Rejoice my Loudoun Brethren (Arlington, Vienna: apartment complex, lease, insurance)

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by JEB77

I like this thread for the title alone - "Rejoice My Loudoun Brethren" sounds like one of those church hymns where no one can quite pull off the high notes!

I like this. The title does sound like a hymn, and I was curious to see if TE changed his tune a bit.

[ersatz]

Originally Posted by spencgr

Can you explain the rationale for the 50,000 number? My logic may certainly be flawed, but wouldn't the reduced number of drivers on the Toll Road be the same number of parking spaces at the new stations?

Won't there be a Kiss N Ride?

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by ViennaSausages

The problem is that Metro is not that much cheaper. My commute on WMATA each way is on the high side of $5.00 each way. Tack on the $4.75 parking garage fee and the $65.00/month guaranteed spot, and you're talking about $17.00 to $18.00 a day to take metro into DC. That works out to about $350.00 per month.

I can drive/park for less than that. And, when i work late, my company pays for the garage and reimburses my drive home.

It makes sense for me to drive!

I've had this argument before, but if you are only looking at gas when you equate your commute cost, you are doing yourself a disservice. You are depreciating the worth of your car with every mile you drive, you are creating the need for maintenance cost with every mile you drive, and yes you are also using gas with every mile you drive. All of these equate to a cost from 30 cents to 55 cents per mile. Throw in your lost time in traffic (your time is worth money people, and in this region its worth alot) and transit usually starts flexing its economical muscles.

Either way, even if you can't get to a metro station and ride in less time than just driving, and you are ok paying a bit more, or have an electric car, or a free parking space, having all of the people off of the road means less traffic in your way as you drive to your job. Mass transit can't be an option for EVERY single person, it would be too expensive to build a system that could, but if it can be viable for the majority, and if a large enough percentage take it (for instance in Arlington about 20-25%) then it can make significant improvements to how our rush hours go.

[Virginia Prime]

It sounds to me like the new Special Taxing District encompassing commercial and undeveloped properties along the corridor will be responsible for footing the entire $270 million bill. Will that same district be responsible for the annual operations contribution to WMATA each year as well when the line is completed?

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by Leaving4Ca

Exactly!

I notice that no one mentions Springfield or Huntington metro... as I recall there was at least one nasty incident in the parking garage at Springfield in the last year or so. Oh yeah! Let me give up my nice safe car. Not.

Springfield and Huntington are great examples of why land use needs to go hand in hand with metro. If you leave it to stay as a metro next to low density housing and out dated retail strip malls, then blight starts coming in because you have no new investment. This doesnt mean you have to have high rises at metros. But it does mean that as a county they need to incorporate a smart plan to bring new life to an area (not by paying for anything, but by opening it to rezonings. Huntington is already proving this, crime is WAY down over the past 10 years, as it is at Braddock as well, because new investment came in the form of rezonings. That meant better lighting, more logical pedestrian walkways, more housing and retail around the metro which means more people around, which means an inherent security force as you are always safest around other people. Of course they also improved police patrols as well.

PS people get car jacked in DC and outside of DC all the time. Do you remember all the people that were also attacked in Springfield Malls parking garage, including the women who ended up dead in Prince William at the hands of her abductors? So the idea that it was somehow metros fault that S-F got dangerous is specious. S-F got dangerous because the county completely abandoned it, it became an afterthought of a bygone era. Finally they, through vornado, are trying to fix that.

[gutter2d]

I can't wait for the day when I can take the metro to Dulles Airport! I live in Clarendon/Courthouse and I am never able to use that airport because it is such a pain to get to and park, or pay for a cab out there.

On a side note, I'm surprised a 50/50 democrat/republican county like Loudoun has an all-Republican board of supervisors. Are the supervisor districts heavily gerrymandered there? Although that doesn't seem likely as the democrat voters obviously aren't "packed" anywhere since they don't have any seats on the board.

[ViennaSausages]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

I've had this argument before, but if you are only looking at gas when you equate your commute cost, you are doing yourself a disservice. You are depreciating the worth of your car with every mile you drive, you are creating the need for maintenance cost with every mile you drive, and yes you are also using gas with every mile you drive. All of these equate to a cost from 30 cents to 55 cents per mile. Throw in your lost time in traffic (your time is worth money people, and in this region its worth alot) and transit usually starts flexing its economical muscles.

I'm fully aware of the depreciation/maintenance costs. That is why the IRS has the simple 55.5 cents per mile mileage expense allowance.

Lets break down my example:

about 17 miles to my office. Which means 34 round trip. My car gets 32 MPG highway and 24 in the city. So lets say, 1.25 gallons of gas. At $3.75 per gallon, we're at $4.68

Depreciation/maintenance I will say $0.10 a mile for $3.40.

We're at $8.08. My garage is $10.00 a day. Which means $18.08

Metro costs $5.20 each way, for $10.40. Parking garage is $4.75. Reserved spot is $2.00

Total meto fee is $17.15. You need to add in and additional $1.00 in gas and maintenance to get to the Metro. So, this is $18.15

Driving wins.

[ViennaSausages]

Oh, I'll add this too....On the days I work late (usually 3 days a week), my firm not only reimburses my garage, but also pays me the $0.55 IRS standard mileage to commute home.

So, on days that I work late and drive in, I actually make money by driving in...

[tysonsengineer]

Originally Posted by ViennaSausages

Oh, I'll add this too....On the days I work late (usually 3 days a week), my firm not only reimburses my garage, but also pays me the $0.55 IRS standard mileage to commute home.

So, on days that I work late and drive in, I actually make money by driving in...

Where do you get the 10cents per mile for maintenance and depreciation?

A person who drives your pattern would average about 20,000 miles per year lets say, and a car typically being driven that amount on average attains about $2,000 worth of maintenance cost per year over the course of lets say 10 years of car life. (Its less years 1-3 but more years 6-10). That comes out to 10 cents per mile by itself and doesnt consider the depreciation of the car, which on average a typical sedan of $25,000 would depreciate to $6,000 (being generous again) over the course of 10 years and 200,000 miles. Some might argue well i will sell it earlier than 10 years... this actually makes it more radical of a depreciation because as you would agree the period between years 0 to 5 depreciate far faster than 6 through 10 of course. So using again the conservative numbers above, $19,000 depreciation over the course of 200,000 miles becomes $0.095 itself.

$0.138 (gas) + 0.10 (maintenance) + 0.095 (depreciation) = $0.333 per mile (which is close to the number I usually state which is 30 cents per mile, and far less than what the government believes is the real cost of 55 cents).

That being the case your 34 mile commute is really $11.32 in operation cost and $10 parking fee which comes to $21.32. Now you bring up the subsidization from your company, that clearly changes things but does your company also pay overtime? If not and you are a salary employee to be fair you need to remove the average hourly pay you would be making if your company was paying you for that extra time. Also how much time do you have to work in order to attain "late work status"? Your time and the work you provide to your company are worth something.

21.32 for driving is greater by 3 dollars than 18.15 for metro, or right around 15% more expensive and likely takes you longer.

The key here is what you determine as your indirect vehicle costs. For the most part consumers often underestimate operational costs of items instead of over estimate which explains the discrepancy of your 23 cent number and my 33 cent number. The only truly fare observation would have to be viewed not on a monthly budget basis but over the course of a decade with all realized costs.

[ViennaSausages]

34 miles at 240 days a year is about 8,000 miles a year. Nowhere near the 20,000 you came up with. That alters the depreciation and maintenance expense significantly.