Guide for the Commuter

For anyone who commutes to the Lynn NSCC, I’m sure you understand my pain and frustration. You see I live in Gloucesta, and from all the possible colleges, NSCC was one of the closest. What I didn’t realize was that the train would not always work. And worse still, traffic in the city is a real pain! Therefore I will try and help anyone who is wondering what to do by telling you about my experiences

The Train: the train is nice, while your riding on it. That’s about it. I only live 5 minutes away so it’s easy to get to, and I know some back roads, so it’s free parking for me. But then I usually wait about 10 minutes for the train to come because you simply CANNOT MISS THE TRAIN. Anyways, once I’m on it is a nice relaxing trip, where those who don’t procrastinate could get some homework done or write some emails. The down side is that it takes a solid hour from Gloucesta to Lynn. Not to mention the fact that they have such weird schedules where I end up getting kicked off the train, have to wait 10 minutes, and then get on another train, just so that they don’t have to stop in Lynn (jerks).. Then theirs the ride back. My classes always end at 2:10; the train doesn’t come until 2:45. If your like me and don’t like wasting time, then that is a long time to wait. I guess I could try to do some homework, but why bother.

Driving: Ahh, the joy of being able to drive your own car, at your own pace, knowing you have a ready available transportation system. Then theirs the other side… Lynn. I personally had never driven in daily traffic until I started college. Let me tell you, it takes 15 minutes to get from Gloucesta to Peabody, and 30 minutes to work my way through the city. In the dead of night, I might be able to cut my trip down to half an hour. On a bad day (every day I drive) it takes at least 50 minutes. Not to mention the gas I wasted, and the miles I put on my new car.

So there are your options. Take the train and end up wasting an hour of hour day, paying 7 dollars, and have the hassle of being on their schedule, or drive your car, waste about 30 minutes of your day, get really stressed out during traffic, and spend 7 dollars on gas. My finale say: take the train, you end up feeling like your helping the planet and that your better than people who drive their cars… and that’s a nice feeling.