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Going back to the original post, the full cost of a drive-and-park to the airport should really include some of the costs of owning, insuring, maintaining, fueling, registering, etc., the personal family car. When you pay for a cab ride, those costs are folded into the cost of the ride.
If you read my post, you would see that I did include the fuel. Depreciation is the same if the car is sitting in the garage or being driven on an 80 mile round trip to the airport, and is based on the presumption that one replaces their car at frequent intervals, such as every 3-5 years, which is not true in every case. It's certainly not true in my case. My car is 8 years old, and unless it is totaled, there is virutally NO possibility that I will replace it in the next two, anyway, and maybe longer. That seems to be the case with a lot of my friends and neighbors. Ditto insurance. It is illegal to drive a car without insurance in this state. The only way you can have a car and not insure it is to leave it in your garage and never drive it. Registration is cheap in Colorado.
When you pay for a cab ride, the salary of the driver and the profit to the company is also "folded" into the cost of the ride.
Time spent riding is another cost. If you can put that time to use you may be willing to spend more time on public transportation. But if you figure your time is worth $15 per hour (a rule of thumb is half your hourly pretax earnings) and you would spend an extra two hours per day if you used public transport, you will be willing to pay an extra $30 a day to drive.
Last edited by pvande55; 04-20-2011 at 01:39 PM..
Reason: Forgot to close parenthesis (a common mistake
Unless your cabbie is really incompetent, a cab ride to the airport shouldn't take any longer than in a private car. Other considerations include alternate activities: if not having a car and using transit means you spend a couple hours walking each week, you can cancel your gym membership where you pay for the right to spend a couple hours walking on a treadmill. Same amount of time spent, but money saved, and other tasks can also be included in that time.
If you read my post, you would see that I did include the fuel. Depreciation is the same if the car is sitting in the garage or being driven on an 80 mile round trip to the airport, and is based on the presumption that one replaces their car at frequent intervals, such as every 3-5 years, which is not true in every case. It's certainly not true in my case. My car is 8 years old, and unless it is totaled, there is virutally NO possibility that I will replace it in the next two, anyway, and maybe longer. That seems to be the case with a lot of my friends and neighbors. Ditto insurance. It is illegal to drive a car without insurance in this state. The only way you can have a car and not insure it is to leave it in your garage and never drive it. Registration is cheap in Colorado.
When you pay for a cab ride, the salary of the driver and the profit to the company is also "folded" into the cost of the ride.
I realize much of that, but that means that the true cost of a ride to the airport will be different for those who own cars and those who don't. Since the original post was asking about savings by using public transportation, someone who doesn't own a car isn't going to have all those other costs, and therefore (if you look at the total) they'll be paying less to go to the airport.
Time spent riding is another cost. If you can put that time to use you may be willing to spend more time on public transportation. But if you figure your time is worth $15 per hour (a rule of thumb is half your hourly pretax earnings) and you would spend an extra two hours per day if you used public transport, you will be willing to pay an extra $30 a day to drive.
True. In fact, I think for most people, the value of their time is a major factor in taking/not taking pubic transportation. I have personally waited a long time sometimes even for a cab to pick me up. With buses, light rail, whatever else, you have to go on their schedule, and just bag the extra waiting time. Many people consider their time valuable and not worth waiting for buses that get them to work 1/2 hour early, and get them home much later than if they drove. My daughter used to take the bus home from her middle school, 1.6 miles away. It took her 45 minutes from the time school got out until she walked in the door. She got the bus right outside of the school, but she had a 1/4 mile walk home from the bus stop. In addition, the bus picked them up about 15 min. after school got out, and meandered around town making many stops until it got to our stop. I figured she didn't have anything better to do with her time anyway. But an adult would probably not do that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist
I realize much of that, but that means that the true cost of a ride to the airport will be different for those who own cars and those who don't. Since the original post was asking about savings by using public transportation, someone who doesn't own a car isn't going to have all those other costs, and therefore (if you look at the total) they'll be paying less to go to the airport.
Well, yes. It's different if you own a car, and if you don't. If taking public transportation can mean the difference between buying a car and not, it's generally a good thing. But if you have to have the car anyway, sometimes you're much better off to drive than to take public transit, especially if you are talking about a couple or a family.
