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I want a car.
The urge comes almost daily when I’m faced with a daunting one-hour bus and subway ride to and from work. The urge is particularly heightened when I’m forced to wedge myself onto a packed bus, hold 50 pounds of groceries or a hockey bag and stick in one hand, and hang on to the pole for dear life while the bus driver stops and starts with reckless abandon.
It’s not a fun time. I’m sure many of you can empathize.
Is transit an option for you?
Since the beginning of time, a car has always symbolized freedom. Car commercials all show people cruising on winding, wide open roads, blasting through the outback, or carting kayaks to campgrounds. It looks glorious.
That’s not the scene I get whenever I pass by any major highway in Toronto, though. Those same SUVs and sportcars from the commercials look almost claustrophobic amidst all the gridlock. It’s during those moments that I gain a bit of perspective. While I certainly miss the travel comforts of having my own space, I do enjoy the fact that I can get on transit and sleep, read, or completely zone out for a while. It’s one of the fringe benefits.
So what’s the main benefit? Saving some serious money, obviously. BIG money.
The Toronto Transit Committee (TTC) released some crazy statistics recently that made me really rethink any desire to buy a car in the foreseeable future.
- The price of gas: Costs have gone up nearly 20% for each of the last three years
- Car costs: Owning and operating a car in Toronto costs approximately $8,900-$12,000 a year
- Parking: Urgh, this is the killer. The Toronto average is upwards of $4,000 per year!
That doesn’t even factor in the cost of the car itself! Scary, huh?
So what do I pay?
Well, I put up with longer commutes, encounter poor hygiene and occasionally endure some frustratingly lengthy wait times, but I have unlimited travel and a federal tax credit for just $1,386. Economically (and environmentally, I might add), the decision is a no-brainer.
There will certainly come a day when I’ll become one of those gridlock-ers, but not yet. Not while I’m still saving from scratch.
How do you save on transit? Is carpooling an option for you?
Saving from Scratch 
Carpooling nor public transportation is an option for me. Cars are super expensive though, and I wish I could commute more.
It definitely has its pros and cons, but the cost savings are a huge plus for me. It’s not always a possibility for everyone, though!
Wow, those annual car costs are wild! When I was going to school in San Francisco (another city where car ownership is both expensive and basically unnecessary), I got very familiar with public transportation. Now that I’m in San Diego, I’m very fortunate that my wife and I both work for the same company, so we save via carpooling.
Pretty eye-opening, huh? Carpooling is an awesome option, if it’s a possibility. The vast majority of cars on the road during rush hour have just the single driver.
At least gas is a lot cheaper in the States!
I wrote about this too. I take public transit in Edmonton, and my employer subsidizes my bus pass. I pay $65 a month for all my transit and I live downtown, so the only thing that I really hate is lugging groceries home (however, I have a granny cart for that!). I’m moving closer to the grocery store in August (which is also closer to our LRT), and after that point definitely can’t justify buying a car. Even if you rent a car for roadtrips/large grocery trips/etc, it’s still more cost effective than a depreciating asset like a car. I’m also a huge road rager so even if the bus is late and I’m upset about that, it’s still better than me being ragey every morning while going to work (work upsets me enough on its own!).
I think the average cost of maintaining a car is about $5,000, and that’s exactly how much I put in my Emergency Fund last year! It’s definitely the more cost-effective choice.
Absolutely. For urban-dwellers of any major city, transit is usually perfectly suffice to get around. No stress with parking, tickets, etc. Plus, companies like ZipCar and AutoShare make it easy to do errands around town.
Good on you for throwing those savings into an Emergency Fund! I’m just starting to build up my own.
I live in a pretty rural area, so there basically is no public transportation. I do however have a car pool with 5 other coworkers, and each person only has to pay $25/paycheck into the carpool fund. if I drove myself I would be spending almost $50/paycheck so it saves me quite a bit of money over the year.