<Jeremy Leggett discusses the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security The Oil Drum DrumBeat: November 11, 2008>

207 comments on A Resilient Suburbia? 2: Cost of Commuting

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Dryki on November 11, 2008 - 10:29am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Yes, the paradigm shift is getting rid of one's car, not merely using it less.

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ericy on November 11, 2008 - 10:55am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

One can start by using it less, and eventually discover that one could get by without the thing entirely..

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Anti_Elvis on November 11, 2008 - 4:20pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I lived without a car for nearly 6 years. It was difficult at times and I learned the importance of living in an urban area where things were local. The automobile isn't just about money and cost, it completely changes your life: Here are some examples I noticed as I went from car free to car trapped

- Weight gain/worse health. Not from the lack of walking but from the ease of acquiring junk food. It's just easier to hit a McDonalds than it is to hit your local diner which has limited parking. When I was car-less, I almost never ate fast food because my life was centered around my local urban neighborhood which was fast food free.

- Sense of the world around you. As a transit user/walker, I had a deeper connection with my neighborhood. When your day starts with a walk to the bus stop, you can feel the fiber of your community. In a car, it's just traffic.

- When I was car less I was far less likely to head to the shopping mall and more likely to shop in my urban neighborhood. Because of that, I often supported local business & grew to know the vendors personally..hence a better connection with my community.

- Living car free my life was far less stressful and I had more time. That sounds backwards, but it's not. On a Saturday you might think "let's go have breakfast" which consisted of walking up the street in the fresh air to the diner. In the car world, you're far more likely to think "I'll drive 20 miles to go to ABC Diner".

Not to say having a car isn't nice sometimes. I love the ability to hop in my car and drive to some place other than my neighborhood. But, life without a car was hardly the horrible experience many make it out to be. It was one of the better times of my life..hell a trip to a city 100 kms away always bought adventure because you'd jump on a train, arrive in another town and set out on foot to see the world around you.

I see the suburbs & the whole commuting lifestyle as a prison sentence. There is no pleasure walking to the mall nor driving there. And I can't understand how people want to start off their day sitting in traffic going nowhere. Waking up and walking to work may suck when it's -25C but then that's what the bus is for.

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FreakWent on November 11, 2008 - 8:06pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

"Sense of the world around you. As a transit user/walker, I had a deeper connection with my neighborhood. When your day starts with a walk to the bus stop, you can feel the fiber of your community. In a car, it's just traffic."

This is such an important point. This isolation is what breeds ignorance, fear, xenophopia and allows people to accept the most outrageous calims as fact. This isolation is a root cause or significant factor in many social problems, especially those related to psychology.

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phineas gage on November 11, 2008 - 11:23pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

well said, Anti-Elvis. I live less than a mile from work. I used to always walk but my life has become very busy lately and I've gotten into the habit of driving every day to save 10 minutes each way. But it's just not worth it. My head is so much clearer in the morning if I drive to work and the 15 minute walk back home is exactly what I need to clear my head after a hectic day at work.

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whitis on November 12, 2008 - 2:02am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Except you don't save much by "getting rid" of car #2 because it is already a non-recoverable sunk cost. You could save money by not acquiring car #2 if you don't already have it or if it is time to replace it. But what are you going to do with car #2 that you already have? sell it? There isn't going to be much of a market for used gas guzzlers and any car loans are likely to go upside down like mortgages.

Now, there will be some market. Some will go the route of buying a used car rather than buying a new car with lackluster performance and buy a 100MPG+ car when those become available. Even a Prius only gets around 50MPG.

And with oil going up at 30% per year (give or take some recent fluctuations) or 14X per decade, it doesn't take that long before the marginal cost overtakes the upfront cost.

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BruceMcF on November 13, 2008 - 3:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

You save insurance, maintenance and repairs and licensing. As the market value of gas guzzlers plummet, the annual overhead cost becomes a larger share of the full fixed cost of the second car.

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207 comments on A Resilient Suburbia? 2: Cost of Commuting

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