It’s been a while since I went on a Slackerology rant, but living without a car has been on my mind again recently and instead of just speaking in confident, but speculative terms, I decided to crunch a bunch of numbers to support my argument.
When you ask someone why they don’t consider a car-free lifestyle, the primary reply is that the convenience and time-saving of traveling by car, versus public transport, is simply too valuable to give up. Well, to those people clinging to that belief, I’m about to blow your tutti-frutti little minds with the fact that living without a car actually saves you time. Namely, a whole month of time every year.
Living without a car and public transport
Let’s assume, as someone dependent on public transport, you ride the bus/train an average of four times a day, namely to and from work and then round-trip on one other outing (or two round-trip outings on Saturdays/Sundays). Let’s say that each time you take public transport, you spend an average of five minutes waiting at the stop. (Yes, I know that at 11pm on a Sunday you may occasionally wait 25 minutes, but all those times you wait zero to three minutes at 5pm on a Wednesday will even things out).
So:
4 trips a day X five minutes of waiting X 365 days = 121.66 hours per year that you “waste” standing around, waiting for public transport.
How much more time does public transport take compared to a car?
Now, as for the extra time spent in transit on buses/trains versus your car, depending on the route, time of day, traffic and whatever walking you need to do to-from the stop/station, yes the journey on public transport will probably take more time than if you just hopped into your car. But exactly how much more time?
The walking time to/from public transport versus your car is basically a wash, because you would likely also have a long walk from the office/shop/movie theater/etc to wherever your car is parked, combined with the added time you burn driving around trying to find a parking spot and the time you spend filling the car with gas each week.
While some bus routes are sadistically slower than driving a car, others, privy to priority lanes for example, are just the same or faster. And, it’s safe to assume, trains will always be faster as they happily zoom under, over or through inching traffic. Being that this interval is kind of impossible to quantify, I’m just going to pull what I feel is a fairly generous number out of the air and say a (average!) journey on public transport will take seven minutes longer than if you were in a car.
4 trips a day X seven additional in-transit minutes X 365 days = 170.33 additional hours per year that you might spend in transit while on public transport than if you were in a car.
Combining the waiting-for-public-transport hours and additional in-transit hours, you could potentially lose 292 hours of your life per year if you relied solely on public transport.
There’s no denying that’s a lot of toe-tapping, non-thrilling time. That said, you car drivers will want to put down any delicate or spillable items you may be holding before I continue.
How many hours do you need to work per year to own and maintain your car?
Now, let’s look at how many hours per year you work in order to raise the money necessary to keep your car on the road. First, let’s break down an annual car expense sheet (I’m doing both low and high end expense breakdowns, since everyone has different circumstances and expenses depending on city, daily driving distances, age, lifestyle, etc):
• Car loan payments = $3,000 to $5,400 per year (or $250 to $450 per month X 12 months)
• Gas = $780-1,560 ($15-30 per week X 52 weeks per year)
• Insurance = $1,200 to $2,400 per year
• License tabs = $50-120 per year
• Maintenance = $300-500 per year (an estimated lump sum for oil changes, car washes, windshield wipers, one or two minor part(s) failures, etc)
• Parking = $200-2,400 per year (the startling high end is for people who pay to park in garages/lots both at home and at work, plus supplementary night/weekend parking at meters, lots, etc)
Low and high end totals come to $5,530 and $12,380 per year. Since only a tiny fraction of car drivers live at either of those extremes, I’m going to use the midpoint of $8,955 from this point forward.
In order to bring home the $8,955 per year needed to keep a car on the road, you’ll actually need to earn $11,193.75 in pre-tax income. So, at a pay rate of $16.63 per hour (average entry-level salary for someone with a four-year, liberal arts degree in 2008, totaling $34,590.40 per year, which, cruelly, is just enough to warrant the above 25% income tax rate.), it will take – brace yourself – 673.11 hours of non-stop work to earn enough money to keep your car physically and legally running.
And if you don’t have a car loan, or don’t spend that much money on parking or whatever, keep in mind that I haven’t factored in all the money you could potentially cough up paying for collision repairs, moving violations or parking tickets and, in some places, toll roads.
Costs of living without a car and income you no longer pour into your car
Of course, without a car you’ll probably need to buy a monthly unlimited ride transit pass which, depending on the city, will cost roughly $1,000 per year. Paying for this will require 75.17 hours of work (to earn the necessary $1,250 in pre-tax income), which, subtracted from the 673.11 work hours saved by dumping the car, leaves you with 597.94 hours of work (or 14.95 weeks, assuming a 40-hour work week) that no longer need to be performed.
