My friend Craig rides the bus to work every day. His family gets by with just one car. “Do you do it to save money?” I asked him recently.
“Well, owning just one car certainly does save money — car payments, gas, insurance, parking — and that’s a major reason I do it,” he said. “But I also do it because it helps the environment, and because it gives me a chance to unwind before I get home.”
Cheap transportation seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. High fuel prices and increased concern for the environment have spurred many of my friends and family to explore alternate methods of transportation. Even I have begun to look for ways to decrease my transportation costs — and I work from home!
Drive less, save more
Some people go even further than Craig to save money. When my friends Chris and Nicole visited Portland last month, they rented a vehicle to make the drive down from Seattle. “Don’t you own a car?” I asked.
“Yes,” Nicole said. “Sort of. We own an old beater, but I only use it to ferry my daughter around town. The rest of the time, I do car-sharing with Zipcar. Chris buys a monthly bus pass and uses that to commute.”
It was difficult for me to believe that these many small expenses actually saved them any money. “Is all of that cost-effective?” I asked.
“Absolutely,” Nicole said. “It’s a lot cheaper than owning and maintaining a new car.”
“Yes, it’s cheaper,” seems to be a common response when I speak with people who have cut back on driving.
Our friends Mike and Rhonda were once a two-car family. They owned a Toyota Forerunner and a Toyota Camry. A few years ago, they moved closer to Portland, sold both vehicles, and replaced them with a new Toyota Prius. Mike now bikes to work most days, and Rhonda drives the Prius. Their primary motivation was a desire to “go green”, but I recently asked Mike if the switch had saved them any money. “Oh yeah,” he said. “A lot!”
Finding ways to save
If driving less can save so much money, why aren’t more people aren’t doing it? Actually, there are signs that maybe they’re starting to. Here are some additional examples from my own life:
- Two of Kris’ co-workers have purchased “commuter cars”, old beaters with good gas mileage specifically for driving to and from work. I’m not sure how cost effective this is — buying an additional car instead of replacing an existing one? — but it’s the strategy they’ve chosen to deal with rising fuel prices.
- I’ve talked to several families who altered vacation plans this summer because of the high cost of fuel. My brother, Jeff, for example, stayed home while his wife and two children jetted to see her parents in Canada. “We couldn’t justify the expense of another ticket,” he told me.
- At the gym recently, two of the guys were talking about their next car purchases as they lifted weights. They both drive SUVs, but they plan to give them up. “I don’t understand why anyone would buy anything but a Prius,” one of the guys said. “That’s what I plan to buy” said the other.
- My youngest brother, Tony, drives a Chevy Silverado pickup truck. He too has begun to consider alternative transportation. “Gas is so expensive,” he told me over dinner the other night. “Biking would save a lot of money. But it’s 15 miles from my house to the office. That’s an hour each way.” Instead, he’s looking at scooters. “I did the math,” he said, “and commuting by scooter would pay for itself within a year. They save that much gas!”
Tony isn’t the only one fascinated by scooters. There’s strong demand for them around the United States. I’ve actually been considering one myself. Since I began working from home, I’ve realized that my crush on the Mini Cooper is impractical. Sure, I want one, but I don’t drive as much as I used to. What’s the sense in buying a $25,000 driveway decoration? Besides, most of my trips are local now. I haven’t ruled out a Mini, but scooters (at $5,000 or less) are looking more attractive every day.
No town is an island
Sometimes it’s difficult to know whether a trend in the Pacific Northwest is representative of the entire country. Portland, especially, can be sort of an island sometimes. (Bikes, for example, are huge here, something I forget until I visit other cities and don’t see any on the road.) This time, however, it seems like maybe the move to alternative transportation is more wide-spread:
- MSN Money: Could you get by with just one car?
- The New York Times: Americans finally react to sting of gas prices
- USA Today: A used Prius is a hot commodity
- The Bakersfield Californian: Scooters, motorcycles moving fast
- Forbes: The least expensive cars to drive
Are people in your city changing their habits to cope with rising fuel prices? Do you plan to make any changes? Are you walking to the store? Biking to work? Have you changed our travel plans? Or are things the same as always?
