With gas at $4/gallon, the Orange Line makes a whole lot of sense

When a gallon of gas cost only $2, it was a case of apples and Orange Line, but now that I'm dropping $30 to fill my not-so-large gas tank, the $2.50 it will cost me today to make the round trip from Van Nuys to the Daily News in Woodland Hills is looking like quite a bargain.

Not factoring in wear, tear and maintenance on my car, I'm still saving a bundle, even with an 11-mile trip. To do that twice, I'm spending at least $4 on gas alone, so riding the Orange Line bus nets me $1.50 right off the top. And the more I do this, the longer my tires will last, the longer I can put off that 60,000-mile service, etc.

I'm taking the walk from the bus (Ilene gave me a ride to the station on the Van Nuys end) as an opportunity to get a little exercise, which I could really use.

And how could this not be helping the environment?

I'll probably do this two or three times this week. Today's trip was fairly quick -- a bit under a half-hour.

Like I said above, with $2 gas, it's not a huge, immediate savings, but $4 gas is enough to get me right out of my car.