If, like many salaried workers, you don’t have the option of wheeling and dealing with work hours, instead you’d end up with an extra $7,955 take-home cash in your wallet each year. When was the last time you landed an instantaneous net income increase of $7,955 for doing no additional work?
Net free time gained by living without a car
Harking back to the original issue of all the time “wasted” by relying on public transport, assuming there was the option of simply not working those subsequently unnecessary 597.94 car-funding hours, factoring in the 292 whiling-away-on-public-transport hours calculated above, at the end of the year you’d have 305.94 surplus waking hours of free time. More accurately, you’re wasting 305.94 precious wine drinking/video game playing/family time/napping hours every year by hanging onto the car.
Consider for a moment the delightful lifestyle transformation that would occur if, instead of two or three weeks of vacation per year, you had 16.95 or 17.95 weeks of vacation at your disposal. (Go ahead and take those 14.95 weeks off without pay. You don’t need the money.) Or you only worked 30 hours a week. Or think about how much really good wine and the lavish, weeks-long vacation in Thailand you could fund with that spare $7,955.
Now think about your drastically reduced carbon footprint.
Now think about being set free from the interminable stress of navigating through traffic and coping with car maintenance and misfortune.
Now think about how many books you could be reading or TV shows you could be watching on your iPhone or calls you could be making to your long-suffering mother while sitting on public transport.
Don’t try to tell me that you’re not tempted.
Hi Leif
Interesting analysis. Very environmentally-friendly and healthy :)
“Now think about what you could accomplish if you worked 5.92 fewer weeks per year.” – can you really tell your boss: “Hey, I’m not going to buy a car, so I want 5 extra weeks of vacation”?? :) In other words, you’ll still have to be at work every day, only that the money can be spent on something else as you point out.
Could help looking at this from a Moldovan perspective though :) Try doing the maths for Chisinau, where both cars and credit are more expensive (probably gas too). Then add the horrendous public transport experience (remember “Marshrutkas” / “maxi-taxis”?) and the factor that there is no train service in Chisinau (only between larger towns). (this means no books in public transport and often no wallets either). Multiply this by the infernal traffic and absolute non-existence of parking lots. Then remember how many expensive cars you saw in Chisinau and try correlating this to the fact that Moldova is the poorest country in Europe with worst roads (especially after this winter – Chisinau has more potholes than there are stars in the sky).
Oh, and absolutely evil drivers.
The conclusion? I don’t own a car because it will create more problems than benefits for me personally. But I wish I had one because getting out of town is kind of hard due to inconvenient bus schedules and their inadequate capacity and comfort levels.
Ugh. And you can’t even ride a bike because of the weather, roads and some lunatic would probably run you down in a week and you’d have to get around in a wheelchair after that. I’m afraid there’s no good solution for Chisinau, except to leave Chisinau. :)
Your math and numbers might be correct, but a car is not only your transportation device, but also your “private space”. you can sit inside and listen to the music YOU want, you sing to it or not, you control how hot or cool it should be and who can sit with you in your car :)
plus, there are are places where you cant go by public transport (there is a nice beach 30 mins from here) or the public transport is way more inconvenient than in your article. For instance if you want to go to from the city central bus station to the next big city down south it takes at least 1h – if i take the car i can be there in 15 minutes, and i wont have any trouble getting back after 10pm.
i have a car again since 2009 (sold my previous car in 2005), but i usually take the bus to work or walk. bus and walking takes me about 20 mins because the route goes via 2 other suburbs first, by car its usually 15 minutes of stop and go in rush hour traffic…
Not to mention a car will be the only thing that saves your ass on days when you have to meet 4 prospective clients, get to the accountant, run across town to fix a server and then go home to crash into bed. Public transport is great, but it doesn’t go everywhere all the time. I generally leave the car at home, but I wouldn’t sell it because there are still times when I need it, especially if on top of a tight schedule I also have to lug big loads around (e.g. tools and equipment).
And finally, the car will still be needed for long trips if you don’t want the tour guide making your schedule and deciding your lunch and wake up times.
Public transport works well for in-city transport. Trying to get out (in any city, London and NY included) becomes difficult. I like the idea of a “weekend car” that allows you the freedom to travel away over weekends – but use public transport for the daily commute.
