Bus/Bike vs. Car for $$$

[onimity]

You know what is depressing, though? This equation doesn't work out for me. When I was riding my bike to the grocery store, I always wound up starving and thirsty (even if I brought water with me) and bought a water and a Luna bar along with my groceries ... which cost me more than the gas to drive there would have. Even when I drive to work, my commute is so short that I only have to fill my gas tank every couple of months. When I am riding to work there is always some little thing that the bike needs, or that I justify buying because I'm riding to work. (Let's not discuss the number of messenger bags I own.) Walking should be free, but I spend less on gas than I've spent on good walking shoes that I justified because, you know, my feet are my commute vehicle. I am the Imelda Marcos of sensible walking shoes.

My car is paid for and under warranty, so the only maintenance costs I pay for are oil changes and tire rotations, and I need those very rarely because I drive less than 3,000 miles a year. Even if I walk and bike enough to drop that down to 1,500-2,000 miles a year, it is cheaper for me to drive most places than it winds up being to walk or bike. And the bus is always the most expensive option except on those rare occasions when I have to pay for parking (and then I am usually with my husband, so you double the bus fare and suddenly parking is a bargain).

I think it is just too cheap to drive.

I hear you. I haven't driven my car in a couple of months but mine is paid for, cheap to insure rarely repaired (at 12 years old) and gets great gas mileage. I haven't driven it since mid-March but it definitely costs me more (out of pocket) to commute by bus and bike. I've spent enough on commuting necessities to pay for my yearly gas. But that's the out of pocket cost, and that's the out of pocket cost for a *comfortable* commute, one that I am lucky to be able to provide myself with; you can do it on a shoestring too, of course. Tap water and some pretzels will get you home too... But my main point would be that we don't always take into account often enough is the cost of our car-driving behavior.

I like to look at the cost in energy rather than dollars. 1 gallon of gas is roughly 31,000 calories. That's a tremendous expenditure for a single day's commute. Thirty times the cost, in fact, of my commute by bike. When you add to that the cost (in energy, in dollars, and in quality of life) of building and maintaining the infrastructure for cars the cost becomes astronomically higher.

I agree that it is too cheap to drive. Far too cheap. We don't see the impact of our choices because we consume enormous amounts of energy at ridiculously low prices even at $4 a gallon (or whatever it is ). I would love to see the price of driving reflect the cost of driving, personally.

My two cents.

Anne