Fantastic video. Sent to my wife. She keeps telling me we should move out of the city to save money. I have to remind her that we would likely need to get another car to make it work.
It really depends where you are. In Belgium, for example, it doesn't matter how you commute and from where. Many companies will pay for car allowance, public transit and cycling to work and back. What liberals in Canada did at very first year of getting back in Ottawa? They have canceled tax return for commute via public transportation.
I feel like moving to the country to save money is the worst idea you could have; sure things are less expensive.... but there's also a lot less money changing hands, and jobs are few and far between unless you know someone who can help you get a job. And then like you said, you gotta drive everywhere in most rural places. Perhaps you could find a middle ground by choosing a small city/town that is in a very rural location, like Burlington Vermont or Portland Maine. (There's a billion cities/towns that could fit this bill, giving you the convenience of civilization while being nestled far into the country. People should ultimately move into the country because they want to live a country lifestyle, rather than purely for financial reasons. The cost of living scales with the economy everywhere you go.
@@kostyafedot551 there are caps on those, though. And a lot of criticism, among them from the OECD, who rightfully identified the company car with fuel card as one of the major drivers for traffic congestion in the country. It's been abused to offset the high taxation on wages in Belgium, but frankly, I'd be absolutely fine with abolishing this fiscal advantages in lieu for a lowering of those wage taxes. The current system promotes people moving further away than need be (and that's not a joke, I have heard several people argue that they should move further from their work, because they could get more out of it). While I think there are good reasons to keep at least some reimbursement for public transport and bike facilities, I'd be fine if they were scrapped as well.
0:34 Stop right there. We know people on theses shows are like : men : works 1 hour a week at home sharpening colored pencil women : resells egg online Budget : 1.7 million dollars
Thank you for focusing on urban transport and not sport. A few years ago I listened to you and got a commuter bike e-bike and sold a car. I have not looked back.
As my car started breaking down, I started to ride my bike to work. But even now when it drives well, I still use my bike. I have so much more money in my pocket.
I live in Seattle and I constantly point out to people that parking alone can cost more than an "expensive" bike. $10/day for parking works out to $2500/ year for 250 working days.
@@nimblybimbly4002 True! I think of R&M as frankly an "enthusiast" brand rather than something utilitarian. REI has been putting out their own line of e-bikes at some considerable discount for awhile now, and while the gen e1.1 had issues early on, they responded to feedback and produced I think a great bang-for-buck general purpose e-bike.
Yes, the cost of owning a car close to the city centre seemed far too low - I'd imagine in the 'downtown' neighbourhood you'd need to pay for parking, whether it's on or off street.
I hate car maintenance so much that I try to ride my bike whenever possible. I installed some baskets on my bike and that has helped. Thank you for the encouragement to try to make more trips by bicycle.
The depreciation, maintenance, consumables and fuel for a car can be broken down by the mile so basically any time you ride somewhere you're basically paying yourself a bonus to ride a bike around. Kind of like how when some people quit smoking they start treating themselves to new toys or nice nights out because they realize they are gaining all the money they used to spend on cigarettes.
It's a risky strategy. I used to do that, and then on the rare occasions where I wanted to ride a car the battery was already dead 🤣 But I live in Europe, in the middle of a city area that has buses, trams and commuter rail, and I only rode 28000km in my car in over 6 years, and that was including vacation trips. I ended up selling the car.
Hi, I haven't owned a car in nearly 10 years now. I bike every day and I bought a bike trailer too. If I need a vehicle, I can rent one. But as far as owning another vehicle, NOPE. Vehicles are just money pits😂.
Selling our car this spring after a year or so of me and partner, bike commuting in Winnipeg. We're going to keep it over the winter and see how often we need to use it. I am assuming that the amount we may need to use city car share, will be easily justified by the savings.
One of the reasons for homelessness. People have to choose between their house or their car. They choose to live in their car because they need transportation to get to their job.
For sure. I totally agree. If you have the option to 1000% be certain, if I give up my car and bike, I will be able to afford rent, amazing! Easy choice! But it is never that simple. The way rent is these days..... and how fast it's going up? I can only imagine there will be a lot more people living in their cars.
As an transportation geographer, it's great to see you cover this. Academic circles have been criticizing this "drive 'til you qualify" suburban sprawl and super-commuting for some time since few people consider the cost of driving. Massive spikes in fuel costs, like after Hurricane Katrina, had a huge impact on those super-commuters. Value of Time could also be included in your calculation and would help biking look better because, as you said, commuting by bike doubles as your exercise. Another knock against the suburban house is that it locks you in to doing nearly everything by car. Add 50%-100% to your driving costs.
@@mustbetrue1602 if you ever do move to a rural farm area, please don't complain about the smells and noises that come with farming or slow moving farm equipment on roads. It would be like moving near an airport and complaining about noise from the airplanes. Living in a farming area means you are living in sort an industrial area. Rural areas are not always the quiet and idyllic places urbanites and suburbanites assume them to be. They are places where people are trying to earn a living.
I don't how people deal with commutes to a job over 1 hour away. I always consider drivinga car to work as unpaid labor. Its kinda stressful and risky and it makes my day longer
@@edgeofEurasia Agree 100%. If you're out in the country there's all kinds of stuff to accommodate. The worst offenders imo are developers who overbid farmland and immediately do an unregulated (outside city limits) subdivision which causes huge traffic on otherwise low-traffic farm roads.
