I have finally done it. I have signed up to get a permit allowing me to use the Car Pool lanes in and around Salt Lake City without an extra passenger.
I've been contemplating this move for over a year, ever since I changed jobs last year, and began to work near downtown Salt Lake City. It's 28 miles from my driveway to my parking spot at work, but at the best, this drive takes me 40 minutes on a good morning and 45 minutes on a good afternoon. The usual is closer to 50 minutes in the morning, and an hour in the afternoon. At least weekly, I'll have a day where I'll spend an hour driving in the morning, or an hour and a half in the afternoon.
I don't know if they make much money off the program, but UDOT allows drivers to purchase passes to use the Car Pool lanes for $50 a month. I've thought for a long time that this was simply too much money, but then today I actually broke it down.
Assuming that there are 20 working days in a month (at the very least...), $50 breaks down to $1.25 a trip. If we had those stupid pass things that allowed me to pay a toll here, and the price difference between a 40 minute commute and an hour and a half commute was only $1.25, I'd be on that like white on rice.
With my current pay, I only need to save three minutes in order to justify this decision. Money well spent.
I hate traffic.
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That's cool. It would be interesting to compute if it saves you gas money by spending less time on the free way and getting to work faster.
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