It depends on where you live. In the States or outside a fair-sized town, there's (so far) no alternative to owning your own car out of sheer necessity. In the

It depends on where you live. In the States or outside a fair-sized town, there's (so far) no alternative to owning your own car out of sheer necessity. In the city, especially here in Europe, it's a different story. The usual rule of thumb is the cheapest car costs you _at least_ 300 €/month (taxes, depreciation, not counting gas money)! When my son was born this made it easy for me to decide to buy an Xtracycle (http://www.xtracycle.com http://www.xtracycle.com) for my bike instead of a car. The Xtracycle covers 95% of my transportation needs and 300 € buys a lot of trips by taxi whenever that's necessary. Still, the point of the article as I see it is that most people underestimate the cost of their car. That's a small problem. The big problem is that our societies underestimate the external cost of private car ownership. When you figure in loss of life and health through accidents, noise, and pollution, loss of usable space in inner cities through car-only streets and on-street parking, and general loss of quality of life - the private car becomes the most expensive mode of transportation ever invented.