Urban Discoveries Baltimore

Cars are pricey.  Taxes, title, registration, gas, oil, parking, that one time our friend stuck his head out the window and we got a ticket for reckless driving, insurance, depreciation, whatever it is that’s draining our battery, the time we got hit and run, the cost of just buying a car in the first place… whoosh, it’s a lot of money.  We like being able to drive to the movies whenever we want, but sometimes we wonder if it’s all really worth it.

And maybe it’s not.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
(as reported by the New York Times) the average American household – pretax income of $63,091 and owning 1.9 cars – spent $8,758 on all forms of transportation in 2007, or $729.83 a month, for a total of 13.8% of their earnings. (And only $537.81 of that going towards public transportation – including taxis and airplanes!  Shameful, shameful!)  Maybe we’re just naïve, pie-eyed kids who can’t ever imagine spending $8,220.19 a year on cars alone, but we think that there have to be better uses for our hard-earned money.  For example, if you cut your transportation bill in half – say by getting rid of nine-tenths of a car – and applied the savings to a monthly mortgage payment, that would enable you to afford a house costing anywhere from $50,000 – $100,000 more at the time of signing.

But some of you may already be realizing the steep cost of driving.  According to the Times, automobile traffic has declined for thirteen straight months now.  While initially the decline was caused by the high cost of fuel last summer, its continuation is thought to be recession-related.  People, looking to save a dollar here and a dollar there, are taking more public transportation, perhaps reinforcing the good habits they picked up last summer.  And it won’t just be your pocketbook that’ll be benefiting from getting rid of a car, but also, surprisingly, your heart.

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