Welcome to the Big Blue Bus -- now get off.

More like the Big Blue Rip-Off.

Being the concerned citizen I am, I took Santa Monica's transit system to the 3rd Street Promenade rather than taking my car. Little did I know that the last bus of the night leaves the area at 10:30 p.m. and doesn't go all the way back to Westwood. So I ended up walking a mile home. Three girls on the bus were equally surprised and yelled "I don't like you!" as the driver kicked us all off.

Anyway, it occurred to me on the walk home that there ought to be some formula for calculating the relative costs of mass transit (for the consumer) and private vehicles. I mean, my car payment, insurance and registration are fixed costs that call for maximizing vehicle usage. The question is, what are the additive costs of parking, gasoline, maintenance and hit on resale value? It's an easier case in place such as San Francisco, where parking is expensive and exasperating. And of course, as the MasterCard commercials would say, you can't put a price on not having to fit your schedule and itinerary around a bus route or mixing it up with the borderline-demented who find their way onto public transportation. I guess this is why I didn't major in math.