The Hidden Costs of Car Ownership & Driving

[@sylviaodhner]

Great points! But these are just the hidden costs to the car owner, not to the rest of society. I know there's a lot more you could say about this, haha.

[@AlexZorach]

Yes, this is 100% true. This video is made completely from the perspective of the individual costs but there are MASSIVE costs to society too...it's a rich subject and I'd like to go into it more soon. The fascinating thing though is that, even with all the subsidies and car-oriented focus, it's often still the best financial decision for the individual to work on minimizing your car use.

[@Pafemanti]

My partner is very car-oriented. I've got to show her this video. She wants to drive to the supermarket when I can bike there, get what we need, and get a little exercise. Sometimes she offers to give me a ride. She knows I'll look back at her in horror! lol. I've tried to tell her that being overly dependent on the automobile is like, really bad. But this commonsense video does a better job of explaining it! She'll be watching it soon. Great channel, Alex. I found you from your vid on left-wing classist language policing. Looking forward to more of your stuff!

[@AlexZorach]

That's so great! That video on classism in leftist culture really started blowing up and I'm exciting to hear that someone is exploring my other videos too. To me, all this stuff goes together. It might not seem directly related, but my attitude towards wealth and resource management, which emphasizes efficiency and building a financial cushion, is related to my political views because I think that when we are all more financially comfortable, thinking longer-term, we make decisions about policy and politics!

[@p4160]

grateful I found this video! Unfortunately I moved from a very walkable area to a less walkable area, and am looking to buy my first used car in cash, which is unavoidable due to my final housing placement being in a car dependent area. Very nervous and skeptical of buying my first car, its hard trying to figure out if the lifestyle perks are worth it (finally being able to get back forth between the grocery store near my house for example, better access to medical appointments, actually being able to go to things like the library or school even becomes doable) vs the savings cost from just taking the bus and uber alone. I really do think the freedom, reliability, and peace of mind will be worth it in the end. (Also time, going from 30-40 minutes just to buy one thing from the store you need to a quick 10 minute trip is something I am very much looking forward too). That being said I do think its a shame how much living cost have risen as of recent. There's no way i'd be able to afford to buy in cash in the 5,000 - 7,000 range if I wasn't already receiving services for displaced youth & disability like subsidized housing, help with groceries, tuition waivers for college, etc. I'm hoping to be able to break even on the amount for the car that I already spend on ubers & transport alone just trying to keep up with daily indepdent living & just getting too/from classes.

[@Cathmoytura]

I’m a lifestyle cyclist, so lots to say on this topic. I think the most important thing is at 56 a 100-mile bike ride is relatively easy for me. I make part of my living doing bicycle delivery in Orlando, Florida, averaging 50 miles on those workdays. I don’t have the daily aches and pains most other late Boomers and early Gen-Xers talk about constantly on social media and in person. I think not driving has a lot to do with that. These days car ownership is largely optional throughout much, maybe most, of the U.S. The average adult’s practical daily range on a velocipede bike is about 30 miles. That’s for getting to work, shopping, making it to appointments. That sort of commuter riding. The e-bike extends that to probably 50 miles a day. Combine that with public transportation, a practical daily range can be eyepopping. I live near Interstate 4 in Volusia County and can with relative ease use bike, buses and the local commuter train to get from Ormond Beach to Poinciana, which are about 100 driving miles apart. Tech such as same-day delivery for groceries and other necessities and ride-share services further helps make car ownership unneeded. People say I'm lucky that I don't have to own a car. I say I made choices to not have to own a car.

