Re: Overheard on the scanner

In the Year of the Earth Rat, the Great and Powerful Keith F. Lynch 
declared:
> 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. 

Ha! You trust the government on that of all things?


> Also, I know several people who have given up Metro
> 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.
> 

The WMATA website lists $4.50 as the max fare for Metro Rail, and 
$3.10 for Metro Bus. Assuming you need to use both to get to work, 
that's a smidge more than $15 per day, or about $4000 per year.

By comparison, the average insurance cost in Virginia is about $700 
a year. (http://www.ppinys.org/reports/jtf/autoinsurance.html)
If 
you have to fill your tank once a week while commuting, assuming an 
average price of $3/gallon, you'll be paying upwards of $2300 per 
year in fuel. So unless their car payments are under $84 per month 
and they have no maintenance costs, the Metro would be cheaper for 
the average person.

Now a person who has lower than average insurance costs and bought a 
cheap used car that doesn't require any major maintenance, might be 
better off financially driving, but that'd be the exception, not the 
rule.

>> That's why if you drive down 66 during rush hour, you can watch the
>> Metro trains zip past while you're inching along at 10 mph?
> 
> You don't notice when no Metro train zips past.  For instance because
> there is a sick passenger, so they stop every train on the line for an
> hour.  Or when there's a forgotten package, so they stop every train
> on the line for several hours.  (Hey, it *could* be a bomb.  Unlike
> the previous hundred times someone forgot their briefcase.)  Or when
> there's scheduled maintenance.  Or when there's a breakdown.
> 
> It's actually become rare to have a round trip *without* delays.

If it's really that bad, you're never too old to learn to drive.

-- 
Sean O'Hara <http://diogenes-sinope.blogspot.com>
"Typical American," said Jess. "What do you want to do? Bomb some 
poor little country somewhere?"
"Sure. It would take my mind off things, some bombing."
   --Nick Hornby
     /A Long Way Down/