February is here, and with that Jeff’s COTA challenge is officially over. (Jeff of Urban Infill only put $30 of gas in his car for the month of January.) He has a recap of some numbers, based on the trips. Read it all for yourself at his post on Urban Infill.
He took 18 car trips and 39 bus trips. The cost per bus trip was cheaper. Some benefits can not be easily measured:
One of the benefits for me by moving to the added use of public transportation has been the “me” time. During my bus time in January, I read two books, listened to two audio books, and multiple pod casts…
Despite the hours spent on the bus, I find that I’m more relaxed, less stressed, and overall, my thoughts are clearer.
I agree, I find rush hour car driving to be stressful, even if I’m not in that big of a hurry, and I’m using non freeways.
Note that out of all the annual car costs (payments, gas, insurance, maintenance) only one of these (gas) varies by how many miles you drive. Some insurances vary by how many miles you drive per year, but the ranges are very wide and in my experience they don’t really check your odometer. So once you get a car you are encouraged to use it more by every cost except gas. It is the same with parking. Most parking passes here in Columbus (OSU, downtown) are monthly or yearly. Once you buy it you want to “get your money’s worth” so you tend to use it more often.
Here is a page from VTPI with tons of cost per mile estimates and more discussion of the “sunk cost” problem.
