ews, that's a very quick return on your investment. I see the big difference between the city and the suburbs. In the city, driving is highly impractical and therefore ruled out. So you're comparing cycling with mass transit. As we pointed out, car ownership is dominated by fixed costs, and they don't go away unless you get rid of the car, which isn't practical. Most of us can ride a great many trips but still can't get rid of our cars.

We have a 2002 VW Passat wagon and a 1998 Honda Civic hatchback. If we got rid of the VW, we wouldn't have a car for road trips, so I guess we would rent. We can't get rid of the Civic, because that's my wife's car, and she drives to NYC where parking is tough. Having a short car is a big advantage. Plus it gets better mileage.

I often have to drive people from our commuting train station to our house. It's one mile, up a steep hill. What can I do? Taxis are unreliable in the suburbs.