Does a gym membership really make sense?

I really would not mind joining a gym, get to make use of all of the various exercise equipment that they have such as treadmills, weight benches, and ellipticals, but the last time I looked into what a yearly membership would cost it was nearly enough to buy my own equipment. There is a gym on TV now that advertises about $20 a month memberships, but that would still be $240 a year to go to the gym. I think I would prefer to get my own home based gym set up and stocked with a new toy every year for what they want to charge for driving to gyms I would only make it to a few times a year.

Now for traveling a gym membership would make sense. They have that one gym that you can join and there are gyms in the airports. I wanted to visit the one in the Las Vegas airport, but I did not have a membership. For someone that does a lot of traveling that would make a lot of sense - stop in at the gym between flights and get in some exercise.