Sneak Peek: Wed May 1, 2024
Added 2024-05-01 13:06:34 +0000 UTCFor today's YouTube upload, I investigated a claim that I came across when I was putting together my recent video on Car Harm: the idea that Americans spend 25% of their waking life either (1) driving their car or (2) working the hours they need to in order to own a car. The claim was made in 1974 -- 50 years ago! -- and sounds like one of those things that could either be a drastic understatement or an outlandish exaggeration. Luckily, I have a pretty good sense of where to find and how to put together the data to not only answer this exact question for our nation as a whole, in 2024, but also to look at it city by city, because...well, let's just say it varies widely. And that variation is really what today's video is all about.
One of the inputs is the cost of car ownership, which the Bureau of Transportation Statistics estimates every year (website splash page above), breaking the number down by all the variable and fixed costs. The 2023 number is so interesting to me -- people complain about gas prices all the time, of course, but the variable cost is actually down from 2022. It's the fixed cost -- mostly the cost of the actual vehicle itself! -- that increased markedly last year. Maybe not shocking given the overall inflation environment of the last couple years, but pretty notable.
Anyway, I think the "how much of your life" framing is really interesting and effective. Do you ever think of your time this way? Do you think of travel time in general, or commuting specifically (if you commute) as "lost" time that's coming out of a finite resource (around 16 hours of waking time a day)? I just find it really compelling. I always try to think of travel as an opportunity to also be accomplishing something else -- like burning calories/maintaining fitness (if I'm walking or biking) or reading/catching up on email etc. (on the bus, etc.) But, I'm probably a weirdo...right? If you have different ways you think about your daily time budget, let me know, I love these kinds of perspectives.
Happy Wednesday!
Comments
We're currently trying to pass a major land use plan for the City of Dallas. Long story short, the "Forward Dallas" plan promotes missing-middle density in all residential areas. Crowds of NIMBYs show up at public hearings to speak against the plan due to typical fear of density. The next public comment session at City Planning Commission is scheduled for next Thursday, May 9th. We're trying to rally as many pro-housing people as we can to show up & speak in support of the plan at City Hall. I want to clip the Garland bit from your video to rally more supporters of housing density. As someone who lives in Downtown Dallas, I noticed many downtown workers grew up in Dallas but now live in Garland only because that's where they could afford a home. I'd like to use this point to convince more people in the suburbs to come down to City Hall on May 9th to speak on this point in support of the land use plan. (Non city residents are allowed to speak at CPC).
Hexel Colorado
2024-05-02 23:13:09 +0000 UTCExcellent video!! Since each metro area appears only once in list, I'm curious to see rankings of cities just within the Dallas-Arlington-Fort Worth MSA. Would you mind sharing your spreadsheet? Or a subset for DFW?
Hexel Colorado
2024-05-02 22:57:56 +0000 UTCGod… I used to be a super commuter for three years. I’m scared to do the math on that…
I_like_planes_and_cities
2024-05-02 17:27:37 +0000 UTCI decided to go and calculate it out for myself. I have a 10 year old car that I bought new and financed for 60 months for total payments of $25,400. I have driven 80,300 miles at about 27 mpg. For simplicity's sake, let's say gas averaged $3/gal in that time. That brings my gas total to ~$9k. For maintenance I have replaced my tires 3 times for ~$600 each time (I know, rough luck there), replaced my battery twice at ~$300 each, and gotten my oil changed ~12 times for ~$100 each time (full synthetic). I know there is other work I have had done, I don't know for how much, but it wasn't anything major, so I'll just round my maintenance bill up to an even $5k. Overall that works out to ~$40,400, or ~$11 per day amortized over the life of the car. At my current pay rate, that works out to about 16 minutes a day to pay for my car. On the driving side, I work from home so I don't have a traditional commute. But, I have driven over 80k miles over the life of my car. If I assume an average travel speed of 30 mph, then spread across the full 10 years of my car, I have traveled 44 minutes per day. Conveniently these two numbers total to exactly an hour per day.
William Massimini
2024-05-02 16:25:14 +0000 UTC
