The Armchair Politician

I’m examining a few different options for getting to and around Georgia Tech’s campus. Driving is always a possibility, but parking permits run $575 for an entire year, which is quite steep. It also doesn’t afford me any convenience for getting around Atlanta; parking inside the city sucks. Alternatively, I’m considering taking MARTA, then riding a bike around campus.

So far it seems to be pretty good. It’s $40/mo for a MARTA monthly student pass, which works out to be about $100 less than the parking spot. It has some other fiscal advantages, too: I’m not going year-round, so I don’t have to pay for the months I won’t be there. And, the Clean Air Campaign is willing to pay $3/day for cleaner commuting, up to 90 days. Figuring thee classes a week, I could earn $115 or so — enough to basically pay for three months of MARTA fare.

Not to mention, there are a ton of side benefits. It’s a good bit of exercise, which should not only keep my gut in check, but wake me up and keep me focused before all my courses. It’s also convenient as hell for getting around Atlanta. What would be a thirty minute round-trip walk between places suddenly takes three both ways. And, well, it’s fun.

Only one problem: I need a bike. I bought one at a local bike store, but it ran almost $500, when you include the additional things I’d need: gloves, mounted water bottle, air pump, and a sturdy U-lock. Then, while riding around yesterday, my chain broke. Not good news for a new bicycle. I hoofed it about a mile and a half to the nearest bike shop I could find, and they repaired it. I bought a chain tool, which should allow me to fix it if this ever happens again, but that cost another $16. So, there’s not really a financial advantage in biking any more, but it does win over parking by convenience, in spades.

So, I don’t know. I’m going to try and get graduate housing next semester, but am not sure how lucky I’ll be. If I do, I’ll want to have a bike anyway (there’s no sense in using a car, at that point), so perhaps all this money will have been well-invested. I have thirty days to return the bike, if I’m not satisfied, but I’d still be $100 down the hole. Better than $500, though, I suppose