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No one is arguing the working poor exclusively fly, the point is there are plenty of people who do fly for whom the fee is significant.
by jjk166 9mo ago
No one is arguing the working poor exclusively fly, the point is there are plenty of people who do fly for whom the fee is significant.
- kube-system 9mo agoI know. I was simply disputing the idea that ~600+ mile flights are cheaper than driving. They only are in very specific circumstances.
- jjk166 9mo agoI would not describe travelling alone as "very specific circumstances." It is extremely common. 70% of all car trips are solo, and the average number of occupants for all car trips is 1.5. That you can get more bang for your buck driving if you have enough passengers and luggage doesn't change the fact plenty of people don't.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- kube-system 9mo agoYou are entirely right, because 98%+ trips in a car are commutes or errands that average 6 miles in distance. But, that is not the topic of conversation above -- we were talking about trips 600+ miles in distance. These are almost exclusively not commutes. Averages don't necessarily describe your whole data set. Just like how the average person has around 1 testicle, this data is also multimodal :) ... People commute alone, but they go on vacation with friends/family.
- jjk166 9mo ago> You are entirely right, because 98%+ trips in a car are commutes or errands that average 6 miles in distance. My figure was based on miles travelled, not trips. Further, your assumption that local travel would severely skew the data seems at best unsupported. Think about all those trips taking the kids to school/soccer practice/etc. Having a lot of people in the car is going to radically skew the average number of occupants up. > Just like how the average person has around 1 testicle, this data is also multimodal Then why are you essentially arguing that people with two testicles are a niche case? The overwhelming majority of car trips that happen are going to be car trips that make sense to be car trips. That's not evidence of driving's economic sensibility, it is selection bias. The question is of all trips where a person needs to go a certain distance, how often is flying the cheaper option, and for long trips it is a lot.
- kube-system 9mo agoYeah, the cost of a flight alone is often cheaper than driving. The issue that I am getting at is that flights do not provide door-to-door service. The transportation to/from the airport at either end can often be significant, as many parts of the US are not accessible via public transit. And rural destinations often have no final-destination options other than an expensive rental car. It is common to incur these costs.