As he makes plans to begin his acting career in Los Angeles next year, graduating senior Justin Streichman said he is still uncertain about whether to purchase a car and what transportation choices are available.
Streichman, a fourth-year world arts and cultures student, said his indecision is caused by concerns about potential costs of having a car, paying rent in a major city, and getting to a job or acting audition.
As seniors such as Streichman begin to pursue their careers after graduation in expensive cities, some are realizing that the inevitable costs of transportation will have to be considered as well.
“Choosing the location of your job and choosing transportation have to go together,” said Mary Ellen Slayter, a journalist who writes about the lives of young professionals in her column for the Washington Post.
Though the choices young professionals make about transportation can have a large impact on their finances and overall lifestyle, Slayter says most of them foolishly ignore how transportation affects total living expenses.
For instance, Slayter said many graduates starting their careers on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., doubt they can afford living close to their jobs, so they get an apartment in the suburbs and commute by car into the city; others turn down opportunities in expensive cities like New York altogether because they doubt they can afford it.
But sometimes getting an expensive apartment in the city and using pubic transportation can be just as affordable, if not cheaper, than living in a suburb with the expenses of a car, Slayter said.
“Living in a place with good public transportation is like making an extra $500 to $600 a month,” Slayter said.
Slayter said it took her a while after moving to Washington D.C. five years ago with a car to realize this herself.
“People associate having a car with freedom, but that car was not freedom,” Slayter said of the responsibilities of owning an automobile.
Slayter said she stopped driving to work and started taking great vacations with the money she would have otherwise spent on a car.
Dana Heatherton, a graduating American literature and culture student, said after graduating she will continue to live with her parents in Pasadena for a while, commuting by car from Pasadena to work at a publishing firm in Los Angeles.
Heatherton said she already spends about $200″“300 a month on gas, not counting insurance, car payments or maintenance.
For graduates working in Los Angeles and San Francisco, which have the worst traffic in the nation according to the Texas Transportation Institute, driving a car may even be more of a hindrance than a convenience, Slayter said.
San Francisco’s streetcar systems and Bay Area Rapid Transit trains are some of the most popular sources of public transit in the country.
Cities like San Francisco make it especially easy to forgo automobiles, she said.
But the quality of Los Angeles’ public transit is also improving according to critics, many of whom see the city getting “greener” every year.
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which was named America’s best public transit system last year by the American Public Transportation Association, is continuing to expand its bus routes and technologies.
Metro Rapid buses, for example, have a sensor built inside them that coordinates with city streetlights so that there are not as many stops, according the MTA’s Web site.
Orange County’s public transit system also won the same award in 2005.
For graduates who want to afford a better apartment within the city or eventually have the convenience of a car at least, Slayter said they should remain patient while waiting for eventual raises and should keep in mind how to start their new lives in the most cost-effective way.