This is sort of in reference to JW(?I think) who wrote about the toll of
automobile traffic on neighborhoods and communities.
On October 30 last year the Boston Globe ran a very interesting report that grew
out of a conference on accessible development, sponsored MIT. On page 38 I
found a riveting sidebar story on the costs of car travel.
What Car Travel Really Costs
Jane Holtz Kay
At what price auto-dependence?
The cost of the car in dollars and
cents comes high. According to most
economists, it figures at $4,000 in direct
costs and another $4,000 in indirect ex-
penses per car per year. The first $4,000
is the personal pocketbook payments for
the car with its gas, parking, insurance -
plus taxes for building, repairing and
operating roads. The second $4,000
reckons in external costs for congestion,
pollution and accidents.
Put another way: We pay out more to
our car dealers, mechanics and gas
stations than to our grocers.
According to the US Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the standard American
Household allots almost a fifth of its
budget to car-related costs. That's
75 cents a mile or around $6.00 a
rush-hour trip in New England,
according to a recent report by the Con-
servation Law Foundation.
"The model American puts in 1,600
hours to get 7,500 miles," reformer Ivan
Illich wrote two decades ago. Both the
time and the money have escalated. In a
sense, each family is in the transporta-
tion business, but number-crunchers say
the real economic toll goes further. The
costs of the automobile and the 3 million
miles of roads covering an area equal to
the state of Iowa carry land and environ-
mental costs ranging from polluted
ground water to lungs injured by ex-
hausts and bodies cramped by "car potato"
lifestyles. Apart from the human tragedy,
accidents and deaths to 40,000
drivers and pedestrians a year carry a
price tag.
Add to this the facts that almost a
third of our energy consumption is in
this transportation sector, a primary rea-
son for our $56 billion negative trade
balance in oil this decade, and that we
waste more than two billion hours a year
in traffic jams.
"Cars on welfare," the CLF calls the
hidden subsidies. Drivers pay less than
20 percent of the cost of driving, they
affirm, and only 60 percent of road con-
struction and maintenance. While we
talk of "deficits" for public transit, the
deficits of private transit behind the
wheel are formidable.
Can anyone out there give me an approximate figure on
per person subsidies for public transportation, both direct and
what the potential indirect savings are?
And a final observation: Holtz didn't add the destructive impact of
auto traffic on communities. This is probably because cars cannot be
isolated from other negative influences, and because we don't monetarily value
communities in America - after all, who'd buy something we think we should get
for free? If we could add that it's any body's guess where the actual annual
cost of cars should be set.
In Boston the Financial District is so badly choked by traffic that there have
been proposals to route all traffic away and close the F.D. streets to auto
traffic. Maybe build satellite parking way out to encourage workers not to
drive into the metro region at all, but park and take public transit. That
would, among other things, improve business in that area.
I know Washington, D.C.'s traffic problems were to have been solved by the
Beltway (optimism circa 195?). It was gridlocked from almost the day of
completion. The only problem solved by the Beltway is how to easily label
Washington "insiders." What impact would a similar auto-ban (please excuse the
pun) have on troubled D.C. businesses, employment and social problems? Any
chance the increased foot traffic would operate to suppress or obviate some of
the street crime? What do you folks think?
automobile traffic on neighborhoods and communities.
On October 30 last year the Boston Globe ran a very interesting report that grew
out of a conference on accessible development, sponsored MIT. On page 38 I
found a riveting sidebar story on the costs of car travel.
What Car Travel Really Costs
Jane Holtz Kay
At what price auto-dependence?
The cost of the car in dollars and
cents comes high. According to most
economists, it figures at $4,000 in direct
costs and another $4,000 in indirect ex-
penses per car per year. The first $4,000
is the personal pocketbook payments for
the car with its gas, parking, insurance -
plus taxes for building, repairing and
operating roads. The second $4,000
reckons in external costs for congestion,
pollution and accidents.
Put another way: We pay out more to
our car dealers, mechanics and gas
stations than to our grocers.
According to the US Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the standard American
Household allots almost a fifth of its
budget to car-related costs. That's
75 cents a mile or around $6.00 a
rush-hour trip in New England,
according to a recent report by the Con-
servation Law Foundation.
"The model American puts in 1,600
hours to get 7,500 miles," reformer Ivan
Illich wrote two decades ago. Both the
time and the money have escalated. In a
sense, each family is in the transporta-
tion business, but number-crunchers say
the real economic toll goes further. The
costs of the automobile and the 3 million
miles of roads covering an area equal to
the state of Iowa carry land and environ-
mental costs ranging from polluted
ground water to lungs injured by ex-
hausts and bodies cramped by "car potato"
lifestyles. Apart from the human tragedy,
accidents and deaths to 40,000
drivers and pedestrians a year carry a
price tag.
Add to this the facts that almost a
third of our energy consumption is in
this transportation sector, a primary rea-
son for our $56 billion negative trade
balance in oil this decade, and that we
waste more than two billion hours a year
in traffic jams.
"Cars on welfare," the CLF calls the
hidden subsidies. Drivers pay less than
20 percent of the cost of driving, they
affirm, and only 60 percent of road con-
struction and maintenance. While we
talk of "deficits" for public transit, the
deficits of private transit behind the
wheel are formidable.
Can anyone out there give me an approximate figure on
per person subsidies for public transportation, both direct and
what the potential indirect savings are?
And a final observation: Holtz didn't add the destructive impact of
auto traffic on communities. This is probably because cars cannot be
isolated from other negative influences, and because we don't monetarily value
communities in America - after all, who'd buy something we think we should get
for free? If we could add that it's any body's guess where the actual annual
cost of cars should be set.
In Boston the Financial District is so badly choked by traffic that there have
been proposals to route all traffic away and close the F.D. streets to auto
traffic. Maybe build satellite parking way out to encourage workers not to
drive into the metro region at all, but park and take public transit. That
would, among other things, improve business in that area.
I know Washington, D.C.'s traffic problems were to have been solved by the
Beltway (optimism circa 195?). It was gridlocked from almost the day of
completion. The only problem solved by the Beltway is how to easily label
Washington "insiders." What impact would a similar auto-ban (please excuse the
pun) have on troubled D.C. businesses, employment and social problems? Any
chance the increased foot traffic would operate to suppress or obviate some of
the street crime? What do you folks think?