Should you walk or take the bus?

I do not have a car, and I live in a city that doesn’t have a wonderful public transportation system. Every morning I walk to the bus stop at end of my road, where the bus picks me up and transports me to the train station, turning a twenty-minute walk into a five-minute ride. Because my train stop is at the end of a line, the train sits for a given period of time before leaving for its next destination. This waiting is the longest part of my commute.

This morning one of my roommates offered me a ride to the station, as she was early to a meeting. I took her up on the offer, in part because the temperature dropped at least ten degrees in the past two days and in part because I was wearing heels. Despite leaving the house five minutes earlier than usual, I still arrived my end destination at the same time as usual, all because of the train’s dilly-dallying.

This brings up a question: when is it better to just walk? This chart provides one answer that based on my experience is reasonably accurate, assuming that the average person walks a fifteen- to twenty-minute mile. Other factors aren’t included and can’t be included in an objective chart, such as the kind of shoes you’re wearing or the surface you’re walking on. According to the chart I may be better off leaving the house a few minutes earlier in the morning and walking (at least I’d get some exercise); however, my current walk to the train station is hilly and without sidewalks in some parts, not a path for the ill-shoed or for someone wearing heels. That’s some foot pain I can do without.

Too bad the chart doesn’t take train dilly-dallying into account.