another_1 wrote:
Fo-Rum wrote:
Where is the "never" option?
Also, driving costs a lot of money for little benefit for me. Just to get into town, it'd cost over 10 dollars in gas. I can spend 3 dollars and get into town via city transportation.
Something doesn't seem quite right about the math on that . . . even with 3 dollar gas, and a 10 MPG car, that means you live 30 miles from town. With a much more realistic 20 MPG, that would be 60 miles out. There aren't all that many places you can live 30 - 60 miles from town, yet take public transport all the way in - at least, not in the US. I mean, if you're not comfortable with driving, don't, but it looks like you may be overestimating the direct operating costs of driving.
I'm not overestimating. I actually live an hour and a half's drive (if you're speeding and taking back roads) from a Wal-Mart. There is a small town 20 miles off, but shopping up here is too expensive. I actually underestimated how much it costs to get to Wal-Mart and back. I didn't do any math at all, I was just giving a favorable estimate towards the cost of transportation with a vehicle.
The local transportation here is STILL 3 dollars one way (6 dollars both ways). Yes, they do the drive, but taxes is what keeps the cost of transportation via bus so cheap. It takes about 2 hours to get to where I need to with the local bus.
I can give you some math if you'd like. Let's say we average 55 miles an hour the whole drive (speed limit), and it still takes 1.5 hours to get there. That would make it 82.5 miles one way (165 miles both ways). If I were lucky and was driving with a 40 mile per gallon vehicle, that would mean for a full round trip, I would use 4.125 gallons. If gas were 3 dollars a gallon (actually 3.4 dollars a gallon in town, more expensive if I get it up here), that would cost me 12.375 dollars round trip vs 6 dollars round trip of the local bus, and this math is done in favor of cheaper costs for the vehicle.
That isn't even calculating at the cost of a monthly pass for the local bus. Thankfully, I don't need to use the bus that often, but if I did, then it'd come out even more favorably than the previous 6 dollar round trip. And of course, we can't forget other costs: payments, maintenance, insurance. Really, local transportation will always be cheaper for me, even if it wasn't subsidized. It isn't as convenient as a car, and it has other downsides too, but those are the things I sacrifice by not getting a license.
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Permanently inane.