3 years worth of bus tickets has got me thinking: Is it really worth it?

I’ve been living in Ottawa for the better part of 3 years now. Living in the nation’s capital is great, there are so many benefits to reap as a student in Ottawa. Great city, cool festivals, the best St Patty’s day celebrations and the OC Transpo. That’s right, Ottawa has one of the best public transportation systems around. This is particularly cool for student pedestrians (like me) and those of you who are looking to save on transportation costs!

So the other day while I was on the bus, I noticed some people jumping on the back of the bus – without paying. This got me thinking about something that might be of interest to those of you living on the tight student budget.

Now, before I continue, fair warning must be given: In NO way do I condone ripping off public transportation systems or any other kind of public service.

That said, I wanted to find out if it would be financially justifiable (if you’re willing to sacrifice your conscience) to try and cheat the system, seeing as there’s a $125 fine should you get caught.

Now, seeing as I’ve conducted this experiment taking into account approximately 3 cases, this experiment should undoubtedly be regarded as official and dependable for consultation. Since my research methods (interviewing a few friends) are totally legit and entirely reliable, the following quantitative, empirical analysis should be considered official and 100% accurate.

The Findings

Of 150 bus trips counted here in this experiment, riders’ tickets were checked 3 times.

Using probability theory, we can draw conclusions about the likelihood of getting ‘checked’ each time you ride the bus.

The Calculations

Bus trips observed: 150
Ticket checks: 3
Probability of having your ticket checked: 3/150= 0.02 or 2%

Bus tickets: $3
Fine for illegal riders: $125
Cost of 150 legal bus rides: $3 x 150 = $450
Cost of 150 illegal bus rides: (150 x 0.02) x $125 = $375

Amount of money that could potentially be saved by jumping on the back of the bus 150 times: $75
The amount of money that would have to be set aside each time you jumped on the back of the bus in order to break even if you got caught: $125 x 2% = $2.50

The Conclusion
Now, while I feel the necessity again to emphasize the validity of a survey conducted with such a vast research sample, there is one problem with my formula. It doesn’t take into account the value of the rider’s conscience. If the rider feels his or her conscience is worth less than $75, per 150 rides then this experiment proves that jumping on the back of the bus without paying is justified. However, for those moral citizens who aren’t quite willing to jeopardize their integrity (and bus record) for a mere $75, then bus tickets are the way to go.

How much is your conscience worth?

I don’t know why I keep putting myself through the same misery again and again just to save money. What I am referring to is what many students at my university and I imagine at other universities do in relation to their travel plans for the sake of saving cash. There is a bus that drives from Vancouver to Seattle so that Vancouver travelers can benefit from the less expensive flights that fly through SeaTac. This Shuttle, ironically named “Quick Shuttle”, has a reputation of always being late. Last weekend, on my way to a conference to New York, I took advantage of the service in hopes of saving a few bucks.

I was booked on the 10:45 “Red Eye” flight to Philadelphia and I found myself with two options when it came to the bus schedule. I could either get to the airport five hours before my flight or one hour before. This clearly, was not a great selection of choices. I hate waiting and I hate being late. In the end, I decided that I hated waiting more and booked my bus so that I would arrive at the airport one hour before my flight (I realize that it sounds idiotic doing that but I had done the same thing twice before and made my flight). As I was standing, waiting fro the bus to pick me up in Vancouver I was approached by an older woman.

“Excuse me, are you waiting for the bus to Seattle”

“Yes, I most definitely am!” (okay maybe I didn't say that)

“It seems to be late and I haven't ever taken it before, is this normal?”

“Oh yes, very normal but don’t worry you will make it. It's going to be pretty close for me to make my flight but I’m not worried”

“Well, that's because you're young and still have luck. As a matter a fact you should not be wasting your luck on things like this or you will loose it all.”

After that the woman walked away and I felt her words settle on me and I shuddered. It was as though my Youthful “travel luck” was lost forever. I hate that woman to this day for jinxing my trip.

Eventually the bus came, late of course, and I began my cursed journey to the big apple. Surprise, surprise I arrived late at SeaTac, where my flight was delayed till midnight and I felt overjoyed that I might still make the flight. It turned out however that because I bought the cheapest non-refundable tickets my seat was given up long before I had arrived. I had to take the morning flight. Damn.

As I looked across the listings of hotels trying to find a place with a reasonable rate I found a place that I remember from an earlier trip to Seattle. I waited for an hour until the shuttle came and headed to my hotel. When I arrived, I realized very quickly that this was certainly not the same place I had stayed at before. It was disgusting and cost me 58 dollars with tax.

I slept in my clothes out of fear of catching crabs and headed to bed, but not before I took a picture of myself with my room key which included “dominos pizza room service” and posted it on Facebook (yes I'm a true addict).

