Method	Est. Transportation Time (min)	Cost ($)	On time Probability	Environmental Impact
Driving Myself	40	$10 gas + $240 parking = $250	High	High
Friend Drives	40	$10 gas + $10 take friend out to lunch = $20	High	High
End-to-End Public Transportation	160	$9.25	Low	Low
Friend drops me off at train station on way to work	100	$5.75 public transit + $10 take friend out to lunch = $15.75	Low	Low
Cab/Limo	40	$80	High	High
Shared Van	80	$50	Medium	Medium

I chose to have a friend drop me off at the train station on his way to work.  This method has the advantage of having a low environmental impact relative to the other choices, is inexpensive, and although it takes 100 minutes (more than twice as much as driving) it is an hour less in duration then the full public transportation method.  Although my friend will help me bypass the buses, I have to transfer between trains twice before getting to the airport.  The end-to-end public transportation method has the following steps:

Walking 15 minutes to closest bus stop
Bus to Light Rail
Light Rail to train
First transfer
Second Transfer
Airport

I cannot imagine anyone using this method unless they were truly desperate or a hardcore environmental zealot.  If this experience is generally true of public transportation in the U.S. then we are in for some challenges trying to get people to adopt these methods for getting to places.

    I am sharing this experience for two reasons.  One is that there may be one or more potential projects that fall within A2A’s areas of interest here.  The other is that one of the ways I envision A2A working is that various A2A teams around the world may have already solved this problem or have seen local solutions.  The power of A2A is its ability to leverage the local knowledge and experience of its geographically diverse teams for use in other contexts.  In other words, local knowledge used at a global level.

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Rob Dorfman