The Cost of Car vs. Bike Ownership
03/18/09
Here’s an interesting comparison of the financial cost of owning a car vs. going car free and maintaining a bicycle as a primary form of transportation. It indicates that families who can do without a car will free up a pretty astounding amount of after-tax income.
“In 2007, a statistically average household, with an annual pre-tax family income of $63,091 and 1.9 vehicles, spent more on transportation than it did on clothing, health care and entertainment combined ($7,432).”
By comparison, a New York group called Transportation Alternatives estimates the annual cost of bike ownership for a family to be about $1,000.
Given these numbers, incentive programs that get people to lose their cars would appear to be a no-brainer stimulus spending opportunity. A $2,500 tax incentive would free up almost $10,000 of after-tax income for a family willing to get rid of one car for a year.
In addition to freeing up a huge chunk of money for recession-strapped families, such an incentive would drive demand for public transit and car-sharing services, reduce pollution and get people walking and biking instead of driving.
I wonder what level of incentive spend would be needed to get a significant number of families to lose one or more cars. Seattle offers some incentives, but they seem pretty weak to me. The program used to offer $600 in cash, but then it got over-subscribed and was shut down. I’m assuming it’s a good idea that is just resource-constrained.
What about the health-related costs of a car-centric approach to transportation? I see lots of articles that imply a connection between higher car ownership rates and rising obesity or other health problems, but I haven’t seen a study that shows that people who rely on cars are more or less healthy than people who are car-free.
The book Inequalities of Health contains a chapter on transportation-related health issues, but it’s focused on accidents and air and noise pollution that affect people regardless of their mode of transportation.
A German study got lots of press this week showing that people who spend time in traffic (whether driving, on a bus, or on a bike) suffer increased chances of a heart attack.