Scooter photo by paPisc.
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I’m amazed at how few posts have mentioned car-pooling. I started carpooling with a co-worker when gas prices in California hit $3 a couple of years ago. We would trade turns driving (I had a 40 mile one-way commute; hers was 20 miles). It only added a couple minutes of extra drive time to detour to her house, we each still had a car every-other day and immediately started saving money (25% and 50% respectively).
This was a great solution for us because we each lived in smallish cities and worked in a rural part of the county. Now I walk the mile or so each way to my new job (most days – sometimes I’m lazy), but I’d definitely go back to car-pooling if I had a longer commute.
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I haven’t driven for 15 years. I rent a car if necessary. I get most places by cab. They drive you right to the door and you never have to worry about parking. Any store will also be happy to courier a purchase to you. I walk most places and am not fat because of that. Nothing disgusts me more than hearing about or seeing people drive to the gym. Even if my lifestyle was more expensive, I would do it – but, it’s WAAAAAAY cheaper and doesn’t interfere with my scotch-drinking hobby either. The only thing I don’t like, is that I like global warming. I hate cold weather. Cabs are always toasty warm in the winter and if you’re a regular customer, the cab companies give you special phone number so you get preferential treatment.
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No, I’ve found that (debt-free cars have better gas mileage*).
James Bragg :- )
*From Dave Ramsey Show…..
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I use to take the Toll roads got me to work fast but was costing me 80$ a month. I found another way to work, takes 10 mins more but it works.
We also save trips up and run them all in one day. And of course we are driving allot less, not going out to dinners or movies ect.
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My wife and I haven’t made any changes to our driving habits. We have 2 cars but both are relatively fuel efficient and our driving habits are efficient as well. I’ve looked at hybrids but going from 30 mpg to 40-50mpg is not a giant savings with our low driving rates even at $4 a gallon. We’re holding out for electric or plug-in electric hybrid cars.
@Odd Lot, #1: Regarding relative safety of Prius vs. SUVs. The front crash tests I’ve seen are with a solid brick wall. Side crash tests are designed to simulate a crash with a SUV or truck. see:
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx
Fatality rates in SUVs have been relativley high due to the high instances of rollovers and high fatality rates due to those rollovers.
In 2004, overall fatality rates were higher in SUVs as a class compared to cars:
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809979.PDF
Midsize cars and vans do best as far as having lower fatality rates.
@L, #52 : “I work with have seen an increase in the number of scooter riders and cyclists coming in after accidents.”
My uncle bought a used scooter this summer then pretty quickly crashed it and broke a few ribs. Not to discourage people from scooters or motorcycles, but if you’re new to them then a safety course is probably a good idea at least.
Jim
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People go on and on about “I can’t ride a bike/ride a scooter/take public transit… it’s not SAFE”.
True, on a bike or scooter you don’t have a steel cage (prison cell?) protecting you from the great world outdoors. If a 2 ton vehicle hits you at speed, yes, you’ll probably die. But the idea is not to get hit. It’s easier than you think.
You can learn safe biking. Wear a helmet, make sure you have reflectors and lights. Learn to ride in a visible lane position, even if all the fools in their cars honk at you. Let them honk – they’re paying through the nose to drive and to park, while you’re doing it all for free.
I’ve been commuting by bike and public transit in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area since 1992 – long before it was fashionable. Originally it was because I couldn’t afford to keep my car: I earned low wages right after graduation, and had a lot of student loan debt. That’s no longer the case, but I kept up the lifestyle because the financial and environmental advantages were just too clear.
The thing about public transit is, you do have to cultivate a certain degree of tolerance toward your fellow man. But shouldn’t we do that anyway?
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Well, Montreal *is* an island, and things seem to be changing around here. We have very good public transit, and many people are using it for at least part of their commute. Parking is also becoming expensive downtown, so many people choose to leave their cars on the outskirts of the city. The car-sharing service Communauto is so busy, they now have a waiting list. Their whole fleet is made up of Prius or Yaris cars, so they get great kilometerage (!). The best thing about them, to me, is that your cost-per-kilometre includes insurance, maintenance, *and gasoline*. The price remains stable, even with the crazy increases in gas prices we’ve seen.
