I have the luxury of living in a city that's pedestrian friendly, so I got rid of my car. Never have I felt wealthier. I walk and use the subway. Cars are a time and money sink in ways that you don't even realize at first.
* They cost a lot of money and the value depreciates quickly.
* They break down. When that happens, you have a problem that you have to respond to immediately no matter what else is going on. If the subway breaks down, you are late but you don't have to fix it.
* My transportation costs are very predictable. I don't have any sudden major car repairs that cause a financial crisis.
* My current transportation costs equal my former car insurance costs.
* Car keys are big and unwieldy.
* Car alarms suck.
* I don't worry about that funny noise in my engine anymore.
* I don't have to replace my tires. I just have to buy new shoes more often, which is less expensive.
* I don't have to ask around to find a good mechanic.
* I don't have to take the time to have the oil changed and the tires rotated.
* I don't have to take time out of my week filling up my car with gas.
* I spend zero time looking for parking spaces.
* I don't have to pay parking tickets or worry about speeding tickets.
* Instead of spending my commute in a stress-inducing traffic jam, I spend my commute walking, which is naturally stress-relieving.
* My car doesn't get scratched.
* Because I walk a lot, I've probably added 10 years to my life.
* I don't lock my keys in the car.
* I don't spend any more money or time on car washes.
* I don't spend time or money getting my car inspected.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans don't live in a walkable city. :( But at least you can offer your support for projects that will make your city more walkable.
- You don't have to pay car registration fees every other year.
- Traffic jams afford you opportunities to walk across the street, rather than to sit and wait.
- You don't have to pay interest on car payments for a financed or leased car.
- You don't have to pay $100-$200/mo to park your car off the street.
- You don't have to move your street-parked car every so often to avoid violating one of many types of ordinances, such as for street sweeping, snow plows, etc.
- You don't have to "pay" for depreciation even when you don't drive your car, or especially when you do put mileage on it.
- You don't have to maintain your monthly transportation pass for those months when you're not in town/not using it, while you do with insurance.
- In many cities, you can scale up/down your transportation costs, between $0 (walk everywhere in the summer) to about $50 (maximum) per month, as you wish. Hard to do that with car insurance.
- You don't have to take time to run to the meter every so often.
- You don't have to remember to keep a supply of quarters in your car.
- You can change plans without worrying about what to do with your car, or how to get back to it.
- You don't have to ride alone, which is what most drivers do. You can take a bus and interact with passengers.
- You can read a book, surf the internet, watch videos, or sleep in public transportation, which you can't as a driver.
- Although you might get to a gym faster by car, you can jog to the gym and be warmed-up for classes, weight lifting, sports, etc, by the time you step inside.
- Your feet get used to running and walking on harder surfaces, rather than just a treadmill.
* I spend far less time involved in the simple act of transportation. On the bus? Read, watch a movie, catch up with the news, chat with someone, or just grab some shut-eye and rest. When one is driving, they are actively engaged in transportation only, to the near exclusion of just about everything else.
I cycle commute and am therefore fairly actively engaged in transportation (though your mind can wander at times if your route is as pleasant and winds through parks and along rivers as mine does). I don't consider this much of a loss as cycling is a joyous activity, much as I'd imagine car driving might be if you were the only one on the road. In the reality of stop'n'go rush hour jams car commutes are stressful. I saw one report that claimed driver stress in commutes is on a par with fighter pilots and I can believe it.
I am looking forward to biking (and sometimes running/jogging) to work for health, fun and saving money.
BUT, I like driving. Get a pretty quick car (even better if its a stick) and a lot of the time driving can be very fun. Unless of course you live in one of those cities with horrible traffic.
It's awesome to see that more people are biking and walking, and that the government is spending money on programs to encourage this behavior.
However, this is essentially chart junk. The time spacing is not consistent, which makes comparing any two years essentially impossible. Also, this data does not take into account the growth of walking & biking per capita. The stick figures are clever but tell me less than the numbers below them. The only thing this chart really shows is that the government is spending money. Sorry GOOD, this is pretty, but you should do better.
To put things into perspective that's 0.035 bicycle trips per person per day.
In the Netherlands 26% of all trips are bicycle trips, so probably more than 1 per person per day. To put that into perspective, fifty years ago this was more than 80%. The budget for cycling is about 2 times higher than in the US (per capita).
I think the group you should focus on is children. In the Netherlands 49% of primary school children (4-12 years old, no helmet ;) cycle to school, 37% walk to school and 14% use a car. I bet the ones that use a car are exactly the ones that don't use a bike later in life.
The US population increased substantially over the time of that infographic. Using their figures and census estimates, biking trips per person doubled between 1990 and 1995, then stayed roughly the same since. Walking trips per person is weird though: it almost doubled between 1995 and 2000.
Curious if anyone has any explanations for the surge in walking. Did people who were able to walk previously but chose not to suddenly decide to do so in the late 1990s? (Why?) Did a bunch of people move into walkable areas within that relatively short time span? Did these projects the chart mentions really improve the pedestrian infrastructure noticeably enough in that period of time to encourage a large increase in walking by people who previously didn't due to lack of things like good sidewalks and pedestrian bridges? Some combination?
There has been a "downtown resurgence" trend all over the US. Since this makes lots of various things local to each other, and puts lots of things local to housing, I would be surprised if it wasn a contributing factor.
I wondered the same thing. If you assume that the level of investment dictates the number of trips, then the ROI is steadily decreasing. Whether it's any worse than the ROI on, say, roads I have no idea.
My opinion, and I have no hard data to back it up, is that it's not a case of build it and they will come, but a case of they come, they complain bitterly about the lack of facilties and then and only then does it get built.
* They cost a lot of money and the value depreciates quickly.
* They break down. When that happens, you have a problem that you have to respond to immediately no matter what else is going on. If the subway breaks down, you are late but you don't have to fix it.
* My transportation costs are very predictable. I don't have any sudden major car repairs that cause a financial crisis.
* My current transportation costs equal my former car insurance costs.
* Car keys are big and unwieldy.
* Car alarms suck.
* I don't worry about that funny noise in my engine anymore.
* I don't have to replace my tires. I just have to buy new shoes more often, which is less expensive.
* I don't have to ask around to find a good mechanic.
* I don't have to take the time to have the oil changed and the tires rotated.
* I don't have to take time out of my week filling up my car with gas.
* I spend zero time looking for parking spaces.
* I don't have to pay parking tickets or worry about speeding tickets.
* Instead of spending my commute in a stress-inducing traffic jam, I spend my commute walking, which is naturally stress-relieving.
* My car doesn't get scratched.
* Because I walk a lot, I've probably added 10 years to my life.
* I don't lock my keys in the car.
* I don't spend any more money or time on car washes.
* I don't spend time or money getting my car inspected.
Unfortunately, the majority of Americans don't live in a walkable city. :( But at least you can offer your support for projects that will make your city more walkable.