PukeGreen has a super-detailed post on how he’s saving $6,321 CND ($5,725 USD) a year by no longer driving a car. Wow!
And these calculations are for ownership costs only — The $5,725 figure doesn’t include any costs of buying the car itself. And PG wasn’t driving a hummer or anything — It was a 1998 Acura EL.
At that cost, PG points out, “if you were earning about $50,000 a year, you’d need to work between 2.5 and 3.5 months per year simply to pay for that car. If you earned less, say only $30,000, you’d be working 4 or 5 months per year to pay for the car.”
So I did some calculations of my own, and added up what it cost me to own my car in the last four months (covered in the de-car-ing series). The total for May – Aug. 2006: $969. At this rate, the car would cost me $2,907 for the whole year.
Which is like half of PG’s estimate, despite the fact that I’ve gotten like 6 parking tickets during that 4-month period — an expense that PG doesn’t even account for.
Why such a big difference? The biggest one: PG had to pay $978 a year just in parking costs to keep his car garaged in Toronto. I pay a mere $15 a year for my city parking permit.
PG also estimates he’d spend $1,766 a year in gas — I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than $100 a month on gas, except when I took trips to San Francisco or Vegas. My average is prolly about $50 a month on gas, which would come out to $600 a year.
Then there are lil things: I like never wash my car :P
Ok — So my conclusion from this analysis is twofold:
1. We need denser neighborhoods in Los Angeles. This’ll not only let people get where they need to without a car, it’ll also eventually drive up parking and insurance costs and driving hassles up to a degree that the costs actually get prohibitive. On the flip side, if you wanna get rid of your car / drive it less, consider moving to a more compact, bike-friendly ‘hood. The extra costs of living in Santa Monica, for ex, may very well be offset by the money you save by de-car-ing. Plus, you’ll be by the beach! :)
2. If you own a car but drive it less, you’ll really save a lotta money (get a bike!). So that’s sorta a no brainer, but seriously — just cuz you still keep a car for difficult-to-bike-or-bus trips doesn’t mean you gotta use it for the easy stuff :)
Hey! Thanks for the link and the interesting comparisons, especially since LA is supposed to be legendary for its car dependence. I like the phrase “de-car-ing”.
It’s interesting that the cost for you car comes in at about half of what mine was. I know gas is supposedly more expensive in Canada than in the US, but I doubt the difference is that dramatic. Definitely car washings are mandatory for about half the year here when we get salt, slush and grime sprayed all over the car (at least if you like seeing out the windows). I was doing a 45 min each way commute and then a few longer trips on the weekends. I guess that, combined with your slightly cheaper insurance and much cheaper parking, explains a lot.
It would be interesting to compare the costs of keeping a car for occassional use with services like ZipCar or AutoShare, which are designed for that purpose. I’m lucky enough to live in a dense enough neighbourhood that even those services aren’t that worthwhile, an occasional rental on holiday weekends is enough for us.
I’ll definitely be bookmarking this, great blog! Good luck.
Comment by Gary — September 3, 2006 @ 11:26 am
I think we need to try to educate those that WILL not ride a bike to — at least — be kind and share the roads with those that can and will.
Even in places (like Bozeman MT) that you would think to be bike friendly have a long way to go.
Why can’t we all just learn from Portland? Great public transit, bike friendly, and ped friendly.
..be bold
Comment by Jason — September 3, 2006 @ 11:30 am
Thanks for stopping by, Gary :) We do have a Flexcar service in Santa Monica and other areas in LA — I’ll do a cost-benefit analysis on that vs. owning a car soon :)
Jason — I’ll be doing more bike posts soon :) Here are the first two in case you missed them –
Comment by Siel — September 3, 2006 @ 2:49 pm