The automobile is the king of the suburbs. It reigns over every movement of our day. How we get to work or school, how we meet with friends and family, how we see the doctor, get our groceries, get to the park - it is always with the automobile. Even when we are outside of the automobile we cater to its needs, pedestrians squeeze themselves to one side of the street, kids remain in backyards, and cyclists hold their breath every time a car passes them just a little too closely. We infantilize our children and elderly, limit their world so that the car can roam our neighbourhoods unencumbered. And anytime someone gets the silly little idea to install a bike path or expand the public transit system, we, like the good obedient servants that we are, get on our soap box and pay homage to our lord and saviour - the car. When the antichrist urbanist cries about the danger, the carnage and the deaths that our almighty has caused we dutifully stick our heads in the sand and forget the friends and family that were sacrificed on our asphalt alters.
For the true suburban pragmatist, the pleads for environmental protections and safety for the car-less folk are just gibber jabber that gets in the way of them and the luxury that is the personal automobile. For these are far away problems for far away people. One cannot remotely open the suburban pragmatist’s mind, it has to be done up close and personal. And what is more personal to a suburban pragmatist than money?
The personal automobile is by the far the most expensive form of transit, but by how much?
A demonstration is in order. In 2014 Jim buys a used car for $17,000 and drives it for ten years. To register the car every year adds up to $1,800. He drives the car for his daily commute and needs, so he fills the tank every week and a half, at an average of $1.43/L, over ten years he pays $23,000 in gas. To change his tires and get an oil change twice a year is another $3,500. Half have through the decade he has to replace both sets of tires, $2,400. He gets an average run of the mill insurance plan at $70/month totalling $8,500. Regular maintenance and upkeep is another $3,000. At the end of the ten years Jim has spent $57,000 for his transportation. He sells his car for $3,000.
But what if Jim had used public transit instead of buying a car? In that same ten year period, a monthly OPUS card would have cost him a total of $11,000. If Jim had used the $17,000 to open a TFSA instead of buying a car and had invested the difference in cost every month into the Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF, then his account would have a balance of $114,250. He contributed a total of $46,500 and gained an astounding $67,750.
Now do you see the lunacy Mr. Suburban? What a malignant cult you have been in. Huffing and puffing at Jim on his bike ‘TAKING UP THE F—-ING ROAD!’. But while you were literally burning through your cash, Jim was taking it to the bank, he was buying a house or saving for retirement. All the while getting exercise, meeting his neighbours, finding time to read or nap on the bus and make friends with the train inspectors. Those ten years you spent in a metal box, stuck in traffic, having to always focus on the road, rushing to get a session in at the gym and falling asleep with the same paperback keeping you company on your bedside table with a smooth spine - what luxury indeed.
I forgot to mention one thing Mr.! In my scenario Jim had a choice, but after years of dutiful worship to the car we no longer have that option. Walking down to the local market to pick some ingredients for dinner is just a fleeting moment we get to experience during a week in Europe. As soon as our feet touch back on holy land we dutifully return to our metal box crawling through the local drive-through wondering why the rest of the world has yet to adopt this technological wonder.
