Higher Gas Prices?--More Trains?

>>>if the gas prices reach the $3/gal mark, its still cheaper for me to drive. I commute eleven miles a day (22 round trip) and if I were to use NJT's bus services (rail is not an option), it would cost me $1.70 each way, for a total of $3.40 a day.<<<

Unless you get your cars, and all maintenance, insurance, etc. for free it costs a lot more to drive than gasoline alone. At 40 cents per mile, a rather low cost car for driving, your true cost for the 22 miles is $8.80, more than double the cost of the bus.

Ken W2KB wrote: Unless you get your cars, and all maintenance, insurance, etc. for free it costs a lot more to drive than gasoline alone. At 40 cents per mile, a rather low cost car for driving, your true cost for the 22 miles is $8.80, more than double the cost of the bus.

That's very true, however, most people don't figure in those hidden costs of operating automobiles ( until a maintenance or repair bill comes in ) when they look at their day to day commuting cost.--- They should---- but they don't. This is why the price of gasoline is the usual measure of what it would take for people to abandon, or drastically reduce, their use of the automobile.

Most insurance costs are fixed--they remain the same whether the car is on the driveway or in the Lincoln Tunnel. And since suburbanites need their cars for all out-of-house activities, the purchase price has no bearing on commuting (except when a second car is purchased for commuting alone--which I'll admit happens frequently). In most cases, a reasonable cost comparison need only include gas and that portion of maintenance appropriate to the commute.

That said, comments on this thread seem overly optimistic on the future costs of oil. While dips and rises in price will continue, they'll do so on a steadily rising scale. That's always the case with an exhaustible and politically troublesome commodity. The average fuel cost from the past 5 years is higher in than it was in a similar timespan 20 years ago; 20 years from now, the cost of fuel will be higher than it is today.

Put simply: If you buy lots of gas, don't expect a miracle. If a miracle happens, don't expect it to last long.

JFB wrote:Most insurance costs are fixed--they remain the same whether the car is on the driveway or in the Lincoln Tunnel. And since suburbanites need their cars for all out-of-house activities, the purchase price has no bearing on commuting (except when a second car is purchased for commuting alone--which I'll admit happens frequently). In most cases, a reasonable cost comparison need only include gas and that portion of maintenance appropriate to the commute.

What you will be comparing is essentially the daily, weekly, or monthly costs of operating an automobile versus the daily, etc cost of using some form of "public" transportation. Though it is not accurate, most people simply don't look any further than the cost of gasoline vs. the cost of the train ( or bus) ticket. Gasoline prices are steadily rising, but then, so is the price of almost everything. (It's called inflation) It would still take a major, sudden, irreversable increase in the price of gasoline to change the current atmosphere regarding funding and development of additional rail passenger services.

Insurance costs are not necessarily fixed. Many companies vary the rates for communting versus pleasure use, on a sliding scale - the more the commuting distance, the higher the rates. It's true that people often only consider the gasoline.

The location of many jobs in suburban office parks also makes travel by train more difficult.

Here, in my office park in Morris County, somebody from Waldwick in Bergen county would have to take at least three trains and a jitney bus to replace a 30 minute auto commute.