Reporter Mike Lloyd at News1130 passed along this blog post from Jason Tang in TO:
Cost of Car Ownership Living in Toronto
.
Up until the condo boom that began ten years ago, it was still fairly affordable to own a car in downtown Toronto because parking was freely available and there was less congestion. I remember when drivers needed to feed the parking metre only up to 18:00 prior to 2001 and parking spaces in new condos sold for 19K$ a piece in 2002 but that was then.
In my line of work focused on downtown Toronto real estate, I meet many renters and younger home buyers who surprisingly still want a parking space with their one bed room or 1 + den condo when they are on a budget and many times I have to remind them of the cost of a car in the city. I’ve done the maths many times and I am speaking from my own experience, owning a car costs $10K a year in Toronto!
Here’s the simple breakdown:
- car payments or depreciation on a $20K VW Jetta: $400/month
- parking space at home: $200
- parking going out: $60
- insurance: $2K/year ~$160 per month
- petrol: $100 for ‘Sunday drivers’
- maintenance: $50/per month
Total $870 per month = >$10,400 per year..
.
870$ monthly means an extra 150K$ mortgage. 870$ means a lot of taxi rides, TTC monthly pass and picking up a car anytime you want at your nearby car-sharing lot.
In Toronto, thanks to the proliferation of car sharing programmes at car2go or Zipcar, you really don’t need a car unless you are a real estate agent or if you reserve-commute to the suburb for work.
All this cost is on top of the dilemma that many one bedroom condo units built after 2005 were ineligible for a parking space when buying new from the developer, so you need to buy the parking space separately if it’s really necessary. …
Car ownership has become prohibitive and a luxury in Toronto. It also means we are growing up, when we no longer need a car for our daily lives.
.
Mike would like to know if there are similar figures for Vancouver. I’d like to know if any of you have stories or anecdotes from personal experience. Could be an interview there!
These are pretty much the same laughable numbers published by those wooly-headed “war-on-the-car” goofballs — the Canadian Automobile Association. See their PDF on annual driving costs.
http://www.caa.ca/driving-costs/
On big issue is that most parking is subsidized. The issue is that in many cases parking is highly subsidized. Just focusing on the parking ‘at home’, most people don’t pay $200 per month and that number is a fairly optimistic estimate of the cost to construct and maintain parking in a dense urban area with high land values. In most cases, the parking is subsidized with higher rents.
Just as an example, UBC rents out an underground spot for $65 in their faculty/staff housing. I asked them about the numbers and they are aware that that’s way below construction and maintenance cost (the $200 figure would be a reasonable estimate, they have been quite good about sharing ramps and utilizing space). The difference is simply added onto the rent for living space. So the people that choose not to own a car in UBC faculty housing effectively cross-subsidize someone else’s parking spot. To the tune of about $135 per month.
Similarly, the parking at work is often highly subsidized. To take UBC for example, the charge for parking at UBC only includes construction and maintenance, but not land value. If UBC parking would have to lease the land from UBC, just like a developer who builds housing for people at UBC would, the cost for parking would again be in the $200 ballpark (plus taxes).
Or the City of Vancouver, who taxes private land that people use for living or commercial activities but gives away public land for free for people to store their cars (free on street parking in most of the city). People will claim that they pay for the on-street parking through their property taxes, but why cross-subsidize parking that way?
How many people would give up their cars if parking wasn’t subsidized?
One could argue that the appropriate place for privately owned assets like cars is private property. If you have a car, you must find a place on your own property to store it or buy space from someone else.
Yet all over the city the opposite is happening. Garages, carports and driveways are being replaced by lane way homes that either have one tiny garage or no vehicle storage capability whatsoever. The city is effectively telling residents that the appropriate place for private property is the public domain.
Indeed. Park gm ought to be charged at least at cost. Cost to the city is forgone revenue on land worth billions. Using land cost of $1-$10M an acre
, depending on density or nearby property values a 6×20 parking spot on a public street ought to provide $150-$3000 a year or $40 to $420/month per car per month.
As such, the residential parking permits issued today are far far too low.
The math: an acre is roughly 40,000 sq ft. A $1M an acre is $25 per sq ft or $3000 per 120 sq ft parking spot. At $10M an acre, say in Point Grey or High density neighborhoods that would be $30,000 per spot. Or $60,000 per spot for $20M an acre.
$3000 times 5% is $150/year. In Point Grey, easily over $10M an acre, close to $20M actually it ought to be $2000-$3000 a year or well over $200/month to park on the street.
I laughed at the screams of outrage from one Vancouver institution when CRA informed them that they had to start reporting the free parking provided to their workers (including downtown) as a taxable benefit.
Everybody’s pretentious hipster alarm should have started ringing when the author referred to gas as petrol. I’m surprised he didn’t refer to his cell phone as a mobile somewhere.
I’m always surprised by the patronizing tone these kind of pieces take, as if car owners are too dim to realize the expenses involved in keeping a vehicle and need someone clever to point it out to them. Everyone makes a choice on what’s important in their daily life. Some choose to keep a car while others spend the same on ephemeral pleasure like decaf soy lattes or binge drinking craft beer.
You are right that we all need to watch our tone. (I was going to say “mind our tone” but I thought you might object to my taking the piss. Ahem.)
Nobody likes to be patronized.
Be careful of your own tone as well, though. Why is it OK for you to dismiss people as hipsters who spend their money on decaf soy lattes or binge drinking craft beer?
I don’t think most vehicle owners do that math or ever really think about how much their car or truck actually costs because they simply cannot imagine life without it. It’s seen as such a necessity that any cost is justified.
When I worked in a business park in Burnaby I never even considered taking a bus to work. Whatever it cost to keep my car on the road was the cost of keeping my job; I really didn’t want to know how many hours/day I was working just to get there. Ignorance being bliss and all that.
We all have different priorities. My wife and I chose to live within cycling distance of downtown. That means we struggle to pay the bills every month, but that was our choice. You made different choices that include driving a lot more than we do. I hope you’re happy with yours.
PS. I still have the old car from my Burnaby commuting days, but it rarely goes anywhere so my costs are only a fraction of the author’s.
Where do you park your car? Just imagine some of your rent/property taxes being lowered (somewhat) and you being charged directly for parking. Would you still keep your car if you had to pay $200/month for parking, or would you switch to car share?
Well said. But governments want you to use certain things less, or more, via taxation or public policies. So if Vancouver were truly green it would price cars (both parking or driving) far far higher. So I guess it is not really all that green.