I was an intern at our local public transportation agency last year, and the challenges public transportation faces are frustrating. It’s hard to get people to realize how easy, convenient and cheap it is. Many people think of a car as a must-own: even in this article, JD, you’re surprised that someone could get by without one. I know many people, even with children, even living in the suburbs, who get by without one. It’s all about changing what’s defined as a need.
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Great article and great comments.
My husband and I have been pretty disciplined in staying within our planned budget over the past year. Every day I write on a calendar — which hangs on the refrigerator — what amount we spent that day and where we spent it. This is a very easy way for us to quickly note our expenses and compare to our budget. A few days ago, I was glancing through the calendar and noticed in mid-June that we began a pattern of not purchasing anything on the weekends. I then began realizing that we had — without it being a planned behavior change — stopped driving and shopping on the weekends.
I am fortunate to work only 4 miles from home. The busy roads with no shoulder do not permit safe bicycle riding and there is no mass transit where I live. However, my office is next door to a grocery where I can pick up a few incidentals in between our monthly “big grocery shopping” trip we do at a discount store 8 miles away. ‘So, no extra driving required.
We plan non-grocery shopping outings to coincide with other required trips. Therefore, before leaving our house, we are now planning what we need to do and how many other stops that can be bundled in a trip.
I have a friend at work who says she uses the UPS method of saving gas by planning her car outings so that each stop along her “route” requires her to make a left turn. ‘Not sure if that really saves gas, but it sure adds more creative thought to the most mundane trip, I’m sure!
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Hi again,
I have to say I’m shocked at the number of people who say that biking isn’t feasible or isn’t safe where they live.
Where do you live that it’s not safe? I bike in/out of Boston every day! Boston is known the world over for having some of the worst drivers in the U.S. Is it *perfectly* safe? No, but neither is driving a car here. But just like driving a car in traffic, you need to be careful, drive defensively, and be aware of your surroundings.
Now, some might say, “Well, Boston and the surrounding towns have bike lanes, and my city doesn’t!” Let me tell you, those “bike” lanes are better known as double-parking, delivery lanes where you’re more likely to get a door opened in your way than not. You actually are better off driving *in* the traffic. And, since (at least by MA state law) a bike is a legal vehicle, it is legally entitled to take up an entire lane. But, it is also legally required to obey all traffic laws just like a car (with a few exceptions – e.g. lane sharing is legal on a bike, but not a scooter or motorcycle).
Another thing we have here in Boston are “Bike Trails”. The Minute Man Bike Trail is the most heavily bike-commuter trail in the country. And while I do ride this trail on occassion, and agree it is a great resource, I also, ironically, think it’s less safe than riding my bike in city traffic. The reason being that a) there are too many crossing where you end up going perpendicular to traffic, and b) there are far too many recreational users of the trail who don’t obey the “rules of the road”. I’ve actually had more close calls and problems on the trails with people suddenly shifting directions, not watching where they were going, or being just plain inconsiderate than I ever have in city traffic.
During the 5 years I’ve been biking in/out of Boston, I’ve had occasion to meet and speak with many other bikers. Many of them have come to Boston from other areas in the country. Many from NYC, and they biked *there*. Now, I can’t imagine anyplace more congested or “unsafe” than New York city for a bike. But evidently hundreds, if not thousands of people do it every day.
The other thing I’ve seen here is the dismissal of biking “because it’s too far to be practical”. I live over 45 miles from my job. I don’t bike the entire distance. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing experience. I drive 30 miles to where I park my car and ride my bike the last 15. Sometimes I drive in only 20 or 25 miles and make the ride longer to make different.
One thing to note about being on a bike is that you are not limited to the “usual” commuting roads. You can basically go anywhere you want. And in many cases, these roads which may be impractical in a car make for a fantastic bike ride. Another thing to note is that, contrary to driving, there is no such thing as a traffic jam or a long wait at a traffic signal.