The down side of public transport and mentioned by Daniel – is it is not your own space. I usually snack or drink when driving (efficient use of time), but where I live we’re not allowed to ($100 fine should tell you where that is). I then have to make a special stop at a cafe to refuel before moving on.
I hear the “private space” argument, but that just means you need a better roommate–or none at all. And paying for a taxi to get to the beach or all your appointments one day is still cheaper than owning a car.
I agree 100% with Leif, but then I happen to live in New York City. But probably 80% of the reason I live in NYC is because I don’t have to own a car. (The other 20% is the food–for which I have loads of money, due to not owning a car.)
When I do drive a car (on research trips)–oy, I get so fat! So much sitting in between all the eating! It’s not natural.
Hey, maybe this is the selling point: if you give up your car, you don’t have to go to the gym. Exercise gets more naturally built into your day. And then you’re saving money on the gym too!
@Daniel – That “private space” argument sounds like it’s right out of the car industry’s PR pitch from the 50s and 60s that led to the eventual catastrophic deconstruction of, for example, all the tram lines in Minneapolis, ushering in 40 years of crap public transport. Sitting/standing on a crowded bus isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but that discomfort pales in comparison to the discomfort and stress I felt paying for, maintaining and worrying about my car. And how often (not to mention how prudent after a big night of partying) are you driving between the “next city” after 10pm? If it’s less than a dozen times a year, I’m not buying that as a strong argument for keeping a car all year.
@Tudor – The scenarios you describe sound way too infrequent to warrant keeping a car all year. Taxis and, if necessary, the occasional rental will do just nicely.
@Zora – You took the words right out of my mouth. A couple taxi rides a week still doesn’t come anywhere near the price one pays to maintain a car. And you plucked that supplemental, organic exercise argument right out of my book proposal! Are you reading this over my shoulder?
Very detailed and convincing calculations. If only people would heed, and these ranting posts would disappear. Or would they?? :)
I completely agree with this argument. Living in London I very rarely need a car as everything is far easier to access by puclic transport. Although, that’s no small cost in itself here, with around £150 a month disappearing to pay for the unbelievably uncomfortable ride on the underground in rush hour. The only other factor i think is worth mentioning is that of safety. As a small female person it’s simply not particularly safe to travel on public transport here after dark, alone.
There are companys such as this: http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/ which seem to be doing pretty well to offer you the best of both worlds.
Nice calculations. But the fact is, some people LOVE CARS. I’m unfortunately one of them. Now that I live in a public-transport-laden European city, I rarely drive anywhere in town due to the parking issue. But I drive on the weekends: skiing, hiking, other towns, etc.
Many of the places I drive, I *could* get with public transport. But then I’d miss out on something I really love in life: driving.
Fortunately I’m able to keep my cars a long time and not get tired of ’em. So I have a ’99 convertible and an ’06 hatchback which will hopefully cut down my costs quite a bit with no more payments on either one. Though I get a lot of sh* from friends for having TWO cars when you don’t really even need ONE here.
My congratulations go out to those of you who are perfectly happy without having a beautiful driving machine to share every wonderful curve of these Alpen passes with… sigh.
I’m with you on this one. Gave up the car and couldn’t be any more free and happy of my decision.
Yes! Yes! Yes! The car-free lifestyle is far superior. There are so many advantages: cost savings, reduced environmental impact, increased freedom, etc. This is one of the reasons we can afford to do our RTW trip.
I saw the title of this article and I immediately knew I was going to comment on this. I have been looking for a way to get rid of my car permanently for awhile now. I think I know how I could get rid of it, but I don’t know if I can make the leap and just do it. For now, I am comfortable with my car since it is entirely paid off and the maintenance is low, but sooner or later I will have to replace it. I wish the public transport here was just a little bit better.
In most parts of US it is not practical and not even possible to live without a car. While idea is good, unless you live in large metro area, and have access to public transportation, sidewalks, nearby walking distance grocery stores, you got to have a car.
Great piece, Leif. But what about bikes? I haven’t driven for about seven or eight years now, but I still don’t use *that* much public transport because I cycle pretty much everywhere. Where I live (Beijing) and where I used to live (London), cycling is easily the quickest way to get from any part of the city to any other part. It can’t be that much different in the US, can it?
@Daniel – I kind of left biking as a given. But, yes, it all depends on the city. In my Minneapolis, the best biking city in the US (screw you Portland!), biking is nearly always an option, assuming they ever fix all these potholes. Places like Houston, not really.