Re: Overheard on the scanner

Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Sean O'Hara <seanohara@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>> After several large fare increases, the DC Metro system costs more
>>> than travel by car (except where parking downtown is concerned),
>>> and would still do so even if gasoline prices were to double.
> 
>> How are you figuring the cost of driving?  Simply the price of gas
>> or are you factoring in insurance and car payments?
> 
> I'm using what the IRS allows people to deduct per mile.  That's
> supposed to take account of everything from fuel to insurance to
> depreciation.  Also, I know several people who have given up Metro

Note that the IRS numbers are way off if the driver is putting
substantially fewer than the average number of miles per year on the
vehicle.
Some ownership costs scale per mile but some are fixed and the fixed costs
dominate at low mileage. For example, my wife's driving works out to about
40 cents per mile, with the IRS allowance being 50.5. OTOH my father, who
only puts a few thousand miles per year on his car, spends more like $1.50
per mile.

> and switched to driving to save money -- including at least one
> who for medical reasons really should not drive, but simply can't
> afford to pay Metro's new rush hour fares every day.

Dallas' transit system is very inexpensive from a rider standpoint and
doesn't charge a rush-hour surcharge. Its biggest problems are limited
service area, especially for the light rail, and the tremendous time cost
of using it.

>>> It also often manages to be slower than car traffic, which really
>>> takes some doing.

For our light rail system the number of stops overwhelms the advantage
gained from being out of traffic. Rush hour traffic delay generally
pushes my wife's commute from 60 minutes to around 75. Bus/rail plus the
drive to the park & ride is 150, rush hour or not, mainly due to the 29
stops
along the route. We could move to within walking distance of a bus station
and save about $9,000 per year, but at the cost of reducing my wife's time
with our daughter to 30 minutes per day during the week.

	Robert
-- 
Robert K. Shull                           Email: rkshull at rosettacon dot
com