that's a good point. commuting by bike still takes time, energy etc but at least sort of neutralizes a lot of the huge drawbacks of doing it by car. i get in some exercise, i enjoy being outside, it improves my mood before and after work. it should still be paid as regular labour by your job but it's at least something we can do to even the odds on an individual basis
Yup I can see that quickly becoming an issue, it's pretty obvious living in a "rural" area by Dutch standards with just a bakery and butcher left in the town (10 km to the nearest city, 4.5 km to a nearby town with some shops, 7-8 km to the two larger towns with many shops and facilities. There used to be a grocery store while I grew up here, the building is still there but with a residential use now it's a pretty big home but as a store it'd be tiny by todays standards. It does result in most people defaulting to owning a car and doing all their grocery shopping by car, it's understandable since it saves time and especially with a larger household you'd probably need a cargo bike (especially when hauling crates of beer bottles). Fortunately I can manage that just fine with just my ebike for practically everything, it does help that I just have to get food for myself and two cats but I'm sure with some planning even getting stuff for multiple people is doable by double panniers and a backpack and a weekly main groceries trip. Public transport is reasonable as well with a fairly frequent bus to the city which has a combined bus and train station. For the incidental trips like vet visits, getting big heavy litterbox filling material for the cats, etc I usually borrow one of the cars of my parents that live 800m away from here. Just the costs for having a car add up quickly even if you don't drive it around much: insurance, depreciation, regular inspections with inevitable repairs/replaced parts as a result (yearly on older cars, less frequent if they are new). @@edgeofEurasia And the farm equipment isn't just slow moving, it's also heavy and wide. Which matters especially if it let's say passes through whatever street the house is (mostly noise, possibly also vibrations) or you're on the often narrow middle of nowhere roads (here in the Netherlands at least) where both you and the farm contraption will typically have to slow down and let one side of the vehicle get off the road surface. Oh and the plane thing yup that's a thing for sure, really baffled me many times living hear a military airbase. It used to host F-16 planes and that got replaced by F-35 recently, pretty sure they flew F-104 starfighters before my time. I can kinda understand people not liking their changed noise profile compared to the F-16 and the increased amount of flights due to training requirements and higher priority on exercises since the military situation to the east. But getting upset at every little plane is a bit silly. That's like choosing to live next to a traditional old church and being surprised they ring a bell every hour.
Started riding my bike so much that my car battery was dead every time I went to use it. Sold my car and it’s so nice not thinking about the maintenance, emissions tests, parking stickers etc. if I need to rent a car there’s an app for that
It might also be worth including the cost in time for the different commute options. Driving 20 km in rush hour traffic is bound to take way longer than a 1.5 km bike ride, even in traffic.
Very true, I live in Calgary and work downtown, I used to live 25km away (close to the house in the beginning of video) and now I live 2 km from work, I cycle now but initially I switched from a 25-50 minute drive to a 15-20 minute walk that's now a 5-10 min cycle, sooo much more pleasant!
My bike commute used to be slightly longer than my car commute. However, as traffic worsens every year, that has switched, and my bike commute is now shorter than a car commute would be. Still, the local government blows its budget trying to build more and more roads, rather than investing in driving alternatives.
@@OfTheGaps One year I charted out the average commute time between home and work (Seattle, Ballard to the UW, 5.9 miles) by bus, car, and bike. Total time from the door of my house to the door of my office. Bus averaged 47 minutes, bike 32, car 30. The car included a 7 minute walk from a parking garage. It's one of the factors that got me to ditch my car 25 years ago. Now traffic is much worse, and I invested in an ebike (aging sucks) that's dropped the commute to 22 minutes!
This video inspired me to look up the numbers. In 2023, my Presto spending in Toronto was $561. Not one month. The entire calendar year. S94+tax on Bikeshare. $0 on Uber. $0 on Taxi. No car.
Bike infrastructure is done by the same people working on road infrastructure. The only reason why road infrastructure is cheaper (I won't say free because we all pay taxes through property taxes and income tax that fund yearly road maintenance and upkeep) is because its construction was paid for a long time ago. Right now, on the major street near where I live, the City is repaving the street and also putting in separated bike lanes and revamping the lane structure and parking of that street at the same time in order to introduce bike infrastructure to my area. The car drivers are all up in arms about this, but those of us without cars and who bike and walk in the neighbourhood are all saying that it's about damn time! I can finally bike to the grocery store instead of taking transit!
Because cashflow is a thing. In college my richer friend couldn't understand why I paid 20 for cheap shoes that will fall apart rather than a 75 for ones that will last. Because I have 50 for the week and I need shoes now, and I need to eat.
You're familiar with the saying that "It's an expensive business being poor". On another note I have found that my shoes last longer now that I commute by bicycle so instead of needing to get new shoes I might get a new bike tire. Both shoes and bicycle take me places.
And qualifying for an expensive urban apartment can be out of reach for the middle class. You usually need 3x the monthly rent in income to be considered.
I have a 2018 golf, I calculated the 6 year total cost of ownership at right around $55,0000 over the last 6 years since I got it. The sticker price of the car was “only” $25k, but when you factor in insurance, gas, tolls, parking, taxes, and the opportunity cost of having that money tied up the total cost balloon quickly. We went from a 2 car family to a 1 car family thanks to an ebike and public transit, and while we could afford a second car I’d rather put that nearly $10k a year to savings and vacation.
My family made the switch from 2 cars to 1 car + e-bike and it has really helped cut down on expenses. I have to visit the airport sometimes, which i do with my motorcycle, but in general we get 99% use out of the car and bike. I rent a trailer for landscaping, use a bike trailer for groceries on occasion. Just counting insurance and gas alone it's nearly $2,500 a year in savings.
I've never understood the average person spending so much on cars. I bought a 2007 Volvo in 2019 for £3300. It will need more repairs than a newer car, but it's still way less than what my neighbours have spent on their nearly new SUVs. I know so many people with £200-500 per month car payments. No way could I afford that, and I doubt they can either!
I moved to Montreal and was able to afford a home thanks in large part to not owning a car. With the good public transit and bike infrastructure, I can get by without a car which opens up $800-1200/month for a mortgage
I recently learned about bike lane opposition in Montreal. The "Oh The Urbanity!" channel on here just posted a vid about an anti-bike lane community meeting they attended in Montreal. The objections were...interesting 😅
I suppose part of the issue is that, most people will have a hard cap on what banks are willing to lend them. It's not like you can promise to not buy a car and use alternatives, and then the bank will increase their loan offer. So some people may not have the option to pay more up front, and buy in a more expensive area better connected by public transport, and avoid the long term costs of car ownership. This will be true as long as in a particular city or region car dependent suburbs are the norm, and good public transit service is the exception.
I live in Germany and here it's not as common to own your house. I think almost 60% are renting - we have robust laws that protect renters. Of course that all can change and has changed - in bigger cities house prices and rents increase - so exactly where transportation could be cheaper without a car. You can try to find a middle ground - but with more demand next to a good connected train station it's not easy. I think there are some initiatives to combat that - a whole community trying to buy the apartment building for example. But to combat hedge fonds and other big players buying up property and artificially increasing its value - it's hard to fight against it.
