21 replies to this topic

[atheorist]

Once you have a car you are making payments, paying insurance, taxes, etc. - $20 or more a day - whether you drive the thing or not.  Another tankful is not going to be the deal killer.  In for a dime, in for a dollar.

One of the best ideas I have heard to make folks stop and think before they hop in and turn the key is pricing insurance by the mile. Having a car would be cheaper but every decision to drive would have larger consequences.

Even if getting to work via public transit were 100% easier, going car free would remain unthinkable for most people around here because routine shopping is so car oriented.  In middle class neighborhoods there might be a dozen restaurants in walking distance but if you need to pick up a head of lettuce or a roll of toilet paper, you probably have to drive.  Poorer neighborhoods may have a market every few blocks but being able to drive to a supermarket and not pay double for stale goods is great incentive to obtain a car.  There it is again:  Once you are in the car so you can drop the kids over at the daycare and pick up a few things on the way home, might as well drive to work too.  In for a dime...

Replacing a car oriented shopping pattern with a pedestrian oriented one is a chicken - egg situation.  Ensuring opportunities to purchase fresh food and mundane necessities at reasonable prices is an overlooked element of effective transit planning.

[runawayjim]

insurance is already by the mile to a degree.  if you drive more than a certain number of miles a year, your insurance premium can change.  you give them an estimate when you sign up, but after that it can change depending on your actual mileage.  however, it's generally grouped, and the difference is in the thousands of miles and i don't think the price difference is that much.

the gas tax should only be increased if they decrease the car tax.  as nice as it might be to tell people to go car-free, some people do need them to get to work because there certainly aren't a ton of jobs in the city or with easy access to public transit.  but the gas tax won't get a lot of people to change their driving habits unless it's changed drastically.  it would need to increase the cost of gas to $5/gal for more than a week.

i'm considering going "car free" (quotated because we'd still have 1 car for the household between me and my fiancee).  however, public transit isn't convenient for me to get to work and do shopping if the car happens to be gone (considering the eagle square shaws is closing).