Comment on a blog on: What’s car ownership really costing you?

I forget how I got there - probably through Twitter - but I found this good blog posting about the costs of car ownership. Had to make the following comment, particularly after a slightly misguided comment post.

Great article. Though I couldn’t get the edmunds.com link to work for my car (a Focus 2008 SE).

I’m 34 and bought my first car last year, for a move and a new job where I was told I need a car (on occasion, I do). I bought it with my savings from not owning a car before this. Prior to this, I lived in Ottawa, using a Vrtucar (a local version of Zipcar) for personal errands, because I had taxi chits for work travel, and got to work via public transit or bicycle. Now I’m in a smaller city with limited public transit (the closest drop point is about 800 yards from my office), no car share (density’s too low to create a business case for one) and much poorer snow clearing, so winter saw much more car usage – I think I drove 800 miles from November to March!!! My car has been a massive expense, but hopefully I can resell at a reasonable price when the opportunity presents itself.

Peter could not be more different from the other people writing on this. As someone who’s travelled a fair bit through the world (about 24 countries) there is much to learn and experience from other places. The variety of the USA provides opportunities to learn as well, but there’s much to gain from going to places like Amsterdam, Berlin, Delhi, Bangkok, Johannesburg, etc. as well. Peter – I didn’t get the sense Matthew’s a worrier, especially since he’s got a 7 year old that he hauls around on the bus or by foot. I’m sure you both believe in protecting your family – it’s just that you see different sources of risk (the car is one of our greatest sources of risk in day-to-day life – both in terms of health and finances). I also had a great community that I lived in while in downtown Ottawa, with terrific friends close by. In a more dense city, you’ve got a lot more people living close to you; it’s easier build your own community based on mutual interests as well as on geographic proximity, since there’s just more of you.

Jane Jacobs once said “The point of cities is multiplicity of choice.” I think that’s close – it may not be the ‘point’, but it’s definitely the outcome. And one of the best parts of that choice is the ability to choose your form of mobility. Suburbs (especially single-use suburbs) often aren’t designed to offer that.