So, while I agree that the thought of biking to work may seem at first to be unnerving or impractical, don’t dismiss it of hand, look for ways to make it work rather than excuses why it can’t.
If you enjoy being outdoors give it some more thought. Visit your local bike shops, especially the ones closest to where work and ask them about commuting by bike. They are great resources and will likely be very enthusiastic about helping you out. Also, look for biking organizations. Here in MA, we have the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalistion (www.massbike.org), and they periodically provide biking classes to teach people how to commute by bike and how to properly bike in city traffic.
It’s also fine if you have no interest in biking to work or wherever. It’s certainly not for everyone. But please don’t make lame excuses that it’s too far or there’s nowhere that’s safe. It’s never too far, and it’s no less safe than driving.
Paul
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of course buying a used car puts up major savings over buying a new car. me personally, i’ll spend the extra money to know some idiot didn’t try some stupid stunt while servicing his own car or just not service it at all. (really, i’ve seen it all.) so i was going to buy new regardless of what i got, looking in that same low-$20k price range. the hybrid had the advantage in the long run over the other cars i was looking at.
at the time, gas was under $2/gal and i just liked the car. sorry if i don’t fit the stereotype. there are lots of us who don’t.
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It’s interesting how many people say their cities have no decent public transport. That’s true in Phoenix, too, although the City Parents have been working hard to change that. The way the city is laid out, though, makes bus transport pretty impractical, and the lightrail they’re building to the tune of zillions of dollars has the strangest whiff of Eau de Boondoggle about it.
The area is also powerfully bicycle-unfriendly, EXCEPT along the canals and flood control basins, where bike trails go for miles and miles. If you live near a canal and also work near one, you probably could bicycle to work even if you had to go quite a distance. But say your prayers before trying to ride a bike on the streets.
For the same reason, scooters are wildly unsafe here. I can’t imagine riding one of those things on the city streets. Might as well wear a sign that says “Please wallop me!”
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Haha.. I live in Jakarta, Indonesia, and as like most south east asian cities (and some east asian cities) as traffic jam and (more) expensive public transportation cost rises, we are forced to use motorcycles to go to work (no, not the ones u used to see, its a smaller version, fit for asian ppls). Yes its hot, polluted, and dirty when riding, but it saves a lot of money and environment. A 100-125cc motorbike used only US$ 20 monthly for 45 miles commuting ride 5 days a week. For maintenance, it only costs you US$ 15 bi-monthly..
I can’t imagine using a car to go to work on daily basis, I only use it on saturdays and sundays.
For me, its more on the cost issue, not the environmental issues.
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I love my scooter. I got it two years ago and have about 10,000 miles on it.
A few things:
* Scooters are motorcycles. Take a motorcycle safety class. Most of these qualify you for your motorcycle endorsement automatically.
* You get what you pay for. Don’t buy a cheap plastic Chinese scooter off eBay only to have it break down in 700 miles.
* Financially, you have to ride a LOT of miles to pay off a scooter.
I didn’t read all the comments above, so if these have been mentioned before, sorry for the repeat.
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About the time I realized that 90% of the time I was getting in the car alone, we bought a small motorcycle that gets about 100 MPG!!!
Though gas prices went up a dollar, and I started driving more, our gas budget hasn’t budged. WOOT!
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I wrote about this very subject last month on my blog http://www.frugalsister.com/2008/06/public-transportation_16.html .
I know that the busses are getting more and more full. I even shortened my drive to 4.5 miles to the nearest buss stop. I have also started looking for a veterinarian closer to my home.
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I tried leaving a comment, but I guess it didn’t go through the first time.
I wrote about this a couple of months ago on my blog. http://www.frugalsister.com/2008/06/public-transportation_16.html
I have found that I can catch the bus closer to home and now only drive 4.5 miles to the bus stop. Every week I see new people riding the bus and more on a regular basis.
I am also looking for a veterinarian closer to my home to save on gas.
