It has finally happened. After living in the UK for 8 years, I'm officially a daily train commuter. After the big move to Surrey, I was driving more than an hour each way to get to work - and that was in ideal conditions without huge traffic jams which have been common. Not counting the time and drama of fighting traffic on the M4 twice a day, it was looking to cost close £400.00 in petrol money (for the US readers that's about $650.00 a month). Beyond that - I was racing up and down with the world and his wife running the constant risk of being caught in the traffic jams which apparently only require a strong wind to happen. And at the end of the day, then there's the environmental impact of continuing to drive the car all over the place every day. Filling up my gas tank every three days brought that impact into stark clarity.
What's a girl to do? Give up the car and catch the train of course! I've never been a big fan but I've now decided I love it! I catch a train to very close to my place of work and a free shuttle bus to my office. Easy...cheaper...and best of all...WAY more environmentally sound! I love my car...but I love knowing that I'm doing something good for the environment even more. Yes - initially the motivation was the impact on my wallet but the whole exercise has made me consider the concept of carbon footprints and ways to do more than just recycle as a way to lessen my impact the environment.
Do you know your carbon footprint? I've done one calculation before the big commuting change and it came to the idea that I'm currently living my life as if we had 3.53 planets to live on. And the carbon footprint? 18.46 tonnes of carbon per year!!! YIKES! And I always thought that I was fairly environmentally conscientous! Try it...it's a good exercise: http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ And now I've recalculated given the change to trains and buses for getting to work...and if I'm honest, I had hoped the difference would be more dramatic. I'm now down to 3.24 planets and 14.46 tonnes of carbon.
Hmmm...I'm signing up for the WWF email now to learn about what else I can do. What are you going to do?????
