Monday, June 21, 2010

Cost of Transportation

Last week, I talked about how it takes around the same amount of time to get between Downtown Vancouver and Langley comparing transit to driving. Today, I thought I would look at the cost of getting between these locations. The most you will pay for transit is $5 per one-way trip. If you buy a monthly pass and commute daily, it will cost you $3.78 per one-way trip.

Based on the current fuel price of $1.119/L, fuel ratings, and travel distance of 47km: If you own a hybrid car it will cost you about $2.07 per one-way trip, $3.86 if you own a sub-compact car, and $5.60 if you own an average car on fuel. If you own a pickup truck, you’ll spend on average $7.83 per one-way trip on fuel. Now if you factor in the cost of parking at $4 per day, you’ll be looking at $8.14 to $19.66 per day on transportation. Transit cost $7.56 to $10.00 per day: an average saving of 28%! With the upcoming Port Mann toll of $6 per day, driving your car into Vancouver will be like burning money and I haven’t even talked about the upkeep costs of daily commuting.

Most people are smart and take transit into Downtown Vancouver, but where we really need improved service is to areas within the South Fraser. With high quality, frequent service that can compete with the automobile, coupled with transit-friendly neighborhoods, we can certainly attract people to transit in my neck-of-the-woods.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where are you parking downtown for just $4 per day?!? The cheapest lot I know of is $9/day and it's on the edge of the downtown east side where taking the stairs means stepping over pools of various substances expelled from the human body.

Nathan Pachal said...

Yes, it is daily price of parking for someone with a monthly pass at the Keefer Street Parkade in Chinatown which is right by my work.

Joe Zaccaria said...

Also the condo building at Beach & Hornby and the condo at the corner in Yaletown at the roundabout near the waterfront. Many condo buildings are required to have cheap public parking available to anyone.