Could You Use An Extra $10,593 A Year? Then Take Transit

According to a just released report from the American Public Transportation Association, Washingtonians could save $10,593 a year by ditching their cars and taking public transit instead. That's right, $10,593! That's up $411 from last year. The national average savings is $9,596. Washingtonians save more and rank 8th nation-wide in total savings.

The Transit Savings report compares the average monthly transit fare to the average cost of driving. The cost of driving is calculated using the 2008 AAA average cost of driving formula which includes the cost of gas, maintenance, tires, insurance, license registration, depreciation, and finance charges. Other assumptions including the cost of gas, average vehicle miles driven and parking costs, all of which can be found at the link. APTA even provides a handy calculator so you can make the comparison yourself.

Top 10 Annual Savings By City

1. Boston                 $13,490
2. New York             $13,431
3. San Francisco      $12,648
4. Chicago              $11,738
5. Philadelphia        $11,346
6. Seattle               $11,327
7. Honolulu             $11,215
8. Washington, DC  $10,593
9. Los Angeles        $10,455
10. Minneapolis        $10,302

Of course those of us who have been fans of the Chris Balish book How To Live Well Without Owning A Car have known this for a while. The central premise of the book is that going car-free or even car-lite can put you on the road to financial freedom. If you'd like a FREE copy of Chris' book, to learn more about how you too can go car-free or car-lite, or to calculate the money you'll save, the calories you'll burn and the tons of CO2 that you won't put in the air by not driving visit carfreediet.com.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Comments

[David]

I save gobs of money by switching to ZipCar, when I need a car. It's at least $700 per month more in my pocket. I need it to make up for the soaring rent costs here in Arlington. It's getting harder and harder to avoid being pushed out by the enormopus group of wealthy upper class people who have moved here. It's weird to walk be each home and realize that it is occuped by a millionaire. Perhaps not in income but definitely by assets. I am literally surrounded by thousands of millionaires over by the Courthouse Metro. They all claim to be middle class. It is hilarious!

[BeyondDC]

This is not a gimmick. These savings are real, and they affect how lenders or other interested parties read your fiscal situation.

When I first got out of college the apartment building I moved into required a credit check and income report. Since I was fresh out of college I was not making very much money, and they would have turned me down except that by living car free I was able to show them that my paltry income at the time could be stretched further than normal.

Being car-free LITERALLY made it possible for me to live practically on top of a Metro station, in a very nice building.