I wonder where the results of this research come from.
Even with a size of 10,000+ people, I would definitely like to see the information on where they live, because that is a massive factor.
I live in a place with ok (not great but not horrible) public transportation. Problem is, it’s way cheaper for me to drive to work than to take public transportation.
It costs me 4$ a week in fuel to drive to work. A monthly transit pass is more than 100$. Even with an honored citizen pass which is just under 30$, it’s still cheaper for me to drive to work.
This doesn’t include other costs from driving obviously in which it would be overall cheaper to take public transit, however it’s overly time consuming just to get to a local store and back home due to a lack of better transit. It would take me almost an hour one way just to go 3 miles to the local grocery store.
I’m not saying cars are better by any means, but the necessity is very much dependent on where people live, so the data could be skewed simply by that factor alone.
I lived in mainland Japan for a while, the public transit system is amazing. What also helps is that there are smaller local places where you can simply walk to in order to get groceries or other necessities.
I wish the US wasn’t stuck in this capitalistic nightmare and just started heavily investing in public transit. Then, in places where transit is fully functional (and reasonable), start pushing an occasional non driving day, with free or reduced fare transit. Anything to slowly integrate public transit systems into people’s daily lives so it isn’t seen as some lower tier form of transport or a hunge inconvenience.
I didn’t read through your whole comment to be clear, but your first sentence clearly points out that you either didn’t read or understand that I specifically said “That doesn’t include other costs from driving obviously in which it would be overall cheaper to take public transit…” And then I equate the lost time due to not having the best public transportation as being part of the issue.
I don’t care what the value of my car is. I’m not holding it as an asset like an investment. It is a tool to get me back and forth to where I need to go because public transportation is not the most effective means of travel where I live.
I need to walk excessively far to get to a bus stop, having to haul around a child while doing so makes it that much more complicated.
That being said, there are times where say, I would like to go to an event in the inner city. I will drive to a park and ride and take the train, but the nearest park and ride to the trains are a 20 minute drive away.
So while you are talking about costs and valuation etc. I have already adjusted for that but didn’t go into the specific details because the lack of a good transportation system is the biggest reason that I don’t use it as much as I would like.
Yes, overall it is cheaper, but due to factors outside of my control (aside from voting and trying to be more involved when I can with public relations in regards to transportation) it is still more feasible for me to use personal transportation rather than public.
A second example is this, it takes me well over an hour on public transit to take my kid to one of their weekly meetings. It takes me 10 minutes to drive there with moderate traffic.
Trust me when I say that I would absolutely love to not need to drive a vehicle however it is simply unfeasible with my current responsibilities.
Edit just for clarity: Trying not to give too much personal info but I also have to move between various work sites throughout the day for which there are no public transportation options. So it basically negates anything I’ve said in terms of cost for fuel, maintenance etc. but it does leave me with no choice but to drive.