LRT, LON's tube, ZRH's trams, and CalTrain ain't so bad in that sample.
Also my motivation for "going green", as it were, is primarily economic---as I think it should be. E.g., SolarCity is offering the leasing option that in most cases makes you cashflow positive wrt your current electric bill from day 1.
After this morning, I know understand the significance of what you wrote.
@yokum, yes, and we must leave some things to the imagination, musn't we? :-)
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