Bus card

[kareina]

Because I love spreadsheets I am happily tracking the costs of my commute. The regional buss company, Länstrafiken, offers a 30 day bus pass, that is good for any bus in all of Västerbottens, both local coty buses, and the regional buses that travel between the various cities and villages. 

That bus pass costs 2,040 kr a month (whic, today, is about €177, or $191 USD). Therefore I set up the spreadsheet to track how much I spend on the pass, and how much I would have spent on each individual trip, if I didn't have the card.

 Before I bought the second month's pass last week Tuesday, I had received SEK 1,771 in "free bus travel".
 

 This means that already on Thursday when I took the bus to work it was free, and today I have SEK 851 imaginary money in my bus card account, and another 24 days before I need a new pass :-)

Comments

[redbird]

That sounds organized. Sometime before the pandemic, I was writing down each time I put money on my transit card, so I could compare it with a monthly pass without having to record each bus and subway trip, and then add up the expense. Boston-area local buses are currently $1.70/trip (a "trip" can include a free transfer), and subway or bus+subway trip is $2.40, which means there's more to track.

At the time, my conclusion was that paying per ride would be slightly cheaper, but I liked not thinking about the price of short bus rides. Now, I'm going out less often, so it makes more sense to pay per ride; I'm now eligible for discount fares, once my Medicare card arrives and I can go downtown and get the discount CharlieCard, and I will have to decide whether the discounted monthly pass makes sense.