I’m fortunate to live in the Washington DC area and take advantage of our public transportation system daily.  I ride the Metro to work, throughout the city to socialize and for other random activities.  When I travel out of state for work, I’m not so fortunate.  The distance I go and the meetings I have necessitate that I fly and rent a car. The carbon emissions of air travel are significant so I look at ways to combine trips and pack my trips full of meetings!

On one short trip to Atlanta I thought I had beat the system! To be greener and offset having to fly, I decided not to rent a car. My reasoning for doing this included being environmentally friendly, saving my company money AND to be faster in and out of the airport because I was avoiding the rental car shuttle to the offsite rental office.  It can take up to an hour to get out of the airport when renting a car and then up to an hour checking it back in – this includes getting gas, emptying the car, checking it in, riding the shuttle, etc. My meetings were accessible by Atlanta’s above ground train called the MARTA, one meeting I could get to by the free hotel shuttle and I figured that wherever else I needed to go I could take a taxi. I ignorantly assumed that similar to DC, taxi’s in Atlanta would be readily available. Nope!  Even the taxi stands at the MARTA stations were empty!  Upon inquiring I learned that in Atlanta cabs must be called rather than hailed. Up until my last day, I’d taken the MARTA and then walked or taken the bus to my meetings.  On my trip back to the airport, I opted to take a cab rather than the MARTA since I had my suitcase with me and the MARTA station was about a mile away. Faulty logic! It took 35 minutes for the cab to come and then it cost me $35! I’m lucky I didn’t hit rush hour traffic, then I would really have missed my flight. I could have walked in less than 35 minutes and the MARTA would have been only $1.75 and would have been faster than the drive.

Lesson learned – when traveling to an unfamiliar city inquire about the frequency and logistics of their trains, busses and taxis before making assumptions and relying on them! I’ll definitely go carless in Atlanta again and other cities too. I’m actually thinking of selling my own car to be nicer to the environment and to save money in transportation expenses. There’s even a whole book to help me called “How to live well without owning a car” by Chris Balish

Watch for my next post on what airlines, car rental and taxi companies are doing to be more green. Is it possible, you tell me!