3/30/06

Baby you can drive my car

Did this fast (in Montreal):

Buspass @ $63 = 32 trips @ $1.92 ($1.92 being the discounted ticket price if you buy 6, else it be $2.50 per segment)

Average #WorkDays per month = 20

20 x $1.92 = $38.40 x 2 (i.e. the round trip) = $76.80 @ the discount


So that's pretty easy. Now let's drive:

Average cost per litre = $1

Average KM/L = 15KM (this is being generous)

This is just my day, not everyone's, but…

Approx KMs one way to my job (average suburban living) 22KM
Approx KMs to say head downtown/friend/store after work 8KM

Approx KM for a roundtrip day 60KM

60KM / 15 (KM avg. per litre) = 4L
4L x 1$ = $4
$4 x 20 days = $80 (approx gas budget required to drive 1200KM/month)
$80 + $400/month vehicle cost (again, generous because I'm including insurance, maintenance, parking, tickets, etc…) = $480/month

$480 / 1200KM = $0.40 per KM

So one day at work with a roundtrip of 60KM:

60KM x 0.40 = $24 per day (and again, being generous)

How much was that bus pass again? And that, in my opinion, should not be the primary reason for considering public transit. I often hear people tell me "I don't have time to sit on a bus" but…

"Buy this car to drive to work
Drive to work to pay for this car"
- [Yumily Haines from Metric]

Feel free to look at this from the EPA (1 US gallon = 3.7854118 litres) .

2 Comments:

At April 01, 2006 8:09 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Environmental concerns aside (for the sake of argument), you don't take time into account. Car can allow for more efficient use of your time.

There's also the possibility that the car payments are longer (leasing is EVIL). While I admit the daily cost is higher while that car is being paid for, the average cost drops over time... assuming you keep your car for awhile and adequately tuned. This scenario is shot to hell due to rampant consumerism and the perceived need to update ones vehicule/status every 4 years.

So I submit this: the problem is not the car, but rather our reliance on oil as fuel, for both the vehicule AND our economy. If we spent more effort on developing alternative, renewable fuel sources, rather than advancing plastic surgery to the point that we could likely keep Joan Rivers "alive" for the next 100 years... we'd be in a better place.

 
At April 03, 2006 9:35 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Oh, of course! There are umpteen factors that have not been considered, like adding passengers or increase the average driven per day, thusly dropping the average cost per kilometre per person. Time is a tricky one, but clearly relevant should one live outside their respective urban transit systems, but that was the idea behind the Haines quote… efficiency of time and convenience are often tied to ingenuity and perception. What are the extra 30-90 minutes a day against the 50 gross dollars you have to earn in the case provided? Break even points, personal efficiency, and your stated 4 year vehicle cycles are all variable within the context location (i.e. rural vs. suburban vs. urban living or the life span of the vehicle (i.e. salty Montreal potholes vs. the 101 in California)) and opportunity cost (i.e. wages or health concerns or having a family).

And of course this all excludes the true cost or "invisible environmental tax".

Thanks for clearing that up ;)

 

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