This week we staged the Great St. Albert Gazette Commuter Challenge to determine what might be the best way to commute from downtown St. Albert to downtown Edmonton.
The rules were simple, the commuter to reach Edmonton City Hall first won. Let us be clear, this was not a race, our intrepid competitors had to obey the rules of the road and work within the limitations of their respective travel choice.
At 7:30 Wednesday morning three people set out, one by car, one by bus and the other by bicycle. Yes, Mark Fraser volunteered to be our stalwart cyclist, braving the elements while reporters Viola Pruss and Victoria Paterson enjoyed warmer climes by car and bus, respectively.
We had our guesses of who would cover the approximately 15-km distance first. Some thought the bike would have the leg up. The prediction was bolstered by the fact it would have the advantage of not being impeded by snarled traffic or delayed by bus stops.
Some gave the car the advantage because it had the more direct route and could move faster than either the bike or the bus.
No one thought the bus stood a chance.
The results were surprising. The car finished first. Viola arrived at the steps of Edmonton City Hall in just under an hour and about nine minutes before the cyclist and bus, which tied for second.
But there’s a problem. Clearly the car appeared to be the most efficient mode of transportation and the winner of this competition – or was it?
Perhaps in the morning race to work time is not the only factor, especially in this case where the difference is negligible. While we recognize some bus routes might add more time to this commute – possibly up to a half hour – and few will choose biking 15 km every morning as an acceptable option, this experiment raised some interesting questions.
First, what is the time to cost differential that would make someone reconsider their travel choice?
Biking to work, other than the initial cost of the bike and some regular maintenance, is basically free.
The bus costs $11.50 round trip and does not provide the same privacy and comfort as your car might. But, it does allow you to catch up on reading, emails, etc.
The car is by far the most expensive option. Drivers pay for gas, the wear and tear on their vehicle and for parking, which is around $20 per day – not to mention the initial cost of the vehicle and insurance.
Second, why does it take almost an hour to travel 15 km? That answer is simple, with so many people on the road, traffic is down to a crawl.
What if more people chose to bus or bike – or even car pool to share the high costs of driving? What if there were half as many vehicles making the morning slog into Edmonton?
In flowing traffic, Google pegs the travel time between downtown St. Albert and downtown Edmonton at about 15 minutes. Imagine if every morning it only took a half an hour to get to work and then back home? What would you do with an extra hour and half each day?