@@theresabu3000 Your last paragraph is a problem in the US too 😭 We also have individuals pooling resources to buy an apartment building, called co-ops. But those are usually in big cities and exceedingly rare.
Thanks for the video! I live in Washington DC and recently ran in to a real estate agent at a coffee shop that specializes in "bike real estate" She said they focus on finding housing for people that want to prioritize biking for their transportation. I thought that was so cool! Next time I look for a place to live, I'm going to try and find a real estate agent like that! (They do all their house showings via bike too!)
This is very cool. Contrast that with a realtor I interviewed several years ago who said in his 20 years he had never had anybody ask him about transportation costs.
This kind of holistic approach to cost of living is really illuminating, I'm glad you're shining a light on it. There will always be people willing to pay a premium for car ownership and a secluded home far from urban life, but it's important that people have complete information to make informed choices. The cost of selling your home early is substantial, so you don't want to find out after taking out a mortgage that your transportation costs are much higher than expected.
When you consider that a lot of these costs are borne by the municipality, this leads me to believe that a lot of cities struggling to balance their budget would be in much healthier positions if they pursued dense, transit led development. Multiply the savings you've experienced by all the taxpayers paying those costs over those decades.
I have organized my entire life over not owning a vehicle. I have many reasons for this, mostly out of fear of injuring someone or becoming a statistic myself, but I have to constantly point out to people that I can live my life so much better as a result of not owning a vehicle. The only caveat to this is rural living, which generally requires a vehicle but also allows for many different types of lifestyles that an urban centre simply can't accommodate. Thanks for continuing to post great content to encourage more commuter bike use!
That's certainly a worthy aspiration! Unfortunately for myself in the suburbs without proper supportive infrastructure I got into a nasty tangle with a distracted driver very quickly into my bike commute transition. I really want to make this work but ironically the danger of vehicles makes it harder to abandon driving. It's really messed up and I'm currently looking for solutions to someday get closer to what you're doing.
Grateful for the trust I've earned with friends' cars, but 100% with you on never wanting any kind of vehicle besides my bike. Upgraded it to electric and it has mostly filled in the deficit in mobility thanks to my limited energy, so now I can bike where I would normally only consider driving. It's so enabling that I'm reconsidering bike-packing for a while, highly highly recommend it
I'm a lifetime car-free American too. Walking and public transit, been lucky enough to be able to afford such places even as the cost soars due to our broken zoning laws. For me biking has always been about local utility trips: faster shopping, nearby friends, local cruising. Now that I have a folding bike, I might be more inclined to do bike+transit combinations, but given US infrastructure I was never bike-first.
Living in rural Danmark, we do not own a car, have one e-bike for my wife, an old cargo trike for bigger needs, and an mtb for me. holidays are on bike. commute is to the nearest train station for her (5km) and take the train to work. me, I have 11km to work, so I bike. the dog goes in the trike or the trailer when he needs to come along. In Europe, generally, even in rural areas, there is a public transport system, and only rarely you will find yourself more than 10km from a public transport stop. There are still jobs in rural areas, for those who do not want to commute further. If you are commuting further , like my wife, (70km), Working from home is often an option , even if just for one or two days a week. Nobody needs a car. Contrary to popular belief, they are nice to have, not need to have. and cars are a nice I prefer to go without.
I have always tried to live within walking or cycling distance to my workplace even if it meant slightly higher rent. One of the biggest benefits of that is time. An hour I could have given to traffic and searching for a parking place is mine to do with as I please, twice a day.
I did this same math 15 years ago deciding where to live. City centre was a third more expensive in rent than the suburbs. But including travel cost they were the same. Went for the city centre apartment and saved two hours of commuting each day.
hey shifter, I love the ideas here, but to be honest, the 'conclusion' section was super underwhelming. when the premise of the video started at "people should consider transport costs as part of housing costs" and you started to bring out real number examples of houses, that was a great direction. but then, at the end: - veered off into talking primarily in cost to society numbers. this is important for policy, but not what most people take into account in detail when making the personal living decisions that are the main point here, and feels like it's making a moral appeal to individuals when you don't need to, and it's taking away from the fact that the actual personal transport cost numbers should speak for themselves - made cost calculations for bike and car modes in pure dollars per mile, which doesn't makes sense at all when a huge portion of both are somewhat fixed monthly costs e.g. depreciation, insurance, etc. transport dollars per mile are also super weird, when you could have just looked at the actual daily transit ticket cost for each real house's commute - did not actually show the combined housing + transportation cost for each living situation (though the choice of picking 3 identically priced homes makes this less interesting) I feel like it would have been way more compelling to look at 3 houses which were as comparable as possible (e.g, all detached homes, or all townhouses, with nearly identical room count, yards, and sq footage) but with rising prices closer into the city, and then do the math on both home loans or rent and personal transport costs to show how in the most viable transport situation for each (0 car in city, 1 car in middle, 2 car in suburbs) the cost of cars fully reverses which situation is most expensive for a family overall.
The second he said "we're fixing the home price" I gave up. I don't know this channel but this was just another spin of the "not just bikes" mentality without taking into consideration the actual reasons why people time and time again choose to commute by car whenever they can afford it despite its many, MANY disadvantages: 1. Weather 2. Not having to deal with homeless/crazy people/muggers 3. Space for moving somewhat heavier stuff around when you need to bring stuff up the office/from the office 4. Not arriving at work drenched in sweat in the summer or having to wear ski gear just to commute in the winter (see 1.) (Among many others I just can't remember) Yes, it's a comfort. Yes, you can totally do without. But stop pretending they aren't factors. Anyone who just tries commuting like that (say when their car breaks down) sees the night/day difference between the two transportation modes. Car is a ridiculous cost to an individual's lives? YES. Parking sucks? YES. Traffic jams such? YES. Will people stop driving any time soon? No. Especially not in North America where money is easy to come by and the infrastructure isn't there. (And to put in context, I originally am from Brazil and I commuted to work (1 bus, 1 train and 15 minutes walk), so I know what's life like when you commute every day. It's more like "survival". Every now and then you get a dose of cortisol. From a shady character here and there, from a crazy lady screaming to her boyfriend, from the candy salesbeggar that hops from one train to another, from the group of teenagers that think the bus is theirs; to that day you forgot your umbrella because the weather changed and now you need to walk back home (or worse, to school after work) under heavy rain. So please, when you make those arguments that "you can just bike and take the metro", stop pretending these aren't factors. THEY ARE.
