Going to work by public transport or your private car, which is cheaper?

Lagos Traffic along CMS - Cathedral

For the next 15 seconds, I’ll let you run this short poll through your mind – Going to work by public transport or driving yourself to work, which is cheaper.

I’m sure you’re still contemplating the costs involved for both mediums. Everything has cons and pros so you’d expect a few folks to be in support of going to work via public transport and others prefer driving to work.

Let’s weigh in on both;

Driving to work

Driving to work in Lagos

If you are part of the gang that drives to and from work every day, here are a few advantages you’ll agree with me on. You are in control of the time you leave for the office and after work hours, correct? You can easily alter your routes at any point during the trip. You have zero to fewer stops throughout your trip. Comfort is at optimum all through the trip. 

Additionally, you get to enjoy the opportunity to drive, meet career-like-minds and make an extra income for yourself if you sign up to drive on Treepz, using our shared-ride service

How about a few disadvantages? Should you get a flat tyre, you’ll have to stay back and get it fixed regardless of any deadline you’ve got to meet. The car comes first at that point. Car maintenance including fueling (especially around a time like this in Nigeria where fuel queues are endless due to the scarcity) and repairs is solely your responsibility, worse off if you live in the cities that have extremely terrible roads. 

Public Transportation

Public transport in Lagos

Getting to work via the different public transport options available can be tricky as you can hardly predict the behaviors of these options and you have to work your time to align with their unpredictability. In essence, you don’t control your time. 

Also, these options have pre-defined routes for picking and dropping off passengers so they hardly alter their routes when on a trip even when the predefined routes are bad with traffic. 

However, the pros in some of these situations are that you can easily drop off, use alternative routes and change your mind on the transport option at any given moment. You also do not have to worry about fixing a tyre, fueling or missing a deadline when in transit.

While both of these options have their cons and pros you also want to consider the cost involved. You can plan your finances for the rest of the month using public transportation including giving an allowance for a few days when fares might go up. If you drive to work, you can most definitely plan your finances until the end of the month but not without adding a bit of prayer that the car goes through the month without incurring additional cost.

Both options are great, but that greatly depends on what you consider as currency; time, money, or stress level. 

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