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Several people have argued that biking isn’t unsafe, then cited urban scenarios. Rural areas can actually be more risky in some cases than a big city.
For example, my commute is only 10 miles away on rural back roads, but the route goes by several quarries and cement factories. Riding a bike through there would involve sharing the road with dump trucks and tractor trailers on one-lane roads with blind S-curves and no shoulder. Even in a car, I’ve been nearly run off the road by a tractor trailer crossing the double yellow line to pass me with oncoming traffic in sight.
Kudos to any bikers in NYC, Boston, or what have you, but their transportation grid is a whole different ball game.
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We had planned a year ago to replace one of our cars or sell both and get a larger car. Not anymore. Now we’re keeping our gas sippers and instead we’re going to rent when we need a larger car. Also while we plan on kids with a four door corolla we’re okay for a bit until maybe two kids.
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Due to traffic, the price of parking in town, the insurance discount I get from driving fewer than 7500 miles a year, and the convenient dedicated bussway, I take public transit.
I do drive less now. I consider the actual cost of the miles I’m putting on my car and realize that a drive to go see my family out in the boonies costs about $10 round-trip, even in my Civic.
My partner’s diesel golf gets 44 MPG. We take that out whenever we’re going to the same place, and he uses it as his work car, since the bus will cost him roughly the same and take longer.
I’d like to see the Ford Fiesta come to the US. It’s supposed to get 70 MPG on diesel, which beats the cost of a Prius.
We have a smart fourtwo dealer down the road. I considered switching, but the only advantage would be that I can fit two in my 10×16 garage.
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One thing that can be done is to stop driving to places for ‘deals’ when the cost of gas exceeds the savings. I see people making this mistake a lot.
In my case, it worked out for the better. There are several restaurants 7-10 miles from my work, including some cheaper ones where I can spend $8-$9. There is also an expensive, touristy seafood place down the street where I can eat for $14-$18. I had been driving to the cheaper restaurants. However it struck me theres a hidden cost of almost a gallon of gas (~$4) to doing so. When you factor that in, it’s $12-$13 vs. $14-18. When I realized it’s only a few more dollars to get a great seafood meal than I just stopped driving there.
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Hi J.D.,
I have definitely seen a change in driving patterns and commuter behavior in my area. I’ve written a couple of posts discussing it here:
Gas Price Induced Behavior and
Gas Price Induced Behavior Pt II
I too am seeing more public transit usage, different types of vehicles being driven and more walking/biking. I also speculate that we will see changes in community design.
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I live in NYC and have seen a huge increase of riders on the subway (hint: more crowded trains). People are riding taxis less frequently and taking the subway/train (LIRR, MetroNorth, PATH) more often now. It’s still difficult to find a parking spot in Manhattan though.
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I live in Phoenix, AZ. I have considered a motorcycle, or carpooling, but that is about it. Bikes are pretty scary to ride in this city. I used to bike and take the bus when I was in college and I remember at least two times in one year (just off the top of my head) when I was almost struck down by people who aren’t used to seeing pedestrians. My theory is that because 4 months out of the year are so hot, everyone wants to stay in A/C cars whenever possible. Personally, I hate the idea of public transportation if it means I have to be outside in 110 degree heat in June through August!!!
A Prius or motorcycle is the best alternatives to high gas prices over here, IMHO. I have to take my middle child to school every morning, so that outs the motorcycle (she’s 5). And while the Prius is tempting, I did just pay off my Pontiac Grand Am. I think saving the $180 a month in car payments is worth just as much, if not more, than the fuel savings if I bought a Prius.
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I commute via motorcycle, so I haven’t changed my habits at all. I have noticed a greater number of motorcycles and “super” scooters (600 cc +) on the freeways in the past few months.
A few things I haven’t seen mentioned yet. It’s legal to ride motorcycles in the HOV lanes everywhere in the U.S. Just bypassing the stop and go congestion can save you a lot of money in fuel, not to mention the pollution from idling in traffic. Also, make sure you’ve got good riding gear. I ride year round in metro Seattle, but to do that I make sure I have water resistant riding gear, a full face helmet and electric clothing for when the temperature drops.