Exactly. I thought he was going to make a case why I - potential homebuyer - would choose a home/bike combo over a home/car combo elsewhere. I mean, to be blunt, I couldn't possibly car less about the "cost to society."
Great video Tom, thank you. As a person who lives in a Brooklyn apartment and owns two bikes (one of them an ebike) I always tell my friends, that owning a car seems to be a nightmare, and I don't only mean the money factor, parking the car in the city is almost impossible, my friends spend around 20 min extra, driving around the same 3-4 blocks to be able to park when they're coming over to hangout, they have to use expensive parking buildings if they drive to work and you never know the time you'll need during traffic (and time is money). Everyone for these reasons is very tired all the time. You mentioned the mental health aspect of biking but I think it is a bigger factor than just a small mention, not saying that we won't need therapists anymore but overall cutting down on the complicated logistics of day to day commute is already a life changer and yes to your point so much better for your wallet.
I can’t speak for Canada as I only lived there a year, and didn’t have kids, but I’ve lived in many US states and I can tell you that nothing you say, or the info in the video, matters much to parents of school age kids. The only societal cost they care about is the cost that inner city school districts impose on them. The combo of high taxes and bad schools and high crime is why they will move out and drive in.
@@nunyabidness3075 it's a self fulfilling prophesy with a dark past. Because of current US school funding models (property taxes) those people leaving for "greener pastures" are part of the problem. The districts would improve if they would just stay put. But instead, people make individual decisions with local, imperfect information, and only care about themselves and immediately clear and short term results. We then make this even more enticing by heavily subsidizing such movers. At the very least, we can make them pay fair share and realize that there is real cost to moving elsewhere for "better" schools.
@@DagaenGolomb I’m sorry, but it sounds to me like you are blaming people for voting with their feet when it’s really their only choice. They pay higher taxes and get worse services. The amount spent in urban districts is usually MORE. The teachers unions and other public employee unions have too much power in those areas. Regular people who cannot afford private schools will complain only so much before they leave. We had some friends who actually made a deal with their public school to run a school within the school using a TON of parent volunteer time. Of course, the kids who didn’t have a parent who could volunteer did not get into the better classes. It was really kind of disgusting. The whole thing is a mess because of politics.
@@nunyabidness3075 Urban cores almost always HIGHLY subsidize suburban and rural communities via almost every service and infrastructure provided outside of the immediate municipality. It is because of this massive subsidization that suburban areas with wealthy, strong property tax residents can "afford" amenities like better school systems. I'm not blaming people for voting with their feet. I'm saying we need to stop subsidizing it so that people bear the true cost instead of being nudged towards socially sub-optimal and unfair decisions for their own benefit at the expense of everyone else.
@@DagaenGolomb Sorry, I know that is all over the internet these days, but it was all based on flawed data from a McKinsey con man that made a mint on consulting cities with it. The flaws are based on zip codes having mixes of residential and commercial properties and also the fact you cannot separate the businesses from their workers even though they aren’t in the same zip codes. Furthermore, picking only infrastructure costs is misleading in the extreme because other services and costs are much higher with increased density. Cities WANT to believe it because density correlates with higher taxes, but that’s misleading as well. You can check yourself by simply using municipal spending, population, and square mileage information and comparing cities. If you go check the usual proponents, you will see they aren’t really pushing that line much this year.
As someone that lives in Calgary on the SE side far from downtown, similar to the first house shown. I choose to buy a e-cargo bike (Tern Orox) this year actually from Power in Motion, and use that for 95% of my trips around the city. I even had my wife on the back of the bike when we went downtown for the Stampede. I completely understand the bike was overkill for what I need but I had the income for it and decided to splurge. Anyone I've spoken too who is not a bike rider is completely baffled by the fact I was willing to spend 10k CAD on a bike. But when I start mentioning things like it literally cost me less than 0.10 cents of electricity to go 100km or the fact I don't have to pay a $150-200 a month for insurance, pay for parking downtown and maintenance is a lot cheaper, and I dont have to figure out a space to park a second car it does make them stop and think for a bit. And again it can be done on a much cheaper bike/ebike, I'm just stupid with my money and wanted the latest and greatest. A 2016 GasBuddy Calgary poll (22,044 voters) indicated 16% of Calgary households have 4 or more vehicles, 20% three or more, 40% two vehicles, 21% one vehicle and only 1% no vehicle. The fact that more households have more than 2 cars here is crazy and no one bats an eyelash to the idea of getting a second gas guzzling pick up truck that they only use to grab groceries by themselves yet always complain about rising gas prices. And scoff at the idea that people would spend even $1000 on a bike and that we would take up all their precious space on the roads. People in North America in general are just willing to accept the idea that they have to have a car and that public transport or biking or walking is more inconvenient or looked down on with their social standing. Thinking if you don't have your own car you're poor and less than us with their mighty lifted and modded pick up truck owners (sorry just like to pick on truck owners that have one not for work purposes). Owning a car has become a rite of passage into independence into adulthood and we put car ownership on a pedestal in our society so we just accept the cost of owning a vehicle here. But thats just my 2 cents.
Good comment. Though as a person who also splurged quite a bit (half your amount but a couple of years ago) on a non-ebike, one can not neglect the costs for maintenance. A bike is considerably cheaper than a car, but you still have 10-20c/km, depending on your bike and if you do the maintenance yourself. Even after 50000km, I am still above 10c/km. One just has to be aware of those costs, otherwise one might get a shock when the next visit to the bike-shop costs 300-500CAD in maintenance. The electricity costs on running an ebike are next to none compared to the costs of wear and tear, especially since bike-parts are weight-optimised instead of wear optimised as most car parts. I do my own maintenance and replace parts later than a bike shop, because I can monitor the condition better, thus I run my bike rather cheap. I would estimate that the maintenance costs would at least double, if a bike-shop would do it.
