4 ms·
We travel around 300 miles pretty regularly to visit family. Over the years we’ve tried almost every form of transportation: train, renting a car, flying, dirt
by gen220 6y ago
We travel around 300 miles pretty regularly to visit family. Over the years we’ve tried almost every form of transportation: train, renting a car, flying, dirt cheap buses, very fancy buses.
Bang for the buck, I’d say our preference became car, train, fancy bus, flying, bad bus.
They all pretty much take the same time, door to door, because the airports are not particularly accessible from our starting point and destination.
The key factors were autonomy and punctuality. If the train or bus hit traffic or broke down, you were totally screwed. Sometimes for hours. If the car hit traffic, we stopped for dinner. The plane is the most expensive, and provides some of the worst experiences of the three. They were rarely late, but really made you suffer for the price.
I never thought I’d become a car person, and yet here I am!
- octoberfranklin 6y agoWhat's a fancy bus? Is that like the sawed-off schoolbus?
- gen220 6y agoIt’s basically a greyhound bus with 1/2 the seats, a complimentary hot meal, functional air conditioning, and comfortable chairs. They charge a premium, but you bring as many bags as you like and the pickup locations are usually less chaotic (a hotel rather than a regional mass transit center). They still suffer from traffic and the movement of the vehicle (trains are way better in this dimension). They’re kind of like what I imagine flying in the 80s was like, in terms of the amenities and milieu of customers. Except with near constant turbulence.
- sjg007 6y agoWell... umm.. 300 miles is nothing. That's an 8 hour drive max with really bad traffic. That's not really a comparative point.
- gen220 6y agoI think 300 miles is around the inflection point where, if the transportation systems are mature and trafficked enough, it’s hard to nail down an ideal form of travel. It’s far too long for a taxi, too short for the plane to be obvious, too short for a drive to be overly boring, and too short for a train to be mind-numbing. Any longer (500+), I think the plane gets the obvious advantage. Any shorter and you wouldn’t consider a plane. I guess my point is that, at this point in my life, I’d only want to fly to avoid a reliably 6+hour drive (NYC to Augusta ME, for an example). Even then it’s a toss up, depending on how much stuff I’m bringing with me.
- autarch 6y agoIs this in the US? I've taken fancy buses like you describe in Taiwan, but I didn't know it was a thing in the US.
- gen220 6y agoYep! In the Northeast / New England. They’re a dying breed I think, but there are still some around.
- llampx 6y agoThanks for sharing your experience. With anything under 6-8 hours of driving, if a car, train or bus is available I'd take that. First off, getting to the airport is guaranteed time lost since airports are nowhere near where I want to end up. Second, the security theater. Take off your shoes, belt, get X-rayed. Next come the delays. The worst is when you can be stuck on the tarmac for hours and you can't even get up to go to the toilet or stretch your legs. If a train is stuck you can get up and walk around and if you have a car you can take a break. Definitely the most inflexible form of travel.