Flying vs. Driving to Pasadena

Pasadena Trade Show Travelog #3
At the hotel - Fri, 7 Mar 2025, 6am

A few blogs ago I mentioned the decision to fly rather than drive on this trip to Pasadena. When I'm traveling to the LA area I always consider driving vs. flying. Usually flying wins for business trips, though not always. Years ago I chose to drive on a business trip to Calabasas, which is also in the LA area, and I created a humorous comparison chart driving vs. flying. But underneath that chart is a series of calculations. And the answer I reached depends on what I'm solving for in my calculation.

Calculation? Yes, calculation. And because it's me, you know I always do the math. 😅

With any math problem, you're solving for "x". (If there's no letter like "x" then it's not math, it's arithmetic!) What's x? On this trip I decided x is "How much time and effort I have to spend traveling." That's the variable I want to solve for. ...Okay, it's more like a multivariate equation— two things being solved for, time and energy, so it's like solving for f(x,y)— but I'm trying to keep this example to high school level algebra, not second-year college calculus. 🤓

Anyway, the point is I decided I'm solving for time and energy... as opposed to something else, like cost. On a personal trip I'm more likely to solve for cost— though not always. Time is valuable on leisure trips, too, especially when we're constrained by how little time off from work we have.

Here's how these factors looked:

• Time: SJC and BUR are both small enough airports that they're easy to navigate, plus I wasn't checking a bag. My door-to-door time was just 3.25 hours, pretty much a record in my 1,100+ flight history. If I had driven the 351 miles it would've taken at least 5.5 hours, possibly more like 6 with traffic— and that's just the driving time. Probably I would have stopped for a quick dinner along the way, to let evening traffic in LA subside if nothing else. I would've gotten to my hotel after 8pm.


• Effort: As frustrating as air travel can be at times, there are also periods of downtime I enjoy. Waiting in the seating area at the gate is downtime. Sitting on the plane is mostly downtime. Riding in a Lyft or Uber is downtime. Downtime I can use, e.g., to read news, email, and texts on my phone. Now, plane seats aren't as comfortable as my car's seat, but driving is very much an active activity. I've got to be "on" for the drive; I can't just sit there and veg. If I'd driven last night I would've arrived after 8pm, tired and ragged. Instead, by 8pm, I'd gotten an extra bit of work done, had a lot of time to unwind, and enjoyed a casual dinner plus the gentle exercise of walking.


• Cost: By flying I spent about $500 of the company's money on flights, plus there'll be about $150 on car services. If I'd driven, the government rate of $0.70 on 702 miles round trip would cost $491. Plus parking at the hotel, which is a smidge pricey at $30/day for overnight use. So $581 for transport costs if I'd driven vs. $650 for flying. Likely I could have saved money vs. the $491 mileage rate by renting a car, though then there'd be costs for gas and transport to/from the rental location. Plus added time and effort.


• Flexibility: I said there were three factors, now I'm adding a fourth. That's because there's a Z axis here, something that's often not thought about in the tradeoff between time and money. Driving usually offers way more flexibility than flying. There's the ability to travel on my own schedule plus the ability to go... wherever... once I'm there. On some trips that's super-important. Here, not so much. Flight schedules are convenient, and once I'm settled in Pasadena I really don't need to go anywhere more than 1/2 mile away until it's time to go home.

So, cost favored driving on this trip. But the point is that cost is not the only factor. Especially when traveling on business, cost has to be traded off vs. time and my ability to get the job done— which is what the company is paying me for. It's worth the cost difference to be more efficient with my time and effort. Especially when I'm willing to work through the weekend for this trade show.

I Love a Rainy Night 'Cuz I Wake Up to a... Snowy Day?

Pasadena Trade Show Travelog #4
At the hotel - Fri, 7 Mar 2025, 9am

When I was a kid the song "I Love A Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbitt (no, not Eddie Money and yes, Rabbit was his real name) was popular on the radio. It was one of the original crossover hits. In 1981 it reached #1 on the charts in country, pop, and adult contemporary. One of the lines was "I love a rainy night... (because) I wake up to a sunny day."



Well, here in Pasadena, I went to bed on a rainy night last night....



And woke up to a sunny day this morning. But that's not all the morning held. Look at the mountains on the far right of the photo....



I woke up to a snowy day!

Yes, there's snow in Los Angeles. Those mountains are in Los Angeles County. They're the San Gabriel Mountains, sometimes also called the Angeles Crest, and the peaks are up to 10,000' high. When it rains here in the winter, it often snows there.