It's not so surprising if you consider how much money car makers spent on influencing public opinion. Just think about all the ways cars play a prominent role in the movies and TV shows we grew up with. Most of that is very much not coincidental.
I've owned and rented 3 different homes in my city over the last 24 years, each of them in central locations. The commuting options are all just so much cheaper. Sprawl is a personal wealth killer.
My true cost of owning a car was $23 per day or $8,395 per year. Last February I gave up my personal car and have no regrets and never looked back. I live in the downtown area of a major US city so I bike, use public transit, or carshare. I prefer not to drive because it's a stressful activity. My transportation costs are low so more money for restaurants, clothing, groceries, etc. Biking to the grocery store is way easier than driving a car, I've been doing that for the last 4 years.
One thing that's a bit lacking in the downtown core of most big Canadian cities is access to green spaces. I lived in Montreal for 15 years, just a few blocks away from Mont-Royal, and it was still too much concrete for me in the end. I moved to a smaller Canadian city in the Okanagan, and I work remote. Every once in a while I'd like a car to get around to interesting places (and to account for the persistent wildfire threat over the summer) but it's hard to pull the trigger on it when I absolutely don't need one for day-to-day life. I ride my bike to the grocery store (or get groceries delivered) and we bought in a part of town that's close to all the amenities. And crucially, I'm surrounded by lakes and mountains and access to green space just moments away in any direction that I strike out. This is, of course, a problem with car-centric cities by their nature as well--so much space is taken up by roads and parking that we don't have as many trees and gardens.
@@CanadianWinters when my wife and I I go to baseball games in Washington DC, we bike there because they have bike parking that is watched over by ballpark employees. They call it a bike valet.
Victoria has a year-round bike valet, hours vary by season (and if there's a big event in town), they trialed it for a summer I think and it was so wildly popular that now it's year round. People can even drop off their strollers there, whatever, it's not just bikes, and it's so useful (ours is next to City Hall). Hopefully you can gather enough support to start one in Calgary, even on a trial basis.
Awesome message. I sold my last car almost 2 years ago after a lifetime of being a “car guy”. Best decision!!! I have more freedom to take a mix of car share, ride share, transit, active transit, airplanes, trains, or whatever works best for a given trip. I got more fit. Plus, even after spending money on all those I save $8k per year and get an extra $1100 per year in parking spot rental income. Helps me live in the city without feeling house poor anymore!
Fantastic video! I did this math too when buying a new home and have always advocated to other people my age buying to consider this. If I could wave a magic wand I would have transportation costs (even just individual out of pocket) be included in mortgage applications, just like utilities and taxes. It's frankly insane it isn't.
It's not included because it can vary so much and so quickly. Case in point. A friend of mine lost his job when the company went bankrupt. He quickly found a new job but his daily commute went from 5 miles a day to 150 miles a day. All this in the span of a few weeks. Moving was not an option with house, wife and a toddler anchoring him to our current town. Luckily he within a few months found a new job only a few miles from home.
cost of transportation isnt included because 1) you are presumed to have a car so its factored in the larger DTI, and 2) The majority of car ownership costs is fixed, so average trip length really doesn't affect cash flow all that much. What makes a difference is living completely car free, but in most cities this is far more expensive than having a car in the suburbs.
Commute time and being able to continue biking to work was one of the biggest factors on where we were looking to buying a house. My Commute ended up going down from 12 minutes to 7 minutes, biking past our kids' school, daycare and grocery stores. A mall, river and parks are all within a few minutes bike/walk, our yard extends into the woods and we frequently have deer visiting. We live just outside a city in Norway with a population of 215k. Going into the city centre takes 25 minutes by bike.
When I switched to an e-bike it paid for itself in a couple months between parking, insurance, ferry/tolls/etc. not to mention gas. Also living close into the city, it's so much more convenient and, for my commute, actually faster. No sitting in traffic, waiting in long lines, searching for parking spots, etc.
The problem I have with the analysis here is that while it pointed out you may have to spend more for an extra car in the far suburban location, it didn't factor in that if you're in a closer location and need only one car, or no car, that you could apply that savings to the cost of your house, and could afford to spend a bit more to live closer in without necessarily sacrificing square footage. There have been examples in the US of financial institutions that will allow a somewhat larger mortgage for buyers who want to be closer in, who won't have as high transportation costs. Although given the constant upward pressure on housing prices due to cheap credit and tight demand, one might not want to have another reason to get larger mortgages. Nonetheless, having lower transportation costs does give you more money to play with, so you could potentially buy a more expensive house, if your lender will play ball.
Very overlooked indeed! I realized this hack maybe five years ago after we got rid of our car. We were already living within biking distance of the entire city, so we didn't need the car anyways. After 5 years of saving we're now able to move into a luxurious town house in the city, it does not have a garage or driveway so the land cost is minimized. Owning a car you also need to factor in the "alternative cost", i.e what the money you spend on the car you have been if you invested/saved it for many years. Paying interest on an asset that is depreciating in value is kind of insane to me.
Very insightful video. These type of videos and analysis gets the conversation going. I sold my car 5 years ago not wanting all those expenses and got an e-bike 2 years ago and can’t imagine my life without it now. I am lucky I live in Victoria with tons of amenities for bikes. Important to remember you can mix and match your transportation between, walking, biking, public transit, and ride sharing.
A couple other important things to keep in mind when thinking about transportation costs and planning: -Only about 20% of all trips are between home and work. Most trips are for other things (appointments, education, shopping, social events, etc, etc. etc.). -Also, the average work commute these days isn't from a suburb to a job in a central city. It's from a suburb to a job in another suburb. Makes it even harder to make longterm housing decisions. (What happens if you buy a house in a suburb because it's close to your suburban job but then in a couple years you get offered a job [or your employer moves] to a suburb on the opposite side of the central city? So many things about the way we've built our work make it hard to avoid the car ownership trap, even if you make decisions about your housing with an aim to eliminate the need for car ownership. If all the planners are assuming you'll get a car, it can be difficult to go against that baseline assumption.
"Most trips are for other things (appointments, education, shopping, social events, etc, etc. etc.)." Though a lot of those trips are also pretty short, and thus more convertible to biking than work commutes.
Great video, we're in the process of house hunting and transportation access is a big factor. One item missed in your video though...the 'magnificent middle' and 'downtown delight' have over $800 a month in condo fees.
