Nooo... that's not possible, is it??? That the average Canadian car sits idle for 96% of the time? What the heck??
But when I think about it... for us... it might just be true.
I was doing some rough calculations let's look at yesterday...
- I drove to Starbucks, then to the grocery store, then to the gas station, then home. Total trip length, 20 minutes.
- In the afternoon, we drove to the drugstore and then to some friends, then home. Total trip length, 40 minutes.
That's an hour of driving... on a day when we did a fair bit of zipping around. Most days, we don't drive that much.
Sooo... let's do the math...
- 1 hour avg driving/day x 365 days = 365 hours (give or take) of driving in a year
- And there are 24 hours in a day multiplied by 365 days in a year = 8760 hours in a year
- Soooo... 365/8760 (# of hours we drive / total hours in a year) = 4.16%
- Which means... our car sits idle for 95.84% of the year. Round up to... 96%
Shit.
***fingers tapping on table top***
Wow. And most Canadians (including us) believe that we can't do without a vehicle. Really.
But what about commuters? Well, let's say people drive 20 hours/week... their car "only" sits idle 90% of the time....
Which makes me wonder... given we use the car for 365 hours/year... what are the hourly costs for the vehicle...
- Insurance - $1000/yr
- Maintenance - $2000/yr
- Gasoline - $2000/yr
- Vehicle Cost - $1000/yr ($10,000 purchase price and we keep it for 10 years)
Let's say $6000 per year... and if we use it for 365 hours... we are paying $16/hour which is cheaper than a taxi but... add in more up front cost (avg Canadian pays $5000/yr for their vehicle), more insurance (avg Canadian pays $1500/yr) and more gas (pickup trucks or SUVs) and more maintenance... and that hourly rate could go up dramatically - more like $30/hour if someone uses it for the average of 380 days/year.
Wouldn't it make more sense to use a Car Share system like Evo or Modo? I have a friend in Winnipeg who, for years, didn't own a car and just used Winnipeg's car share system (Peg Car). It worked very well for her... What about us?
Modo Car Share
So, for Modo, there is a monthly fee of $4 or $5 depending on your level of membership. And then... you get charged for time usage and distance usage.
Soooo... say I wanted to do a 3 hour shopping trip - say 30 km. That includes Starbucks, Superstore, Home Depot, recycling, another grocery store, gas station and going home. A typical Friday shopping/errand day.
So, that would cost $30 for the 3 hours... so $10/hour, plus the monthly fee pro-rated for a daily rate ($0.15/day).
It seems like a no-brainer. With a car share vehicle... we don't have to worry about maintenance... or new tires... or insurance. Less headaches. But what about gasoline? I checked and, with Modo, you need to make sure the tank is relatively full, but you pay with the gas card in the vehicle. And if the gas card doesn't work, for some reason, you pay for the gas yourself and the submit the gas to get reimbursed. Soooo... no gas costs... although you do still need to visit a gas station.
And they have cars, and pickups and vans available... handy.
The only hiccup is... availability. If we lived in Vancouver... it would be a no-brainer...
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| Vancouver's Modo Car Share locations |
Like say... Kitsilano... a Modo is maybe a 5 min walk...
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| Modo Car Locations in Kitsilano, Vancouver |
But... where we live... (not Vancouver)... all of the Modos are in a cluster downtown. Which is an 8 minute drive or a 45 minute walk. Not exactly convenient. I don't want to pay $20 for a taxi to take me to a Modo spot! Or a 30 minute bus ride.
And in British Columbia, if you live anywhere less than 100,000 people, you are completely out of luck. Vancouver and Victoria are well-served but... beyond that... it's not exactly handy.
Soooo... for those of us living outside the centre of the universe (Vancouver or Victoria)... we are out of luck. But... if Modo ever expanded and there was a Modo car within a 5-10 minute walk... we might ditch our vehicle... I say "might" because I can catastrophize quite easily. "What if there a local disaster and we need to evacuate? We NEED a car then!"
We aren't unique... 84% of Canadians feel they couldn't live without their cars and yet... the average Canadian's car sits idle 96% of the time. It's a paradox... and not easily solved. Especially for those of us who live in smaller, more rural, or less urban communities. Car sharing would have to expand dramatically... or the Google self-driving vehicles...
RideShares (Uber, U-Ride, Lyft)
Because I did look into U-Ride (it's like Uber). And it's not cheap. I am sitting at a Starbucks... it's about 5 km or an 8 minute drive. With U-Ride (on a Saturday morning at 8 am)... that is going to cost $25 one-way. What??
A taxi would only cost $16-18 for the exact same trip!!! I thought RideShares were supposed to be cheaper than taxis???? WTH?
Now imagine an errand run... where I drive to the grocery store with my recycling (loaded into the U-Ride?) get the driver to wait (?) while I do my grocery shopping... then load groceries in car and go to recycling and get driver to wait (?) while I do recycling?? No... not feasible.
Or is the solution to do it all via delivery? Get groceries delivered via Instacart? I guess... in a pinch... But I don't think URide is the solution. Not when it's more expensive than a taxi!
The Future
Don't know what the future holds. But our love affair with cars is going to have to shift at some point. Not sure what the solution is... maybe neighbourhood car sharing? Where neighbours share their vehicles? Several communal neighbourhood vehicles? What might that look like? Because someone who drives to work (8 min) and then has the car sit idle all day and then drives home (8 min) is not an efficient use of a vehicle.
Or is it peer-to-peep (P2P) car sharing... kind of like Airbnb, but for cars (e.g.
Turo). Where people can post their cars, available for rent/use, on an app and then someone else can rent them... that is an interesting concept... and still in its infancy. I had a look... and in our city, it's $140/day for a Turo car (as a base rate) and there is no hourly option. But maybe... in the future...
I do think we'll also need to get more strategic in planning our vehicle usage. Using more trip-chains (more on that in another blog)... basically... combining errands into a daisy chain of stops rather than a sequence of one-stop errands from home. Think figure-8 trips as opposed to star-burst trips.
Time will tell... and maybe there is some cool, efficient solution that is still waiting to be born. I certainly hope so....
