OK, so I went home and consulted my accountant. It turns out that the car-less commute cost me:
- $2.50 in subway tokens
- $0.90 in bus fare
- $8.00 in shuttle fares
for a grand total of $11.40 for the day. If aimee hadn’t come to pick me up in the evening at the subway station, it would have been $12.30 instead. So for the week, that’s over $60! Gas costs about a third of that right now (I only fill the tank every week and a half or so, and I only use it on the weekdays).
So, economically, this car-less commute thing would be a pain in the butt. However, I did some maths: I can get a monthly subway pass for $44 and a monthly bus pass for $31 (or a monthly combo pass for the same total). Thus, I would save $11 bucks off the daily fares per month. Now, if my employer ever joins the business council, my shuttle fare would be $2 each way instead of $4, which would save me $20 a week. It would be slightly costlier than my car but not prohibitively so. Not that I’m pressuring anyone to do anything, I’m just saying, is all.
The thing I did find out, however, is that I get a tax deduction for those passes if they are > $150 for the year. That’s actually fairly cool, then.
Did you add the depreciation for your car into the mix? The costs for running a car other than the fuel costs (maintainance, insurance, other fixed costs)?
Did you consider that you may be able to choose not to own a car at all (or just one car), and that is significant savings?
I like good public transit because then I save on _all_ the expense of owning a vehicle.
f3ew, that’s actually a very fair point. Off the top of my head, the car will require a few hundred dollars of maintenance in the next few months, and insurance clocks in at about $100/month. Even still, the car is a cheaper option so far, from what I can see. I really want the non-car commute to work, so I’ll do what I can within reason to make it work.