Yep, this is part of why I live in a missing middle neighborhood... At the end of the line in an untrendy area. Condo fees are insane and houses are unaffordable in neighborhoods with lots of great restaurants.
New suburban developments and HOAs go hand-in-hand in America, and that's not cheap either. It's a selling feature to ensure conformity. Like apartments, only with the added expense of a good lawnmower, lawn service and so on.
@@vulpixelful Sadly very few non-sprawling suburbs in urban areas in Alberta. I understand it is what it is, I'm just surprised that he didn't take the significant condo fees into consideration. Nearly 10K a year in additional condo/maintenance fees is significant when looking entirely at budget.
@@vulpixelful depends what you count as sprawl and what you count as a suburb. Plenty of streetcar suburbs in Toronto for instance, or non sprawling suburbs in the Montreal area. As for liking density... Density is great, but the additional costs incurred for it are often high e.g. condo fees.
The house next door to mine was on "House Hunters." Fun fact: Turns out the couple had already purchased another home, but in order to make the show, the agent showed them two other houses and they pretended to go over the pros and cons of each house even though they had already bought another one.
¡Saludos desde Puerto Rico! Voy en bicicleta al trabajo desde 2005. En Puerto Rico no tenemos ciclovías fuera de algunas áreas turísticas y el transporte colectivo es totalmente ineficiente. Aquí son 4 millones de personas y hay 3 millones de carros. La infraestructura se diseñó para el transporte en carro, para beneficiar la banca mediante préstamos para automóviles. Todo el mundo aquí tiene una deuda para poder tener un carro y moverse. Yo decidí por la bicicleta, aunque estoy obligado a tener un carro usado para poder ir a destinos más lejos o transportar a mi hijo cuando es necesario. ¡Me encanta tu programa!
excellent discussion and comparison. for some, an occasional need for a vehicle is a must. e.g. taking a senior to a medical appointment. but it would still work and costs can still be kept down if they join car share or call a taxi. Thanks!
Yes, I think a lot of us still need a car in our lives, but even reducing its use can save a lot of expense. This is amazing support, thank you! I really appreciate it.
Yes, I don't have a car, and that means I have the money to pay for an occasional cab fare without any issue. Big items, I pay for delivery. And if I ever get a driving licence, I can rent a car for those trips into the country side, where transit is lacking or even absent, and distances too important to cycle.
GREAT analysis - did this decades ago, got a house in a fantastic neighbourhood, one of the best decisions in my life. Too many people get sucked in by HGTV and car ads, and end up paying for it for the rest of their lives. Thanks!
love videos like this, making something people don't usually focus on but effects everyone and making it easily understandable‼️ I must say its really infuriating that bikes and transit can help everyone and save so much mobey but advocating for it is made so difficult whilenit being such an easy choice.
The Netherlands pays you $.23 per kilometer you cycle to work! Also most companies will also cover all public transit costs so getting to work is free or paid for if you choose the more sustainable option. Also that downtown delight looks miserable with a high traffic road right outside, the middle looks like a much better option. I agree living somewhere that isn't car dependant is important, but I moved to the Netherlands from the US because downtown neighborhoods have highways going through the middle of it.
in 1993 i started my bicycle commuting ,1994 brought a new job and a standard 60 km round trip commute for 3 days a week 8 month per year ,that meant being able to operate with one vehicle which alone in 1996 to 2000 represented approx 900 dollars a month .this went on for 8 years until a move 70 kms from work precipitated a daily car commute and essentially forced my cycling to a recreational activity .from 2003 to 2018 fuel cost doubled ,retired 2018 and still ride albeit an electric now great story
I used to live in a two bedroom mobile home with a yard, had a car, since I'm single again I moved into the city, studio apartment, got rid of the car since it was starting to cost more for parts I do my own repairs and switched to walking and riding my bicycle to work which is around 3km. I'm a few minutes from several bus stations, 5 km from the Train and Bus Depot I take the train to go see the kids a couple of cities away, I can take my bicycle on the train. There is a strip mall a block away with a grocery store and fast food places. Not having the car got rid of a 1500.00 dollar insurance bill, fuel, oil and other costs. Moving to the studio apartment the rent is higher being downtown but not paying for a car more than offsets And not having to pay for lawn care equipment and supplies I do have two plants an orchid, an aloe vera plant (good for cuts and burns) The cool part is if I need to shop after work I can ride to the store right on my way home. I sometimes order my grocery store app and have my groceries delivered, yes there are fees an tips involved but they are not bad and I figure Im not spending money on a car to drive to the store, I mostly order the heavy stuff like can and har goods, bulky things like cereal and rice I take my bicycle to go get my fresh food, like fruit, veggies and salad. IF the weather is really bad I can always take a ride share, the streets flood when in rains but I got a nice rain suit and rubber boots for that and I got a nice bicycle rain suit should;I need it, I prefer to walk in the Rain a bit safer since I off the street and not a target for inattentive drivers. The funny part Is I'm a retired Mechanic, who works part time delivering auto parts.
If that's canadian dollars, then that's only 430k€. Which will get you a one-room-appartment in Munich. Or one third to one half of a house (in a state of disrepair, needing new roof, heating, etc) 60km out of town. So yeah, for a house, 670k$ (canadian) seems damn cheap!
Great post. I live in Denver and live without a car. I live in the Denver University neighborhood. It has excellent (for the US) bike access to the city core. I can ride most of the way almost free from auto traffic and the scenery is awesome. I can get into the city as quickly as driving, although I do ride faster than the average cyclist.
My wife and I just moved from Edmonton to Kimberley BC and we're making huge strides in reducing our car dependency. I was already riding my bike in Edmonton for nearly all my transportation needs, but we still needed two cars. We've now gone to one car, one ebike and one regular bike. We live
Oh the Urbanity! has an interesting video about it, and while I don't agree 100%, I'd definitely recommend it. Part of the attraction of living in a big city is not being forced to stay in your little enclave, you can go to that new Cambodian restaurant that just opened on the other side of town, or go to a concert of your favourite band (who would likely skip most smaller towns), etc, so a good public transport is still essential.
