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There are tons of people who could have replaced their car with rideshare and maybe some public transit, and still come out cheaper. Insurance, parking, fuel,
by gibolt 6y ago
There are tons of people who could have replaced their car with rideshare and maybe some public transit, and still come out cheaper.
Insurance, parking, fuel, depreciation, maintenance, and random events add up. If you don't need it for commuting, most of the recurring rideshare costs vanish.
If you need to make an extra long occasional trip, car rental for a day or two outweighs ownership.
Edit: To be clear, anything other than a car is cheaper for many (not all) people. (e)Bike, shared scooter, walking, trolley, Uber/Lyft, taxi, carpooling, etc. Cities are expensive and small towns are small.
On average, ~50% of car trips are under 2 miles. A car is not required for most of those in most locations.
- toomuchtodo 6y agoIt’s only cheaper because riders were taking advantage of the unrealistically low labor costs (while regulation was catching up) and dumb VC money. Riders only have themselves to blame if they made life choices around a service that was clearly unsustainable, Movie Pass style.
- Taek 6y agoFor my commute, the cost of ridesharing breaks even with the cost of buying a parking space in the city (Boston) if you go to work an average of 4 days per week or fewer. (at least pre-covid, I'm not sure if parking is cheaper these days). Once you factor in insurance and maintenance, for some cars you would get to 5 days.
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoAn unlimited use trolley/bus pass is $150/month in my city. Suppose I spend $200/month on gas/insurance/maintenance. The marginal cost of having commutes that take half as much time, to me, is worth it. Otherwise, you could be spending 30 more hours a month commuting to save $50.
- nemothekid 6y agoThat equation doesn't work out in every city obviously. In SF a trip to the Mountain View (GOOG HQ) by car is an hour and change regardless if you drive or take CalTrain. If you live and work downtown, walking is a perfectly valid option as well.
- cactus2093 6y agoNow add $300/month for a parking space in an apartment building, $10/day for parking in a garage downtown near your office, plus your car payment/depreciation of the car you're driving. Also not all public transit trips take twice as long as a car. In many urban places (which is where any of this scenario makes sense) at rush hour a trip on public transit is often about equivalent to driving if not shorter.
- sdflhasjd 6y agoAlso, don't forget that you've actually got to drive.
- ouid 6y agomost of what people need cars for is shopping, a problem that is more efficiently addressed with delivery.