BIKE: Back to Illich and the hours it takes to travel by car

[Patrick Goetz]

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, Mike Dahmus wrote:
> I always get a bee in my bonnet over this one. Dan is definitely moving in
> the right direction; but I'd go even further; most cyclists have no clue
> about suburban economic reality as it applies to transportation. In
> reality, you only ever really save money on cars if you're one of the
> trivially small number of people who can get rid of an automobile
> completely

I don't think this is completely true.  Maintenance and gas do add up (my
boss, for example, spends $350+ per *month* on gas and is probably not
terribly atypical, living in far northern Hays county), and one does get
an insurance break for not driving a lot.  Furthermore, making a car last
longer has a big impact on the bottom line.  My car is ancient and by all
rights should have kacked a long time ago, but it keeps on going because I
only drive it a couple of times a month.  So having to deal with $300-$450
car payments every month has been deferred, so to speak, for a number of
years.  All these factors start to add up.


>
> this). It is not surprising that cycling commuters are disproportionately
> represented in industries (such as academia) where this is sometimes an
> option. It is surprising that those (hopefully disproportionately educated)
> people don't realize that their employment situation is atypical.
>

I think this is more of an endictment of our society than anything else.
Clearly there is something wrong with this picture and, rather than
treating it as an immutable fact of life, perhaps the wheels of progress
need to be set in motion to do something about this deplorable state of
affairs.  I could go on for hours about productivity, mental health, well
being, and so, but would most likely be preaching to the choir, which in
this case, is almost everyone.  A vast silent majority of folks understand
that our system is badly broken, yet no one has the temerity to try and
doing anything about it short of simply dropping out of the rat race.
Perhaps the very fact that people are slaves to their cars could stand as
a litmus test of the need for change in how people interact with their
working place.



>
> However, don't forget that the fixed cost of insurance is nearly as high
> for the Civic you drive 3,000 miles a year as it is for your neighbor's new
> Camry they drive 20,000 miles a year. Last I checked, neither State Farm
> nor USAA offered mileage-based insurance.
>


Then you need to change insurance companies.  My car insurance premium is
a little over $400/yr, I think (I don't really pay attention).