@@barvdwI lived in the city for 40 years so I’m pretty familiar with the benefits. Cities could be the best of both worlds. By structuring them so people can be within walking and biking distance of their basic needs, they can live easily without a car. Then have excellent transit that allows longer range movement so they can access wider ranging areas. This is not Edmonton. Not in the least. Like most North American cities, car dependence is forced upon most residents.
@@johnshellenberg1383 Plus modal filtering / super blocks / low traffic neighborhoods, so you can have areas with no through-traffic by cars. Benefit of suburb cul-de-sacs, without limiting traffic by foot or bike.
What a great video. Superbly researched and put together. Full of insights. The bike-friendliness of my town is average at best. But the commute to work is an easy 4.5 miles using bike paths and side-streets (along Lake Michigan! Wonderful views everywhere!). And the town has enough streets that are acceptably safe to make a bike-commuting lifestyle almost as convenient as living in a bike-friendly city. Thanks for all the hard work you and your team put into making these videos! I get a lot of value from this channel. I think it's time to join your Patreon, to help support your work.
Even if we opt out of cycling on bad weather days (i.e. super hot Vegas summers, snowy-frozen Canada winters), the transportation savings still add up. Another housing cost factor not mentioned is HOA fees -- a common cost many people forget to budget into their home purchasing plans. We have to be vocal and push for more bike-lanes and routes in our neighborhoods and communities.
We just purchased our home in January and transportation was definitely a factor in our choice. I ride my bike to work so our maximum distance from my workplace was 10km. We also live next to a transit hub so it means we can go down to one car, even in the winter.
I loved living in bike and walkable cities, and am dying to move back. Sadly my work for now requires a vehicle, and the uncertainty of housing makes me reluctant to give up a vehicle that i could live in fairly easily. But I will definitely return to my hearts home eventually!
17:42 Thank you so much for going over this as well. A lot of people would hear the first numbers and assume that the lions share of the cost wasn't to them.
This was great, and I totally agree! Something that's been hard for us with younger kids is that if we get a place closer in, all the cities around us in the US are overrun by cars. So the paradox for us seems to be that if we move into the city to be less car dependant, we end up exposed to more danger and externality of cars 😞 I'd be willing to sacrifice so much in other areas of life to be able to live in a dense area not overrun by cars
❤ the last shot of victoria. Great video, clear breakdown of the cost. Im glad you talked about the cost to the individual because most people don’t care as much about the unpriced externalities.
3 місяці тому+1
Commuting with a bike I probably lose an hour more a day than with a car. The median pay in calgary is 28$ an hour so add also that cost if people value their time.
We live in a town of about 100k people, and we decided to not replace our old car when it gave up the ghost. Instead, we put that money into buying an apartment in the town centre. We have never regretted that decision. For only the cost of parking a car near our home, we can rent a new car when we really need one. And as it turns out, that’s not really all that often. Our life is better now.
Great video! I went back to school for 2 years from 2022 to 2024. I used my ebike to go to school every day, even in winter. Using my ebike I've saved a lot of money (parking alone was $7/day on campus or $105-130/month). At times biking was quicker than driving for commuting (e.g. during peak hour). I now use my ebike to commute to work and it's great as my office building offers bicycle parking and I am able to avoid a lot of transportation costs (parking cost in particular) compared to driving a car.
That's great! Can I ask how you manage winter maintenance for your e-bike? I recently got an e-bike and am trying to use it as my main source of transportation, and I am interested in riding it in the winter. I see a lot of people talking about riding a beater instead during the winter, but I would love to still ride my e-bike. Curious if you have any tips! :)
@@ray8326The salt slush mix that collects on your bike is the enemy. Wax your chain and lube more often. Keep the bike dry after each ride. Clean your bike regularly and after the big slushy days. Your bike will get 2to3 summers of use per winter.
@@ray8326 playlist5455 gave great advice. I would also make sure the battery is maintained correctly according to your manual ( and never charge it below 0 Celsius). Get studded tires for winter, they are 100% worth the money.
@@ray8326 playlist5455 gave great advice! I also suggest buying studded winter tires, they are well worth the price to me. Follow the charging instructions for your ebike battery and never charge at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius.
You really pulled out the stops for this video, thanks. I'd be interested to see what you think of the situation in England, I live in a rural area and would love to stop commuting by car.
My house is a 30 minute walk from my workplace, a 30 minute walk from the high street (downtown), a 30 minute walk from the nearest train station and a 15 minute walk from my doctor. Although the house isn't great, the location is absolutely perfect for getting places. We even have a small grocery store right across the road and a country park about 15 minutes walk away! I own a car but I really don't have to. What I've learned is that finding the right location can really make your life easier. (This is a small town in England).
Thank you for mentioning the externalities and "hidden" societal costs of car dependent development that are often buried in taxes. If we truly made drivers pay for a "fair share" of their desired transportation method (aka re-internalizing the many externalities), I'm sure many many more would choose to live car-lite (if not car-free) and the many car-brained urban planners that dominate most of North America in this age.
I changed jobs for the exact same annual salary, but a daily difference of 70 miles of commuting. The new job allowed me bike commute, which I did about 1/2 the time. I figured the new job was equivalent to about a $20,000 a year raise. No regrets!
My house cost me 600,000 everyone told me why when I could have gotten something cheaper but I told them that now I can just walk to work and shops and don't have to worry about my car so much
It'd be really nice to see a follow up to this video where we look at more drastic differences in housing prices in the suburbs and the city and how it would change if there was only 1 car per family and the impact to the family's budget. As a millenial in Toronto, I have many friends who have done this math in real life and lots of them have moved to the suburbs where houses are 20-40% cheaper then downtown and they get by on only 1 car and the GO train. Eventually they move to 2 cars and maybe a bigger house but sadly with the transportation + housing costs around here, they still find it worth while and once someone owns a car, they never want to give it up.
Going down to a one car household has been a substantial savings for my wife and I, even considering we're both cheap with cars because they're appliances. However, despite being double income childless cat people, we don't have "downtown" jobs and neither does anyone we know. Currently things allow one of us to commute by bike, but we're just a job change away from needing a second car. Especially in the U.S., most Corporate America jobs or medical or engineering or architecture or infrastructure etc are out in suburbia, which in the U.S. is likely to be in a county rather than within city limits (type of local gov't definitely influences development patterns). Was always reverse commuting out of the city and most of my coworkers were commuting from other parts of Suburbia. I have noticed since moving to Canada that the downtowns aren't nearly as dead as their U.S. counterparts though. Also, just showing the direct cost to the consumer might be more impactful as it is a significant number on its own and doesn't leave you open to accusations of "inflating" the value with "made up" factors like the externalities like health, environment, wellbeing. They are real costs, but not to everyone and definitely not to anyone still clinging to driving everywhere.
