Bob Ransford thinks Metro Vancouver mayors need a study like this Australian one to show voters.
.
Commuter costs and potential savings: Public transport versus car commuting in Australia
Dr. Jian Wang, Southern Cross University. (For the Australasian Railway Association, November 2013)
(In Australian dollars.)
.
To own and commute to work in the CBD five days a week by car, costs the average Australian commuter between $7,432 (5km from the CBD) and $14,639 (25km from the CBD), or an indicative average cost of $11,031 each year.
If Australian commuters decide to retain their car but take public transport to work in the CBD, the annual cost drops to an average of $5,541, a saving of $5,490 (or 50 per cent) compared to driving five days a week. …
If Australian commuters do not own a car or choose not to purchase a second car and instead commute by public transport to work in the CBD, the annual commute costs drops to an indicative average of $1,607. …
.
The average Australian homeowner with a mortgage spent $21,600 on mortgage interest and fees in 2011 (ABS 2012).
They could practically cut that in half with savings from not purchasing a second car and commuting by transit.
Now include in that study the number or percentage of commuters who perform linked trips when commuting – primarily dropping the kids off at daycare or at school, then picking them up on the way back home for sports practice or other lessons, or perhaps, dropping off or picking up a spouse for one leg of the trip, or grocery shopping, or attending a gym class, night class or club meeting.
Also missing is the commute time of car vs. bus/LRT.
In Vancouver car is king as the time it takes, for example from UBC to downtown or from Surrey to UBC, is twice to triple by bus/train vs. car.
So, yes, commuting is cheaper when counting only $s, but it might be 5h longer per week or 250h per year.
Great for CBD workers on standard hours who do not do multi-purpose trips (as well-put by Guest post one) – when you have children you also need to factor in the $ value of your time and the stress factor that is a component of total time available for total tasks required (collecting your children before the centre shuts is not an optional extra) – and it costs by the minute if you are late; factor that in to your simplistic cost:benefit analysis. Additionally not every worker works in the CBD and not every worker works standard hours. Once you have a shiftworker, that person needs a car that is not available to anyone else in the family when they need it. My partner works 10 minutes away by car but an hour and a half by bus/train (changing a 4:35am departure to a 3:15am departure – significant by any stretch of the imagination – this also makes him and his car unavailable for the 8am drop-offs – and, no, I am not getting my children and myself up to drop him off at 4:30am so I can have the car at 8am). I am sure that the public transport advocates would be almost as happy with him parking at his nearest station – that happens to be two equidistance options: a major bus/rail interchange with no commuter parking (in the opposite direction to work) OR the station AT work which has limited parking in to encourage use of the train! So, are shift workers really such a small proportion of the population? Consider: all hospital workers, all public transport workers, most hospitality workers, most telecommunications industry workers (esp television, radio etc), police, fire brigade, paramedics, all airport workers, most cleaners. Sometimes it seems it is only academics to whom this significant population is not noticeable. Perhaps they should be using their research to justify ‘unsocial hours’ pay bonuses to people in these industries who are poorly served by public transport at the TIMES they need to travel (or by lack of commuter parking) who cannot do away with their car.
All very interesting. @ Kate – your partner works 10 minutes away from where he lives: why doesn’t he ride a bike? He would be there in 25/30 minutes, and I can imagine that if he is leaving at 4.30 in the morning other cars would not have to be a consideration so it would be very safe. It’s interesting hearing about the dependancy on cars and this being seen as the only alterntive. Many people in London don’t own a car and they manage to do all the various tasks and errands that you point to above. We need to demand better from our politicians so that proper planning policy can be implemented (this is certainly the case in Australia – we currently have no long term strategic plan for the country which is appalling).