The company I work for has its headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City, though the office I work in is several miles away on the other side of the airport. It has its advantages and disadvantages. Not being at the corporate epicenter, we don’t have to dress business formal. On the other hand, we’re a long way from anywhere out here. You can’t easily go run an errand or two on your lunchhour.
All of that is about to change. We’re being moved downtown–not to the headquarters, but another building three blocks away. Sometime late next month we’ll be making the move.
This opens up some new options for me. Where we currently work it’s just not at all desirable to use public transportation. I have a co-worker who does, and it takes him an hour and a half to get from his house to downtown to make the connection to come out to here. That’s a lot of time, and in my case it would come at the expense of time with my children before they go to bed each night.
Right now it takes me about 40 minutes to drive to work. The distance is shorter to downtown, but I suspect the time would increase. Just getting from parking to the freeway takes a lot longer. I tried it once, and while it might have been just a bad traffic day, I doubt it. It took me about an hour to get home, which means close to half of that time would be spent on surface streets waiting to get to the freeway.
But working downtown opens up the possibility of riding the TRAX commuter train. There’s a stop practically right outside the new building, and it takes about 35 minutes from there to the stop currently closest to my house. It would probably take 5-10 minutes to get from there to home, so I’d still be taking a little longer. The kicker is I’d be saving at least 1/3 on gas, not counting a monthly parking pass. Rumor has it our company goes halvsies with you on monthly rail passes, too, which makes it even more attractive.
Within the next year or so they’ll be completing an extension of the commuter line, putting a stop only a few blocks from my house. It just keeps getting better.
So by the end of month, likely, I’ll be Commutin’ like the Big Boys, takin’ the train downtown and getting the urban experience. I’m kinda excited. I’ve always enjoyed the downtown big-building vibe. It will certainly be a new experience for me, and as an author, new experiences are life’s blood. Who knows. My next novel may end up being an urban fantasy.