Parking cars

Parking our cars

I have a confession to make. I have a love/hate relationship with automobiles.

Truth be told, I have owned a number of vehicles since I received my driver license at the age of 16 and immediately retired my trusty 10-speed bicycle. Some of these vehicles were memorable, some were quite forgettable, and a few are in a special category which I wish I could forget, but cannot. Despite the fact that I have owned and operated cars for my entire adult life, I am steadily becoming more convinced that, as a nation, we need to start parking our cars. Permanently.

We have a problem in the USA. We are addicted to automobiles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) statistics for 2009 reveal that there are nearly 259 million registered motor vehicles in the USA and 209 million licensed drivers (yes, that is 50 million more vehicles than drivers). American motorists traveled nearly three trillion miles during 2009. This is a lot of vehicles and a stunning amount of mileage.

This automobile addiction, like other addictions, carries great costs. Unfortunately, these costs that are not always readily apparent. Some costs of our automobile addiction are obvious; other costs are hidden, or at least easily overlooked, and thus potentially ignored.

Budget programs (and most people) typically think of auto expenses as a budget category by itself, rather than as a subcategory of transportation, revealing the extent to which we are addicted to the automobile and consider it an indispensable part of life. Even transportation is an optional category as we are equipped with feet to transport us around our planet. Some communities, such as the Hanover/Lebanon, NH area now offer free public transportation around the area further eliminating the need for owning a vehicle.

Obvious costs of automobile addiction

Our national automobile addiction carries certain costs that are obvious. These costs are difficult, if not impossible, to ignore or miss – no matter how much one might wish to pretend otherwise. Nonetheless, I think these “obvious” costs are worth mentioning here as it is quite possible to become so accustomed to something that it is taken for granted.

Consider these obvious costs of automobile ownership:

• purchase cost (and rapid depreciation of the “asset”), or down payment and monthly installment payments
• automobile insurance
• maintenance and repairs
• fuel
• parking fees
• tolls

Automobile ownership accounts for a significant percentage of the household budget for many families as the obvious costs of automobile ownership accrue rapidly. Many families now spend hundreds of dollars each month just on gasoline for their automobiles. Adding in the other costs of automobile ownership amounts to a staggering sum.

The average person drives 13,476 miles per year, according to the US Department of Transportation. Data from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics shows that, while new passenger cars are much more fuel efficient than cars were even a few years ago, the fuel efficiency of the average vehicle on the road hovers around 20 miles per gallon. The current national average for unleaded gasoline is $3.299 according to the GasBuddy website. Crunching these averages tells us that the “average” motorist in the USA can plan to spend $164.95 per month just on gasoline. Obviously, a household with two average drivers – and there are many – could reasonably anticipate spending more than $300 per month just on gasoline.

These obvious costs of automobile ownership are staggering. Driving an older-model car that is paid for, shopping carefully for insurance, being careful to avoid wasted mileage, and carefully maintaining the vehicle to avoid wasted expenses still equals many hundreds of dollars per month in transportation expenses. Needless to say, these automobile expenses force families to make cuts in other areas where money could be better spent – budget categories like housing, food and health care.

Hidden costs of automobile addiction

The American automobile addiction also carries significant hidden costs. These hidden costs can include issues like health costs and social costs.

Health costs

Health costs of automobile dependency include traffic fatalities, obesity, and related diseases. Traffic crashes kill, injure and maim a staggering number of people each year. Motor vehicle dependence also contributes to many other health problems that are a scourge to the entire nation.

Motor vehicle dependence promotes obesity as we drive or ride places rather than walking or cycling. The obesity epidemic in the USA also brings a host of related diseases and illnesses, with everything from diabetes to cancer being linked to sedentary, overweight lifestyles. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 33.8 percent of American adults are currently obese. Roughly 17 percent of children aged 2 – 19 are also obese.

