Watching General Motors going through its tortured downsizing, bankruptcy and reinvention of itself makes me think of how bloated our relationship to cars here in the U.S. has been for decades. (And I wish with all my heart that every laid-off employee will find a new job soon.)
What all of us need and have always needed since our species climbed down from the trees is to get from place to place. We need mobility. A car of one’s own is only one of many ways to meet that need. . . . . an expensive way, to both the individual and our shared atmosphere.
Yesterday I gave Tony, my funny and fearless vanpool leader, a check for $131. I did this in the happy knowledge that commuting via vanpooling is saving my vanpool pals $128/month in gas and parking alone and me just a bit less than that (I telecommute two days a week). Now that Adam and Kevin have joined our vanpool, all of our savings increase. Some of us commute the 100 miles between Portland and Salem five days a week, others of us two or three days a week. It’s flexible, like most commuting arrangements need to be.
That’s just the beginning. If I count the .55/mile that AAA and the federal government considers to be the real cost of owning and operating my car (this counts in insurance, depreciation, maintenance and repairs as well as gas) then us vanpoolers are saving $1,032/month and $12,384/year, figured by what I call that the whole or real cost of commuting via vanpool. That may sound high, but consider that the vanpool keeps Tony, Kevin, Julianna and Chris from having to own a car, or a second car in their household, at all.
Remember, what we need is just to get from place to place.
Many of you know that I loved the carpool I commuted in for the first year of my job in Salem. It saved me about $6,800 in that year (whole, real cost). Even our fuel-efficient Honda hybrid saves peanuts compared to the power of sharing the ride via carpooling or vanpooling.
And vanpooling is reducing my carbon footprint by more than my carpool did. It’s more fuel-efficient to have more people riding together, even in a larger vehicle that gets fewer miles per gallon. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a 100 mile round-trip commute is crazy, not sustainable in any way. But like many state employees, I love living in Portland and I love my job, which happens to be in Salem. The fact I’m allowed to telecommute two days a week is a real boon to my quality of life, and I’ll write a set of tips on telecommuting later this month.
people travel 100 miles each day of the week? that sounds a bit crazy to me. wouldnt it be much cheaper to just move closer to work instead? you wouldnt just save money, but could also spent moch more time doing other stuff, instead of being stuck in traffic. sure, you might have friends where you live now, but you would probably meet new people in new places as well.