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Sorry others are downvoting you, I know exactly what you mean. My SO and I are age 24 living in a relatively high-risk area for theft and accidents. But we bo

Sorry others are downvoting you, I know exactly what you mean. My SO and I are age 24 living in a relatively high-risk area for theft and accidents. But we both live within walking distance of work, and since covid hit, we're not driving hardly at all. Our insurance doesn't seem to care. We pay close to $300/mo for insurance. What a crazy prerequisite to participate in modern society. Imagine if all that money went towards building a train/subway network instead. Some quick Googling tells me there are ~2.5M registered vehicles in America, and the average cost of car insurance is ~$1,400 / year. That's $2Bn/yr we could be spending on public transit, even ignoring the costs of gas and car purchases. EDIT: Found an article [1] claiming that personal transportation costs accounted for $1 TRILLION in spending in 2018. [1] https://www.itdp.org/2019/05/23/high-cost-transportation-united-states/ https://www.itdp.org/2019/05/23/high-cost-transportation-uni...

taftster 6y ago
You have the wrong insurance maybe? Geico recently refunded money to its customers because of the change in driving habits during Covid quarantine. That seems to indicate a company that at least balances their insurance needs based directly on how many miles are being driven.
- benrbray 6y ago
  We have Progressive because they gave us the best quote when we signed up (neither of us had a car insurance history.) We look every couple months or so for a better quote, but so far, nothing. Geico would have us paying even more.
- ancientworldnow 6y ago
  Geico refunded customers because they were required to by law as many areas limit the maximum profits insurance companies can make.
JoshuaDavid 6y ago
> Some quick Googling tells me there are ~2.5M registered vehicles in America There's no possible way this is correct. If you assume 1 car per 2 people, you get 164M registered vehicles. Google suggests the actual number is 285M. Though many insurance policies cover multiple vehicles, and that's probably $1,400 / year / policy not $1,400 / year / vehicle on insurance.

taftster 6y ago

You have the wrong insurance maybe? Geico recently refunded money to its customers because of the change in driving habits during Covid quarantine. That seems to indicate a company that at least balances their insurance needs based directly on how many miles are being driven.

benrbray 6y ago
We have Progressive because they gave us the best quote when we signed up (neither of us had a car insurance history.) We look every couple months or so for a better quote, but so far, nothing. Geico would have us paying even more.
ancientworldnow 6y ago
Geico refunded customers because they were required to by law as many areas limit the maximum profits insurance companies can make.

JoshuaDavid 6y ago

> Some quick Googling tells me there are ~2.5M registered vehicles in America There's no possible way this is correct. If you assume 1 car per 2 people, you get 164M registered vehicles. Google suggests the actual number is 285M. Though many insurance policies cover multiple vehicles, and that's probably $1,400 / year / policy not $1,400 / year / vehicle on insurance.