The big lesson from Austin’s City Council elections (Mart: fit in, sales)

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

Horse buggy whips have a very long usable life too.

Both are a waste of money.

Rail only goes one place.... regardless of where the people want to go. If you ride rail, you go when and where the rail goes. You have NO choice and NO flexibility. Rail is a 20th century solution.

Rail systems go lots of places. More to the point, rail goes to where LOTS of people travel do - the important destinations (CBD, Capitol, UT, etc.). Does everyone go there? Don't be absurd. But not everyone goes all sorts of places roads take us - is that the standard by which you build a road - only build roads where everybody uses them? Because if so, we'd have a lot fewer roads.

Not sure what your point about rail being a 20th century solution. What does that make roads? A 2nd century solution?

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

You would have to commute for decades to spend $50k.

IRS pegs standard mileage rates for use of a car at 56cents a mile as proxy for depreciation.

2 car family each traveling 20 additional miles for living in Hutto - that's 40 additional miles each day at $22.40 a day. At 22.40 a day X 20 work days a month - that's an additional 448 dollars towards a mortgage payment on mileage alone. The monthly payment on 50K mortgage is about 290 bucks.

So even on mileage alone, you come out way way ahead.

Now, what if that family can get rid of a car payment. That's another 475 dollars a month wow - you know how much house another 475 bucks gets you?

And insurance - in Texas about $130 samolians a month.

And gas - those long commutes get EXPENSIVE when gas is 3 bucks a gallon. Call it another 125 each month.

Starts to add up to real money!!!!

[scm53]

Originally Posted by Komeht

IRS pegs standard mileage rates for use of a car at 56cents a mile as proxy for depreciation.

Not just depreciation, but reimbursement for all of the operating expenses - gas, insurance, tires, etc. - are included in that mileage reimbursement rate. And a payment IS basically depreciation.

You can say mileage, or you can say actual expense. You can't say both, unless you are trying to artificially inflate a number to win a argument, and hope no one knows better ...

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

You would have to commute for decades to spend $50k.

Not sure about this. I paid off my car 108 months ago and most people I know would have something on the order of 108 * (0.5 - 1.0[percent of months with a car payment]) * ($400 - $600[average car payment range]) = $21,600 to $64,800 over less than 10 years. Of course this does not include more maintenance costs, increased gasoline costs, higher insurance, and loss of time.

In the end I'm living central (car used on weekends) with no car payment and a 15 year house note. Not having a car payment allowed me to re-fi to 15 years instead of 30. Would not have done a thing differently.

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by Komeht

IRS pegs standard mileage rates for use of a car at 56cents a mile as proxy for depreciation.

2 car family each traveling 20 additional miles for living in Hutto - that's 40 additional miles each day at $22.40 a day. At 22.40 a day X 20 work days a month - that's an additional 448 dollars towards a mortgage payment on mileage alone. The monthly payment on 50K mortgage is about 290 bucks.

So even on mileage alone, you come out way way ahead.

Now, what if that family can get rid of a car payment. That's another 475 dollars a month wow - you know how much house another 475 bucks gets you?

And insurance - in Texas about $130 samolians a month.

And gas - those long commutes get EXPENSIVE when gas is 3 bucks a gallon. Call it another 125 each month.

Starts to add up to real money!!!!

YOur post is full of big holes. We are comparing a house in Hutto to one in north Austin. You cannot live in north Austin without a car so you save almost nothing on your car payment. It's 15 miles from North Austin to Hutto. The INCREMENTAL cost of those 15 miles is not 56 cents per mile. So 30 miles per day for 240 work days is 7200 additional miles per year. Gas is about 10 cents, so the cost is $720 per year in gas. Then add a little maintenance and your total costs might be $900. Just the interest on your extra $50,000 is more than double that amount.

Bottom line is you will NEVER recover that extra $50,000 you paid for the house in Austin vs. Hutto.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by Roadking2003

YOur post is full of big holes. We are comparing a house in Hutto to one in north Austin. You cannot live in north Austin without a car so you save almost nothing on your car payment. It's 15 miles from North Austin to Hutto. The INCREMENTAL cost of those 15 miles is not 56 cents per mile. So 30 miles per day for 240 work days is 7200 additional miles per year. Gas is about 10 cents, so the cost is $720 per year in gas. Then add a little maintenance and your total costs might be $900. Just the interest on your extra $50,000 is more than double that amount.

Bottom line is you will NEVER recover that extra $50,000 you paid for the house in Austin vs. Hutto.

Plus increased insurance mileage.

Plus increased chances of accident/damage/death/injury.

Plus time (Those 30 miles = 45 minutes /day?). My time is _at least_ worth minimum wage.

So .75 X $7.25 X 240 = $1305 (and that's far shortchanging myself on the wage).

[riaelise]

I come from New York, where commuting is a fact of life for most of the population. It's really no big deal to me, especially since I don't have to drive. I'd give up 80 minutes per day in exchange for what I have, without question. It's all about choices. Looks like people are (again) thinking that their choice is the best choice.

If you don't work downtown, then your commute isn't that bad from Hutto, Cedar Park, Leander, whatever. Many people do not work downtown.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by scm53

Subsidized by Cap Metro service area taxpayers - i.e., NOT "people in Round Rock" - to the tune of almost $16 each way.

Particularly odious to those of us that DO pay Cap Metro taxes, yet are in a transit desert - including ineligible for paratransit services at any time.

Well, Austinites voted for it, not us.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Well, Austinites voted for it, not us.

We voted for something that was promised to cost less ($60M, wound up at $140M), be ridden more, and be partially funded by the Feds. Now, we are stuck with such a steaming pile of dung that the only solution is to heavily subsidize the approximately 60% of the ridership that comes from outside the Cap Metro taxing jurisdiction to get ANY ridership at all - because of where the line is.

It isn't your fault -- it is the fault of people that come from the same side of the ideological spectrum as those that think voters are too stupid to be told the truth, that are in charge at Cap Metro. To think that the chief ringmaster of that circus, the owner, mechanic and driver of the clown car, seriously thinks he is qualified to be mayor? Thank goodness he is trailing in the polls.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by scm53

We voted for something that was promised to cost less ($60M, wound up at $140M), be ridden more, and be partially funded by the Feds.

Uh, no. It's currently being ridden as much as it can be (it's at a capacity).

Originally Posted by scm53

Now, we are stuck with such a steaming pile of dung that the only solution is to heavily subsidize the approximately 60% of the ridership that comes from outside the Cap Metro taxing jurisdiction to get ANY ridership at all - because of where the line is.

Mike Dahmus _literally_ just makes up numbers. There's nothing to substantiate his claims.

He claims 10% of the ridership is at Howard is from Austin. Based on... well, nothing. He claims it's all from Round Rock, even though Howard is surrounded by Austin and miles from Round Rock.

The Howard station is 3.5 miles from Round Rock city limits! It's many more miles from the center of population of Round Rock.