Decades ago the tagline for the nation’s largest cross-country bus line was, “Take the bus, and leave the driving to us.” Those days are long gone and only a memory in the minds of the Baby Boomer generation. But as the saying goes, “What was old is new again.” Except there’s been a change, the destinations are different.
Instead of plotting a course to ride the bus across the country to visit family or vacation in an exotic location, today, it’s all about making the commute to work. Not a commute across town, but a commute to a job that’s as few as 10 to as many as 80 miles or more away from home. As people are faced with longer and longer commutes, taking a commuter motor coach is becoming the smart choice for several reasons.
For one, you can still “leave the driving to us.” Instead of having to stare through the windshield of your car for an hour or more through all kinds of weather, traffic and mile after mile of the same view, you can sit back and relax. You can sit in a comfortable seat, read a book or magazine, visit with other commuters, catch up on work or just recline and take a nap. The best part is, you’ll arrive at work and back at home rested and refreshed instead of hassled and hurried from fighting traffic.
Once you get to work, you don’t have to drive around looking for that “perfect” parking space, pay for parking, or walk several hundred yards from a parking ramp or across a big corporate parking lot. You get dropped off at or near where you work. It may save you money too. Think of the wear and tear you’re saving on your car. Fewer oil changes, tires are replaced less frequently, and you’re saving tens of thousands of miles on your car. Some employers even supplement the cost of your commute.
Those are the advantages that help you. However, there is an even bigger global advantage. Traveling by motor coach is the most fuel-efficient means of travel per passenger-mile. That may sound surprising until you do the math. 56 people, traveling by motor coach achieve a mileage rating of 350 person-miles per gallon! A person driving alone in his or her own car is lucky to achieve 28 person-miles per gallon. That’s a whopping 12 times more fuel-efficient. In the days when reducing our dependence on oil is so critical, traveling by commuter bus is a giant step forward toward oil independence. Add to this that more and more buses are being fueled by bio-diesel and the savings just keep adding up.
Planning how you can commute by motor coach is good for the environment too. When a commuter chooses the bus over driving a car an average of 12,500 miles per year, overall carbon dioxide emissions are cut by 4.3 tons per year. CO2 emissions are reduced by 85% per passenger-mile.
If you’re making that tiring, expensive, inefficient commute mile after mile to work every day, there may be a better, smarter choice. Find a commuter bus line near you. Check out their routes and schedules. Help yourself, help the economy and help the environment. That old bus ad is truer than ever. Now you can “take the bus and leave the driving, maintenance, stress and improving the environment to us.”
