Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 23:16:37 -0500 From: Tim McNamara <timmcnnospamtream.net> Subject: Re: How much is this car worth? - Ungrateful whiner!
Johannes H Andersen <johsnospamfitterlikneasfuongtuintgsjadfasejk.com> writes: > But it's also the amount of driving that surprises me. Me 9000 has > done 100k miles in 11 years. Perhaps the US is a larger country so > people have to drive more. They also have drive-in cinemas, burger > bars, everything and I've heard that many people live their lives in > their cars? We have a pronounced car culture in the US, in which all other forms of transportation are seen not as alternatives but as impediments to driving: pedestrians, cyclists, buses, trains, etc. Many American's private policy is to avoid personal exertion and use the car at all times, even to drive to the health club for exercise. Our transportation policy tends to be centered on moving cars rather than moving people and goods. It's not unusual for people to have a 40 mile (64 km) one-way commute to work. Do that 250 times a year and you've got 20,000 miles right there. On top of that, places like supermarkets and doctor's offices are often unapproachable except by car or by risking your life to get there on foot or by bike. However, America is not unique. Wherever people buy cars, they tend to develop this behavior pattern. My wife's relatives in Denmark have developed this (despite the aggressive taxation on cars there) and this is also becoming a phenomenon in China as people become more affluent and can afford to buy a car. Much of Europe seems to be struggling with how to reduce driving; America has not yet confronted this and prefers instead to spend hundreds of billions of dollars building roads that are already obsolete by the time they are completed. My area got its first modern light rail system, all of 8 miles long. Initial ridership was hoped to be 9,500 people per day and twice that by the end of the year; actual ridership was near 20,000 per day in the first week of operation! Perhaps there's hope for a more rational transportation system after all, even here. Through it all, I try to ride my bike to work when I can and consolidate my driving trips as much as possible. My 1990 240 has only 138,000 miles on it, 34,000 of which I have put on in 2 1/2 years of ownership. My wife's 1990 240 just topped 200,000 miles, but it had 184,000 when we bought it.
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