Anyone who lives in the bay area is aware that BART (commuter rail between the east bay and San Francisco) was on strike for the past week. The strike has now been (at least temporarily) ended, after 5 days. I'm sure lots of people will be analyzing the aggregate economic impact this has had, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being very expensive.
I decided to analyze the economic impact that the strike had on me personally. I ended up coming out ahead.
The strike lasted for one work week - July 1 - July 5.
I drove to work alone on Monday. I usually drive on Mondays due to a standing appointment on Monday nights in a location where BART doesn't go, so there was no economic impact there. Thursday was a holiday, and it would have been a holiday even without the strike, so there was no impact there either.
That leaves three work days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) to analyze. I drove a carpool with co-workers for those days.
If I had taken BART, my cost would have been $46.41 for the three days. ($10 per day for BART fare, $3.50 per day for bus fare, $1.50 per day for parking at the BART station, and $0.46 per day for the diesel to get to the BART station from home.)
The cost to drive on Tuesday was $19.75. ($10.25 for diesel, $2.50 for bridge toll, and $7 for parking.) Wednesday and Friday cost $12.75 each because I got free parking. So, the total commute cost for the three days was $45.25.
I'm already $1.16 better off. But wait! My carpool people contributed to the commute. I didn't ask for any money, since I would have been driving anyway, but when they offered, I didn't turn them down. I ended up getting $35 in donations.
I did have to get up extra early to avoid traffic, but I was compensated by getting to leave work early, so that's a wash.
So, my total savings due to the strike came to $36.16. Not bad.
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