Ridefreemc

I bought tires for my van and my wife's SUV at the same time. Hers were larger size so more expensive, but same brand. She needs new ones in the winter or spring and mine will last another 5 years or so. I think we put them on 3 years ago.

I'm car very light and she is car heavy. It seems I am like steve-in- kvill, as the family has a fairly heavy car use, but I drive very little. The kids mostly ride with friends (in cars), but they ride bikes/walk about 10000% more than their peers.

So about $800 for new tires (hers), $1800 for insurance, and gas etc/year. Yes, new bikes for all with that!

BTW Steve, the "ignore" feature has been my friend. Use it to your advantage. I for one want to read what you have to write.

MikeRides

$1800 for insurance? Holy crap, take some time to shop around... Even if it's a new car with a lien (required full coverage) that seems high. I have full coverage on my truck for under $800 a year; I could downgrade to basic liability for a fraction of that but I like the peace of mind of full coverage in case something happens plus my agent tells me I can't bundle my home/auto/life with basic auto liability (probably false, but never thought about looking into it further)

Ridefreemc

Still high, but that is for two vehicles for one year. I do shop around, but will do so again. My van is about 600/year and the wifey...., but I drove around for 6 months with one of those trackers. The lady at the insurance company said she never saw anyone with such a high discount! Well, I'm livin' car light!! (don't drive much, not at peak times, and no hard braking in six months)

rossiny

Defintaly money in cars.. The money I spent on repairs I could have stocked a bike shop!!!$$$!!!

steve-in-kville 

Try having two teenage drivers on your policy!

Actually, whats funny, we recently added renter's insurance to our auto policy. It costs me hardly anything and reduced my auto policy by about $100/year. Not complaining...

Walter S

That's an odd way to justify spending money on something that does you no good. It's like charity right? That's not just true for cars. It's true for anything at all that you spend cash on as long as your money makes it into somebody else's pocket.

But if your goal is really charity then almost anything is a better way to find people in need.

Diesel_NY

still need a car to "adult" but thats just me

tandempower

I think of cars as more juvenile, while LCF seems more mature to me. Biking/walking and transit use require that you can be mature enough not to worry what other people think of you. It also requires more patience. Driving seems to be for people who are impatient and afraid of what others would think of them if they gave up driving and biked, walked, or took the bus. Patience and the ability to withstand negative social opinion are marks of maturity, whereas impatience and vulnerability to peer pressure are immature.

Roody

My grandson turns 18 soon and still no spoken desire for a car or even DL. The other night he went out in a friend's car for the first time. This alarmed the hell out of me, but for once I was able to keep my big fat grandpa mouth shut about it.

acorn54

i always wondered how much of a persons money having a car consumes. i stopped using a car heavily in my thirties. however i always had economy cars. from what i recall it was one of my largest expenses if not the largest. i think the irs says it costs 70 cents a mile to own a car. when my car dropped dead in 2014 i didn't buy another. to get to work when it is not safe to ride my bike i used a taxi.
i don't know if it really pays to have a job that is so far away from where one lives, that they can't use a bike.
anybody have an idea of how much having a car costs annually?

steve0257

My job requires me to drive 35,000 to 40,000 mile a year. My employer gives a partial reimbursement of around $10,000 per year and I can still deduct around $3,000 in taxes. In other words, cars are expensive. Other than work my annual mileage is probably around 2,000 miles.

For one persons take on vehicle costs, https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/loan...st-owning-car/

acorn54

thanks a bunch! i will pass it along to my brother who is a traveling salesman.

McBTC

The echo chamber some people build around themselves here is deafening... to not understand that people who work for a living can also understand the costs involved and make decisions to use a car and even enjoy riding bicycles for health and sport all while making a useful contribution to society amazes me.

LiquorLad

Apparently it never occurred to you that not everyone in America lives in your location, is your age, has the same driving record, same credit score, same ins. coverage, same vehicle, etc.

LiquorLad

I wish I had known you earlier. I would of offered you my 4 cylinder Honda that died at 150,000km. Heck, I'd even give you a lift in my 24 year old daily driver van.

acorn54

i don't underestimate the mentality of people in our society. the fact that 1/3rd of working people don't live long enough to collect from the social security trust fund they paid into testifies to that. i worked since i was out of high school in 1972 and get a pension, social security, and monthly payments from my ira. in other words i paid my dues to society, to enjoy my golden years, keeping myself in good health by not smoking or drinking so i can be very active and ride my bikes almost every day. i don't know if your comments are addressed to us on this thread who are bike free, i think you overestimate the number of people who think things through before they make decisions.

I-Like-To-Bike

It appears that you do very much underestimate the mentality of people in our society. Specifically, that people who suffer physical or financial hardship do so because they do not have the "mentality" to make the same choices and decisions as you.

Fits well in the LCF echo chamber of self professed moral and mental superiority.

tandempower

Your comment fits well in the ILTB echo chamber of negativity toward anyone critical of conformism as being something done out of weakness and laziness.

acorn54

i could not help myself, usually i bite my lip and don't get into a pissing match with others, live and let live, dont be politically incorrect and criticize, that sort of thing. i read somewhere " i can't make everyone happy with what i say, but getting everyone pissed off is a piece of cake. i just try not to be self destructive, i value my life more as i get older, that's all.
have a good night

cooker

How about you make the rest of us happy and not let him drive you out? I'm interested in what you have to say.

cooker

I disagree. The word "car" is prominent in both the forum title and description, reflecting the fact that cars are ubiquitous, and it is a conscious and deliberate choice not to use them, or to use them less. Commenting on some of the negatives of car ownership and how that might motivate one to look for ways to be less reliant on cars, is completely on topic for the forum.

Roody

We're all smart enough to understand that others are smart enough to make different choices based on personal preferences and values. Just, some of us have worked around rhe driving thing, if you can understand that.

JehD

I wouldn't want to live any where near where I work or even what's considered commmuting range via a bike.

acorn54

food for thought. avoid my ignorance but how far from your domacile do you work? what is it that you feel better living far away from where you work.

tandempower

When I read a post that basically just says that someone favors living far away from work, I see it as an echo of an anti-LCF thought that emerged years ago in response to New Urbanism that promoted the idea that it would be good to live closer to work to avoid driving.

You should realize that there are practiced responses/resistances to LCF movements (like New Urbanism). Basically, what seems to happen is that some people come up with a fleshed-out idea for how to live without driving or with less driving, and then the pro-driving people (UAW supporters, maybe?) devise reasons to reject/resist the ideas of the movement. The general idea seems to be if they can poke enough holes in any and every idea for LCF, they can maintain the status quo of sprawling, driving-dependent cities and suburbs where going CF is mostly difficult, if not impossible.

I don't mind having earnest discussions with anyone about their position, if it is sincere, but I find a lot of people don't really want to earnestly discuss in this way. They just want to deploy sound-bites against LCF. E.g. if there are really reasons someone wouldn't want to live close to work, they could examine why and see if there are ways to resolve those problems and make living near work more palatable. Yet, typically if you engage in such a discussion, the person will just keep challenging you until you give up and give in the idea that it's just not a good thing to live near work and so LCF is doomed to failure. That's obviously what UAW and their parent companies would like to achieve in people's minds, and probably a lot of people who aren't affiliated with them formally share the same interests/biases for whatever reason.