[@AlexZorach]

This is a good point that all the delivery services can make cars optional. It's a different landscape than 20 years ago where there were fewer delivery services available. That said, these services are not always ideal. I've had roommates and neighbors who used delivery services for groceries and they often lead to an inferior experience relative to shopping in-person. There are mistakes, omissions, and the shoppers can be poor at making the sorts of substitution choices that we would make. The state of bicycling is a bit more complex. That's awesome that you've been able to make it work for you. I am an avid cyclist and have been for decades now. I'm not always comfortable using a bike to get where I'm going. When I lived in Cleveland, the infrastructure was great for biking. There were so many roads, I was always able to find a route with fewer cars, and the roads were broad and drivers more-or-less courteous. I also frequently took my bike on trains and/or buses, and it hugely extended the range. However, Cleveland has nasty winter weather, lots of snow/ice/rain combos so for several months out of the year, biking is somewhere between unpleasant and borderline impossible. Now I live on the East Coast. Delaware has some great bike infrastructure, but it's spotty. There are great bike/foot paths and I love them, where they exist. But there are also lots of areas where you cannot go without going on a major road. Drivers are NOT courteous, often very aggressive. Traffic patterns do not take bike safety into account. Virtually everyone I know who bikes frequently has been in at least one bad accident. Some have experience horrific road rage incidents, like my wife's dad was physically assaulted by a man who stopped his truck, after he practically tried to run him off the road. Police aren't always helpful at investigating and following-up on these incidents. There is a lot of anti-cyclist sentiment. The government continues to pour millions into car infrastructure while bike infrastructure remains mostly funded through special grants and non-profit organizations, it's not really built into the basic transportation spending and I have a huge problem with that. When I lived in Philly, things were also spotty for bikes. Again, there are often aggressive drivers. I also got a lot of flat tires, it was to the point where sharps and obstacles in the road, like potholes, trolley tracks, etc. were a major hindrance to getting around. Again, there were a few nice dedicated bike trails but they didn't go everywhere. Most of the infrastructure was still built to favor the car and bikes often were treated as second-class citizens, both by the infrastructure and by driver behavior. Based on my experience with bike safety, I don't think bicycling is accessible to all people in all areas in the US. I think it involves placing yourself at risk and at a bare minimum, exposing yourself to a high level of stress. But I do think it often places people at risk of accidental injury and even violence in a way that sometimes goes beyond car use for a similar amount of mileage.

[@Cathmoytura]

​@@AlexZorach Cycling has downsides. Not everybody can commute by bike, or can year round. I acknowledge that. But, the more society demands and uses utilitarian cycling infrastructure the more will be built. Now is certainly the time for greatly increasing utilitarian cycling infrastructure with the proliferation of e-bikes, especially cargo e-bikes. I don't think cycling is as dangerous as people, including cyclists, commonly think. And, yes, I've been hit by a careless driver in an SUV, and had motorist confrontations. It's been some time, but I've looked at the injury/fatality numbers for automobiles and bicycles, done some educated guessing about the difference in numbers and road miles between them, and concluded driving is more dangerous. Development of quality bicycle education programs can help a lot, too. Almost everybody primarily learns bicycle safety from their parents who usually don’t know anything about it. They dispense directives such as “Stay on the sidewalk” without adding important points such as cross traffic awareness and doing three point checks. I put on 100-150 miles a week in the Orlando urban core and very rarely feel unsafe.

[@latdude2024]

The us way of life is designed to be expensive. Many big cities in the European continent offers more ways of transportation like taking the metro and rapid train. Even in Mexico there are places where you don't really need a car. Tons of busses and taxis to get around.

[@christopherrosado6053]

Cars today ??? If, possible... wait !!

[@anabolicamaranth7140]

It’s another poverty trap.

[@AlexZorach]

Yeah, it can definitely be that in a lot of situations.

[@donniemoder1466]

Jeez, rambling rambling rambling. Start at 6:35.

[@AlexZorach]

You may not need to hear it, but there's a large portion of the population that needs to hear that warning about not buying your teenager a car without their consent. It's a major factor that keeps people financially struggling from one generation to the next.

[@Pafemanti]

@@AlexZorach I agree with you. Never heard anyone make that point but it is a very important one. The habits people pick up young are so much harder to do away with later on than if they never were there in the first place.