Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Day 1: Taking Bus to workplace

Due to the fact, our petrol price is so expensive nowadays, I decided to try to take public transport to work. In reality, most of us don't really need a car to work. All we need is just to get to work and go back home. Hence if the public transport can do the magic, why not.

The issue is, I kept hearing from my families, friends and colleagues that our public transport is not reliable. A waste of time. But I don't agree with them, we need to try first if it works. No point say NO without trying. As Napoleon Bonaparte said "The victor is the one who persevere the most".

I'm going to do a 5 days experiment. Below are my journal for Day #1.

8:15 AM - A bus (U69) pass by my house to transfer me to Tesco Puchong.
8:30 AM - U69 reached Tesco Puchong.
8:50 AM - U43 bus reached Tesco Puchong. I need to take this bus to Damansara Uptown.
9:20 AM - I reached at uptown, near the Maybank and Ambank.

Huh breathtaking, in fact the timing was quite good actually considering that I'm using public transport where it need to stop in between.

Now I am worry about the journey back home because yesterday when I drove home at around 5:30PM, I didn't see any U43 bus along the way. Hence now I'm wondering what time will I reach home then?

Normally I left my home by car around 8:50AM and I reached office around 9:35 AM. All the way when I was in the bus, I could see other cars also stucked in the traffic jam. So it make no differences if I drive or taking bus. But still, this is only Day #1. Stay tuned for more updates for Day X.

Notes: I make some big mistake this morning, I left my office key at home. Gosh .... !@#$%^&. My wife has been telling me to double check my stuff before heading to bus station. But I'm confidently told her that, yes I did. In fact I do, the first thing I do when I got home yesterday is put everything in one place and put it in the backpack. To my horror, I left my key. Jezz. Hence few things to prepare:
  1. Office Key, Tag
  2. Umbrella
  3. Story book (so can do some reading)
  4. Drinking Water
  5. Tissue
  6. Loose change (if u don't use touch n go)
  7. Additional T-shirt (just in case you sweat too much or heavy rain)
  8. Fan (in case too hot)
You must be wondering why I took so much hassle on taking bus? Let me do some simple calculation (what Maths again !!! ya I like Maths a lot. Everything in this world can be calculated !!!):

On average a car consume 8 liters of petrol per 100 km. That's $0.216 cents per km (for RM 2.70 per liter of petrol).
Distance from my house to work: 25 km for 1 way

Cost of Petrol:
2 (ways) x 25 (km) x 5 (days a week) x 52 (weeks in a year) x $0.216 / 12 (months) = RM 234

Cost of Toll:
2 (ways) x RM 1.60 (for LDP) x 5 x 52 (weeks in a year) / 12 (months) = RM 69.33

Cost of Parking:
RM 126.00

Total Cost: RM 234 + RM 69.33 + RM 126 = RM 429.33 per month

If taking bus:
$2 (per day) x 5 (days in a week) x 52 (weeks in a year) / 12 (months) = RM 43.33

I SAVE:
RM 429.33 - RM 43.33 = RM 386 per month

Hopefully the public transport is reliable so that I can use the money save to offset the Electricity that has went up 11% recently and also to offset the inflation nowadays.

2 comments:

NFH said...

Hi Alex,

It's been a while since my last visit here.

So, day 1 mission accomplished. Congrats!

Can't wait to read the coming day journal now.

And thank you for sharing.

Was the bus packed like sardines in a can?

Alex Yap said...

Hi Faiza

Ya ya .. Mission 1 accomplished. Need to test out the going back part. Normally after works is more terrible.

The bus load, is quite ok. Not that packed actually. Plenty of seats at Tesco Puchong. All the way to Uptown, only few people is standing.

Did you visit my new blog at http://thenewdawnhorizon.blogspot.com?