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So my friend Doug had a car that was on it’s last legs so to speak.  It had reached the point of one repair too many and he decided to donate it.  I think donating it was a great move so that it can get further use out of it supporting a good cause.  While his car was slowly dieing, he was nudged into taking public transportation to get to and from work.  Not surprisingly, he really liked taking public transportation.  Looking back, he is saving a ton of money and seeing a number of benefits that I wanted to share with you.

Let’s start with the money because I know more people are persuaded by it.  Here is what his car was costing him before he started using public transportation:

• Monthly car payment = $0 (already paid off)
• Gas = $72.54 per month (9 gallon tank, 2 tanks per month @ $4.03 per gallon)
• Insurance = $70 per month
• Parking Fees (Downtown Cleveland) = $145

So before using public transportation he was spending $287.54 per month just going to and from work.  My initial reaction is that it isn’t that bad.

Now let’s look at what he spends without his car.

• Monthly RTA pass = $70 

So by switching to take public transportation to work everyday he is saving $217.54 every month.  That is impressive.  These numbers don’t include basic maintenance either, like oil changes. I can’t think of another way to save that much money every month.  What would you do with an extra $200 a month? 

While the money says a lot, it isn’t the only thing.  There is the whole aspect of the emissions the car puts out.  Without having the car, he is making less frivolous trips to places like the bookstore.  This means he isn’t spending money on gas, again no emissions, and he isn’t buying as many books.  He doesn’t stress about driving and can also get some work done while sitting on the bus/train.

This has been Doug’s story of going to public transportation in Cleveland.  I made the same switch when I moved to Philly.  I haven’t sold my car yet, but it is on my to do list.  I love taking the train here.  I’m getting more exercise (about 2 miles of walking a day) and I can’t make an excuse to skip it.  I don’t have to stress over the traffic getting into downtown.  I’ve also been reading while on the train, catching up on my Stephen King collection, or sometimes I watch podcasts (if I remember to charge my iPod).

I realize some people feel very attached to their cars and don’t feel that they can give them up.  They wonder how they would get to the grocery store.  In Doug’s situation, his wife still has a car, so they use it for running to the store.  In my situation, my husband and I want to go down to one car as well.  There really isn’t a reason why we need two cars for the two of us, especially when I take public transportation and my husband works from home.  You can go down to one car per household without much of an issue.  There are also other services in larger cities like PhillyCarShare and ZipCar, so you don’t have to have a car at all, but if you need one, one is available.

Tags: environment, green, public transportation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 10:32 pm and is filed under Fuel Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.