I ride in one of these: http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Roadcrafter-One-Piece-Suit-p-16133.html
Yes, it’s kind of expensive. But it will pay for itself should I ever take a slide on the pavement.
And I also encourage anyone looking to ride a motorcycle or scooter to take a safety course before making the investment. Many courses provide the motorcycles/scooters for the class, so you can get a feel for what it will be like before you spend thousands of dollars.
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Thanks for this timely article JD!
I live in Melbourne, Australia and when my partner and I bought our first (rather modest) home earlier in the year, we made sure we bought within 10km of the Central Business District and within walking distance to a train station.
We don’t own a car and wont be getting one until there are more options out there which are fuel-efficient, compact and well-designed.
Saving for a scooter in the meantime and buying our groceries online!
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the guys at the gym are a prime example of over exuberance that got us into this credit mess to begin with. people just jump on a bandwagon without doing the math. the premium of buying a hybrid and the mark downs of suv’s effectively eat away the cost difference in gas and then some. sure a scooter may be good on gas, but if you are in a seasonal area, what happens when you can’t ride a scooter and there is no commute? zipcars may seem attractive, especially for people who do not need a car very often; however, i still find renting a car to be much cheaper. it really seems people are diving head first all in the name of saving a buck when in fact they may not be. Like reading the fine print or anything else in life, do the math, figure out what works for you in order to make an informed decision.
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@Tim:
Great comment, I really like the view you took on this. I had not quite gone to the point of considering them to be part of the subprime but it makes great sense.
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Fun (?) to read that high fuel prices are a global concern. Here in Finland the price of gas is appr. 1,40 € per ltr which makes some $8 per gl. We do have smaller (= less thirsty) cars but the expense for commuting is still quite big.
I live in the countryside and have 50 km’s (over 30 miles) to the office, public transportation is 5 km’s (3 mles) away and is usually not a very usable option. We have two cars, both with small diesel engines, that consume some 5 l/100 km (2.1 gl/100 mi?), but as the kids have left the house, we could cope with only one.
Our recipe to the increasing cost is to drive less, stay home and work out-of-office (I have a 8 Mbps ADSL provided by my employer) as much as possible.
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The amount of gas consumed by a car does NOT decrease as a linear function of a car’s MPG.
Thus removing the most fuel-inefficient cars can save much more than buying super efficient hybrids.
For example if you go from 18MPG to 28MPG you will save 198.4 gallons per 10,000 miles. If you go from 34MPG to 50MPG you will save 94.1 gallons per 10,000 miles. Small improvement in the most inefficient cars can get huge benefits, ie. 16MPG to 20MPG will save 125 gallons per 10,000 miles.
Source: Science, Vol. 320, page 1593.
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Your crush on the Mini Cooper is not unfounded. They are great on gas. We have one, only because my boyfriend won one in a drawing the year before last. We love it, but you are right: We probably would not have BOUGHT one.
If it wasn’t for him, I’d be carless right now, but I’m grateful to have not only A car, but a car that’s good on gas. My elderly parents are 45 minutes away, his family is several states away, so having the one car does give us peace of mind. Most of the time, we walk to do errands or do things in a loop or on the way home from work to save gas.
Jen M.
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@Eric Hollins, I’m with you. The price of gas holding steady between $4 and $5 for a few years would be good for the country.
It’s not so high a price as to cause a total catastrophe, but it’s enough to encourage real change. Not just on an individual level (which can only go so far) but also on a collective level: zoning regulations changing to encourage (rather than discourage) walkable development; communities willing to make greater investments in public transportation; more farmer’s markets & victory gardens, etc.
$4-$5 gas will allow us to make the necessary changes at a manageable pace– lower gas prices will just postpone the inevitable and cause a far greater shock to the system when change becomes unavoidable.
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@Tim says “zipcars may seem attractive, especially for people who do not need a car very often; however, i still find renting a car to be much cheaper.”
Really? I’ve found the opposite to be true.
