Why do people drive so much? A look at the costs.

[futurebird]

I just created this graph for the wikipedia article on the Effects of the automobile on societies. (It's based on a similar graph in the book Transportation for Livable Cities By Vukan R. Vuchic, a great read for anyone interested in sustainable development.) The article still needs a lot of work, but I wanted to share what I added today.

Comments

[taiki]

the infrastructure isn't there in my town.

If I could take a bus or train instead of driving, I would.

[futurebird]

What town?

[taiki]

Las Vegas, NV.

The bus system is a complete joke. The public won't even think about expanding it. We didn't even like the idea of a monorail enough to actually make sure the damn thing worked.

[futurebird]

Vegas is in bad shape, but it has a large enough population to sustain a public transpiration network if it can ever get the political backing.

In cities like Vegas bus systems exists only to serve the small and often poor part of the population who is too poor or old to own or drive car. The service is infrequent and it's not suitable for people who need to get to a job on time. This means that most working poor people end up spending a lot of their money on keeping a car running so they can get to work, even though a car is more expensive in the long run.

Some of the time it's better to work on improving transit operations for just one corridor. A single bus line that runs frequently can be better than 30 that only come once an hour or less.

[starkruzr]

Too bad rail sucks in the US.

[futurebird]

A lot of cities have decent regional rail. And most of the right-of-ways are still in place if we ever want to think about a high speed national rail network.

For mid-length trips, the time savings of air travel are not that great, and for short trips those time saving vanish when you count travel to and from the airport, which is always too large and noisy to located directly in the city center. (But that whole rail plane question is another issue, these data are on daily commuting in a mid or large sized city.)

[mithfalas]

I think it's definitely easier for me to take the train for shorter travels. For example, when I need to go to or from school back home (MA to DC or vice versa) I almost always prefer to take the train. less of a hassle, even if it's a longer trip than a flight would be.

[gifa]

This assumes that every city has a decent public transit system.

I live in Kansas City, Missouri. If I were to ride the bus to work (which is only a 20-30 minute drive on the highway for me through the Grandview Triangle) I'd first have to drive about halfway there to get to the nearest bus route that takes me to my place of work. That drive would take about 15 minutes, because it's slightly out of my way and not within reach of a highway, so lots of stop and go. THEN, once I was there, and on the bus, it'd take me about 45 minutes to ride the rest of the way into work. The round trip would cost me 2 dollars and 2 hours. I put in about 20 bucks of gas in my 30 mpg car per week...

Ride the bus? Save money? Save time? I don't think so. Not here anyway.

[futurebird]

One of the reasons that transit systems are in such poor shape is due to low readership. This manes there are fewer buses and so it's not worth it. You need a critical mass of people using public transport before it starts to make sense. With greater uses comes greater investment and better service.

There was a time when no one wanted to drive because there were no gas station to refill cars and the roads were too bumpy and made for horses.

To make the transition smoother in regions with poor transit systems these changes might be tied to greater investment in pubic transpiration at the same time. But, I'm certain some of the libertarians who lurk around here would object, so as a starting port for the discussion I thought it'd make sense to look at the real costs of driving.

[futurebird]

NYC has a long tradition of making great plans, some of the time planning has backfired. Much of the planning in the 60s and 70s was really off base, Highways cut of pedestrian access to the the waterfronts. Planning focused on moving the car in and around New York City and even the subway system fell in to disrepair. Furthermore, there was this bizarre idea, that cities were going to get smaller and smaller no matter what, and that the car had made cities "obsolete" So big urban centers like New York had to "plan for shrinkage" --reduce city services, reduce the density of neighborhoods and plan to be absorbed in to the suburban fabric.

Of course, that turned out to be the greatest pile of nonsense ever created. We have more people in the city today than ever before. More people then 5-points era new york, but lower crime, healthier living conditions and stellar public services.

Of course, we are choking on the traffic now and have zero space into which to expand the road infrastructure, but foresight like that doesn't seem to

[dumpsterdiva]

Beautiful post.

I walk two blocks downhill to take the bus to work. I take the bus home except on Fridays, when I take the train so I can attend shul. Then I walk home after that.

I would not have a car. My flatmate does. Two of them, in fact. Just the insurance and registration fees scare me enough to take the bus. If I wanted to go out of town, I might rent a car. Some of my friends do that. You can rent a really fun car for the weekend then bring it back and return to the bus/rail/ferry when you go back to work.

One other thing that was left out of the graph was the cost of parking fines. My flatmate got a very unexpected one last week for $130.00. Yup. A van parked in a loading zone used to not be ticketed. New laws {unwritten} state that one can only be in a loading zone for 15 minutes.

Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the work you did. Good job.

[madali]

People who act snotty about not having a car are as annoying as people who do that with bragging about not having a TV.

[futurebird]

What's annoying about bragging about not having a a TV?

[virtual_anima]

same thing that's annoying about bragging about donating to charity.

Fill a cup to its brim and it is easily spilled;
Temper a sword to its hardest and it is easily broken;
Amass the greatest treasure and it is easily stolen;
Claim credit and honour and you easily fall;
Retire once your purpose is achieved - this is natural.

[mahnmut]

So that's how Wikipedia is being made...

[futurebird]

Dear God. I am not responsible for some of the crap you'll find in there. I just try to clean things up a little.

[mrgansle]

Just this particular crap?

[404]

"It's not crap when I do it" = every Wikipedia editor ever.