Obviously situations vary by specific person and their destination; for many people, especially those of us who live in cities, there's no time savings when driving, as time spent finding getting to and from a parking space can itself eat up a lot of time. In my last jobs it took about the same amount of time to get to work by car or by bus/train; at least on public transportation I could read. Then again, I chose to live in a neighborhood where public transportation was readily available and convenient. Obviously there are always going to be people who live or work or shop in locations that are more easily accessed by driving. (and no, I wouldn't take a bus for 45 minutes for 1.6 miles, either; one could easily walk it faster than that, and there's nothing more annoying than being in a bus -- or a car -- that is going slower than walking pace!)
I agree that when one already does own a car there are times when it makes sense to drive and times when it doesn't.
If a bus has an average speed of 2 miles an hour, either there is some particularly bad traffic obstacle or the bus uses a particularly badly planned route. No transit line I have ever been on (and I have been on a lot) has ever been that slow, unless there was something actively blocking the line up ahead.
Driving less can reduce expenses--service intervals based on mileage, gas (obviously enough) and insurance (lots of insurance companies give a rate based on how many miles you drive) as well as parking. If one can get around more cheaply other ways, you can save a lot of money but still have a car. Other methods make more economic sense if you don't have a car--like cabs, Zipcar or auto rental for occasional auto use (for the same reason why most people rent moving vans or other specialty vehicles when they need them, instead of everyone owning one.)
Where I live, long-term parking at the airport is $15 per day. An airport shuttle costs $14 and a cab costs about $30-40 (cabs here are ridiculously expensive) so it's cheaper to take a cab if one would be parked in a long-term lot for more than maybe 4 days (it's easier to get a cab to the airport and a shuttle home.)
If a bus has an average speed of 2 miles an hour, either there is some particularly bad traffic obstacle or the bus uses a particularly badly planned route. No transit line I have ever been on (and I have been on a lot) has ever been that slow, unless there was something actively blocking the line up ahead.
Driving less can reduce expenses--service intervals based on mileage, gas (obviously enough) and insurance (lots of insurance companies give a rate based on how many miles you drive) as well as parking. If one can get around more cheaply other ways, you can save a lot of money but still have a car. Other methods make more economic sense if you don't have a car--like cabs, Zipcar or auto rental for occasional auto use (for the same reason why most people rent moving vans or other specialty vehicles when they need them, instead of everyone owning one.)
Where I live, long-term parking at the airport is $15 per day. An airport shuttle costs $14 and a cab costs about $30-40 (cabs here are ridiculously expensive) so it's cheaper to take a cab if one would be parked in a long-term lot for more than maybe 4 days (it's easier to get a cab to the airport and a shuttle home.)
If you're talking about my example of my daughter's 1.6 mile trip taking 45 minutes from the end of school until she got home, remember that I said the bus stopped 15min after the end of school, and there was a 1/4 mile walk at the end of the trip, probably another 10-15 min. So out of the 45 minutes of the trip, only about 15-20 min was actually on the bus. The after school run was a very popular run; I have no idea how many stops the bus made until it got to hers. Probably several. It's an example of how much time, portal to portal, pubic transportation can take. A similar trip by car would take 10 min. tops, with some of that time being time spent walking to the car.
Unless your cabbie is really incompetent, a cab ride to the airport shouldn't take any longer than in a private car. Other considerations include alternate activities: if not having a car and using transit means you spend a couple hours walking each week, you can cancel your gym membership where you pay for the right to spend a couple hours walking on a treadmill. Same amount of time spent, but money saved, and other tasks can also be included in that time.
Yeah, I never understood the gym membership thing when someone can walk, jog, or ride a bike anywhere for free.
If a bus has an average speed of 2 miles an hour, either there is some particularly bad traffic obstacle or the bus uses a particularly badly planned route. No transit line I have ever been on (and I have been on a lot) has ever been that slow, unless there was something actively blocking the line up ahead.
Slowest I've seen are the buses on 34th and 42nd st in Manhattan. I remember walking on the street and going slightly faster than the bus. The web claims the average speed is 3.6 mph, but it must depend on the time of day.
There are other parts of Manhattan where driving isn't so slow, but then there's a huge time cost of finding parking (often 20-30 minutes).
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