Zipcar rates INCLUDE both gas and insurance. Find me a traditional rental place where you can rent, insure, and buy gas for a car for what Zipcar charges for the same make and model!
The Zipcar locations tend to be more numerous and more convenient. Also, you can pick up and drop off whenever you like– without needing to worry about hours of operation or being forced to rent for multiples of 24 hours. You can rent for 3 hours or 30 hours, and drop the car back off at 3:00am if that’s what fits your schedule.
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“Sorry, but that makes no sense. If two kids and “all their stuff” won’t fit in a 4-passenger car, there’s too much “stuff.””
Spoken like someone who’s never had to deal with the hassle of multiple car seats. My state (Massachusetts) recently passed a law requiring children to be in booster seats until they are EIGHT years old! I know frugal parents with three kids who now have to either trade in their sedans/wagons or always take two cars when transporting all the kids – because a car seat and two booster seats WILL NOT fit across the back seat of a small car.
Personally, it bugs me that so many of the laws for children’s safety seem designed to require parents to drive (more) wastefully. I’d love to do a lot more biking for my short-distance errands, but my doctor told me absolutely NO biking while I’m pregnant, and every bike child-seat or trailer I’ve seen carries big warnings not to use it with children under 1 year old. So apparently I’m supposed to give up biking for at least two years and drive everywhere now, because I have become a parent and it would be “irresponsible” of me to get on a bike with my baby.
Back on topic – we haven’t changed our car usage much recently, but we have been constantly looking for ways to save money on our commutes for the last two years (mostly by carpooling). However, my husband is now looking for a new job, and how much it costs to get to a job (whether by car or public transport) will be a big factor in his decision. For any new job, he’ll probably push for at least one day per week of telecommuting. It’s not just about the money, either – with a baby on the way, it would be foolish to get a new job that makes him spend more time away from our family.
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i noticed a lot of readers with motorcycles — how wonderful! i too ride a motorcycle — and only a motorcycle. i gave up my car 4 years ago. i have been commuting with a motorcycle for 7 years, the first 4-5 years on a 250 ninja with about 50-60 mpg, and later with an sv650s with 40-50 mpg (the way i ride).
as a result, my transportation habits have not really changed.
i recently wrote up an article on the many financial benefits of riding only a motorcycle over a car. please feel free to read about (and/or comment on) it here, called ‘trimming down expenses with 2 wheels’:
http://tinyurl.com/5rz8e6
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If you’re going to a scooter for environmental reasons, keep in mind that though scooters use less gas, they have much less strict emission laws and can emit as much of some pollutants as 90 cars, according to a recent article in Maclean’s Magazine.
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JD, Perhaps I should get the old Vespa out of the chicken house and save a few bucks. I think I have to get a motorcycle endorcement on my Alaska drivers license. Just stumbled across your page while looking for mini van on craigs list. Looks good, John
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I’m a little alarmed at hearing the refrain of “no bike lanes” cited as a reason for not biking.
One of your previous commenters has it right — you are safest on your bicycle when you treat yourself as a vehicle. That means riding in the street, not on the sidewalks, and bike lanes are less safe than commanding the right lane as if you were in a car. The reason is that when you are in the lane with the cars, they know what your traffic patterns will be; they’re the same as theirs. A predictable cyclist is a safer cyclist. Bike lanes can get you trapped at intersections, as cars try to turn across the bike lane, and generally give a false sense of security. Insecure and new cyclists prefer bike lanes. Veterans know they’re better off avoiding them.
Bike lanes also train car and truck drivers to not share the road — because they feel that when a bike lane isn’t present, cyclists should not be there. It would be better all around to not have bike lanes and to get everyone used to sharing the road from the start instead.
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The mileage of motorcycles is not impressive. They typically get 40mpg, which I can get in my civic with careful driving. Scooters that can drive on the highway get maybe twice that, which is nice, but not outstanding; it would take several years to pay for itself. The best scooters get over 120mpg but they are little 2-cylinder jobs that can only reach about 35mph on a flat road; if you reach a hill, you won’t be able to keep up with traffic. Plus, they pollute like crazy despite the mileage.
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