The ultimate health cost associated with motor vehicles is motor vehicle-related death. During 2009, NHTSA reports that 33,808 people were killed in automobile-related crashes This number includes 4,872 non-motorists – mostly pedestrians and cyclists. The fact that these numbers actually represent an improvement in traffic death rates from previous years is little consolation.

Taken together these health costs represent a staggering price to pay for automobile dependence.

Social costs

The social costs of automobile addiction include suburbia (room to park cars), strip malls (room to park cars), the loss of community businesses, and the loss of neighborhoods with neighbors who know one another.

Poor infrastructure planning contributes to dependency and retards better alternatives

Many (most) roads and business/service accesses are designed for automobiles, making it difficult or impossible for cyclists and pedestrians to safely navigate streets. Even when cities do add public transportation, bike paths, bike lanes, or sidewalks it is often an afterthought rather than a core infrastructure component.

The bulk of US transportation funding is dedicated to highways, rather than to public transportation like train or bus service, or to cycling and walking options. Since the US government subsidizes road construction and maintenance, it presents a skewed picture of the actual cost of maintaining that infrastructure rather than investing in better options.

The USA has long fostered an attitude that automobiles are superior to walking/cycling/public transit. This cultural attitude discourages alternative transportation, and contributes to an attitude of disdain toward anyone not in a motor vehicle, thus creating safety issues for pedestrians/cyclists/public transportation users. Anyone who has ever tried to navigate poorly designed streets is already too familiar with this situation.

Rising fuel costs may be the only impetus imaginable to force people to park their cars

Fuel costs now make up a significant portion of many household budgets. My own household, which owns only one used sedan averaging 30 mpg and carefully combining trips, still spends just as much on gasoline as on food each month. Many households certainly spend more.

When monthly fuel costs equal hundreds of dollars it does not take a significant percentage increase in fuel prices to significantly impact household budgets. This creates uncertainty, stress, and financial insecurity for many families.

It is likely that no other force will have a greater impact on compelling Americans to park their cars than rising fuel costs. Sharp increases in fuel costs have been shown to affect driving behavior during recent years. Rising fuel costs could easily be the impetus that causes motorists to consider ways to park their cars and employ alternative methods of transportation.

Once people begin to utilize alternative transportation, the excessive cost of automobiles begins to come into focus. This awareness may also prompt greater support for policies that favor non-automobile transportation solutions, like public transportation routes, bicycle and pedestrian paths, and automobile-free zones.

My current situation

My current situation is one of owning a very used automobile. I presently live in area where walking or bicycling down many roads would be a suicide mission. Motorists traveling along at 70 mph (yes, that is the legal speed limit on secondary highways here), no shoulders along the road, and irrigation ditches immediately adjacent to the roadway all combine to make walking and bicycling quite dangerous. Public transportation in this area is laughable.

I was without a vehicle for some time last winter while I lived in another community that provided free public transportation. Zipcar also had a few hybrid cars conveniently parked within walking distance of a nearby bus route. This worked out quite well for me. Unfortunately, my wife is battling cancer and it did not work out so well for her – particularly during winter months. We ended up purchasing a very used, fuel efficient sedan for her safety.

My future plans are a toss-up between moving to a community where it is practical to not own a vehicle or ditching the house altogether and going the full-time RV route. That may seem contradictory to this article, and in a way it is, but my tentative plan of limited travel (and limited fuel expenses) would still save quite a bit of money over renting a house and utilities, and owning and maintaining a car. Careful planning would also allow my to spend less on fuel than I currently spend.

So, I am stuck with a car for now, but hopefully will not need one in the foreseeable future. I very rarely missed having a car when I did not have one last year. I ordered what I needed from Amazon and walked to the post office to retrieve the package. I also walked to the corner grocery store with a backpack every few days for food supplies. I look forward to parking my car permanently and either not owning a motor vehicle or living out of a motorized home which I only move every few months.

Feedback

What are your experiences with parking your cars? Have you attempted a car-free lifestyle?

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1. How to spend less at the gasoline pump