After the hell that was that night, I bought breakfast at the airport and caught my flight to Philadelphia. In Phili I rushed across the airport to the other terminal to catch my flight to New York. When I arrived I found out that my flight was delayed for two hours. Needless to say I was not happy (It's a 30 minute flight and a 1 hour thirty minute train ride to NY from Phili). I decided to buy some food to feed my hunger while I waited and spent 15 bucks. When I finally arrived at my brother's house in NY I had been traveling for 30 hours!

So, why am I telling you this story? Well, the point of the whole thing is that if you're a student and you're traveling on a route that is supposed to save you many, you had better make sure it does because it often will cost the same or more and be a lot more stressful.

By booking my flight out of Seattle in stead of a direct one from Vancouver I saved 200 dollars. Or did I?

• I spent 69 dollars on my bus to Seattle.
  
• I spent 58 dollars on the hotel in Seattle.
  
• I spent 8 dollars on breakfast in Seattle.
  
• I spent 15 dollars on dinner in Philadelphia.
  
• In total this adds up to 150 dollars which means I actually only save 50 dollars and spent 20 hours more time traveling!

Feel free to ask yourself whether it is worth it to go the apparently cheaper way with the risk of experiencing hell. Thanks for listening...

Welcome to my first text blog, everyone! Conveniently, the trip to Toronto (to be trained for this job) has led to this blog entry. Prior to attending the RBCp2p Blogger Bootcamp I had flown only once in my life. The flight to Toronto was fine and much more effortless than I had anticipated. My experience during the return to Halifax inspired the following, as I found myself in a series of uncomfortable and frustrating situations. There were flight delays (6:40pm - 8pm; not so bad), cancellations (8pm fight canceled altogether; getting worse), and re-routes (flew above Halifax but could not land due to fog, then to Montreal to re-fuel and BACK to Toronto; pretty bad). During this turmoil, I realized that a few things helped to reduce my misery (italicized below). To those among you who are not frequent travelers, there is nonetheless a cautionary message here: be prepared! What follows is a list of things to consider when traveling.

HOTELS
Most hotels will require you to have a credit card to book a room, and they may also place a deposit on your card, in case something happens to the room. If a deposit is required and it puts your balance over your card's limit, there is no penalty, but you will not have access to that money. I discovered this while paying for the second hotel of the weekend (due to the first flight being canceled). If you tend to carry a high balance, this is where a second credit card isn't necessarily a bad idea. Also, try to avoid the mini-bar, even though it is often tempting. Ironically, I made a conscious point of staying away from all food and beverage items in it, only to have the hotel charge me (incorrectly) for them. So the final point about hotels is to make sure you check your credit card afterwards in case anything was accidentally billed.

CAR RENTALS
The same applies to car rental companies. You will need a credit card to rent a car, so if your flight doesn't leave until 8:55pm the day after it was originally scheduled to fly (for example) and you're considering flying to a city NEAR yours and driving the rest of the way (hypothetically), make sure you have a credit card (and a license that's not expired, while your current one sits in the pocket of a coat that hangs in the home you're trying so desperately to get back to).

CELL PHONE
Before traveling somewhere it is wise to check with your cell phone provider to see if there is a long distance add-on that will reduce the cost of any phone calls made throughout the trip. Depending on your provider it may be considered long distance for you to receive ANY phone calls while you're outside your local calling area (the area where your phone number originates). It may seem obvious, but text messaging is an affordable way to avoid paying long distance fees, and if you don't have a package before the trip you will want to consider adding one on to cover the potential increase in texting. I'll address this in a future blog, but data devices can really be beneficial while traveling. Once considered more appropriate for businesspeople, they have really dropped in price, and the data plans are also much more affordable. The monthly cost of a data plan might very well be less than that of logging into a Wi-Fi network just once. It's something to consider if you're a frequent traveler.

WI-FI ACCESS
Let us suppose that you end up spending a SECOND unexpected night in the city you're trying to escape, and you NEED to get online. Airports and hotels often offer Wi-Fi access, but guess what, you need a credit card to do this as well. Something else to consider is when and where you choose to log in, as you could end up paying for it in the hotel only to be checked out at noon (let's say) and spending many hours in the airport where you would have to pay AGAIN to get online. Nobody wants to pay $13-$14 for 24 hours of access when they will only have a couple of hours worth of possible access.

CONCLUSION
In no way has the previous blog been intended to push a credit card upon you. My hope is that some of what you've just read has helped you, or perhaps reminded you of past experiences, with an end result of saving you time and money. Feel free to add any of your own tips, or ask questions. Stay tuned for my upcoming blog entry, Part 1 of my discussion on telecommunications services and how to hopefully save yourself some
money in the process.

So, a short quick explanation of why we're here!! A little late, but I've had some formatting issues with this video. Enjoy!