For most of my regular travel I walk, cycle or take a train. I work from home, so have no commuting costs. For regular shopping, i always go by bike or foot. I've managed in the past without a car, but a couple of years ago I bought a tiny second hand camper van, thinking I'd use it for camping trips. But I don't really use it much. I only use it for long trips away 1-2 times a year. It's been parked up outside my house for at least 2 months, unused. Today I 'needed' it to pick up a new office chair and some other large items. Of course I could have got these things delivered, but they was heavily discounted, so it seemed like a bargain. Of course if I didn't have the van, I'd have bought the stuff differently, but it's paid for, so why not use it? Hiring a vehicle always seems so expensive, more to the point, it's just inconvenient.
Bike efficiency was our #1 consideration when we moved to Cranbrook, BC We picked the neighbourhood 2 blocks from elementary school, 4 blocks from middle school and 8 minute bike ride from downtown. Even in a small town, this has saved us HOURS: my son has walked or ridden himself to school EVERY DAY of School! From K to 12! Can you imagine how much time and $ that has saved us?
Great video! I always look forward to your content. I live in Sydney in the suburbs and travel cost and time is real. It would be interesting to compare our cities. I have small 3 kids and rely on cargo bike to get them around. I still have our car but because I use my bike as much as possible it helps keep the maintenance and petrol cost down. I try to teach my kids that a bike is not just my “passion” as my daughter likes to call it but a way of transport that gives freedom from the early age. I hope politicians will continue to expand the bike infrastructure for the next generation. Keep up the great work!
Devo called and they want their energy dome hat back...oh, wait, it's a cycle hlemet. Riese & Müller must've made you wear it, eh? Taking my facetious hat off, good points very well made. Thanks. When I lived in Vancouver I was very grateful that I worked 300 m around the corner from my home.
Love the "cameos" in Victoria -- that market you're across from in Chinatown, Fisgard Market, has an entire freezer dedicated to dumplings. Such an awesome grocery store. 😍
From the U.K. where a car is more ‘optional’ due to smaller country size and more public transport (although the two car family is still very common). Used to have a 30 mile each way commute. Calculated it once and my car costs (after tax deductions so calculating from my ‘take home’ pay) were equivalent to me working from 9:00AM to 10:40AM (first 1 hour and 40 mins). So technically my first hour and 40 mins I was paying my tax and travel So not putting any money in my pocket for that time . Switched to a train which got it down to about 10:05AM (taxes and annual train pass), until I was putting any money in my pocket. However, it added about 1 hour to my commute (walk from my house to the train station was 30 minutes each way, each day). In the end the day got too long with the commute and I was definitely getting into a work/sleep/work/sleep lifestyle. Got a job two miles from my home and sold the car and now got a lot more savings / spare cash and since the pandemic, I have been working from home. Been about 6 years since I sold my car and I’m hoping I can now be car free forever 🤞
Great video! Just one thing to note, the study done on people that ebike to work revealing that they made more money, probably has something to do with the fact that they're working in cities where that's a viable option and those cities have higher costs of living and generally higher salaries. You made really great points and had valuable insights, I just wanted to add that thought there!
Great video!! Something I would love an investigation into are covered bikes or velomobiles. They seem like a really cool idea but also seem to be incredibly uncommon.
I live about 10 miles from NYC, in a fairly urban suburban New Jersey town that’s well served by public transport - at least if you’re headed into the City. I COULD do without a car altogether if more-effectively arranged my life around being car-free. I’m walking/biking distance to 4 supermarkets, lots of restaurants, two post-offices, doctor’s offices, dentists, … Purchase prices of houses here average about what you’re seeing after you do the currency conversion. Rents, for a decent, not luxurious 2-bedroom have risen to about $3K USD/month around here. I qualify for a senior discount, so if I had to commute to NY every day, it would cost me about $27 USD/week for 5 days, or $120/month. So, adding that to rent, I’d be paying about $3200/month for housing + transportation. Average rents for a decent, not-luxurious 2-bedroom APT in Manhattan run about $6000/month. Bottom line: It’s still a lot cheaper to live where I live rather than to move to the City. Then add City taxes, lack of space, noise, … Where I am is a sweet spot. Further out would run into the problems you talk about, where you couldn’t survive without a car. Closer in, the housing costs rise exponentially. So … you need to work the numbers for your own individual case, and evaluate the tradeoffs.
Calgary has fewer supply issues than the NYC metro area, though not zero. Part of that is just that demand will always be high in NYC's safe core, but restrictive regulations and NIMBYs are a bigger part.
@@szurketaltos2693 There’s actually a ton of new mixed-use construction going on in my town, mostly concentrated in a very old, industrial-ish zone. By the time they’re done, they’ll have added upwards of 500 new apartments. There are also a number of formerly commercial properties that are being converted to new-construction mixed use. It’s not clear what the impact on infrastructure and services will be, but I’m guardedly optimistic that it will start to relieve the crunch. There’s a fair amount of NIMBY in our neighboring (more desirable, for now) town. But we seem to have gotten over it here.
@@dinosilone7613 NJ has a new housing requirement right? Sounds like your town is doing its part. I have heard that several NIMBY NJ towns are really pushing back on the requirements. That said, 500 units isn't a ton on the scale of the NYC metro; 500 for each NJ town (mid to upper 10s in the metro?) is decent but still not enough.
@@szurketaltos2693 According to the 2020 census, my town had just under 15,000 housing units, so an additional 500 amounts to an increase of a little over 3%. So yeah, not earth-shattering. But your comment made me curious, and I found an article that says that the various new development already approved or underway will add over 1000 new housing units, which brings the total added units to over 6%. They’re counting on most of the new tenants to be young people who’ll use public transportation to go to jobs in NY, but that’s a big gamble. If enough of these people decide they need cars, we’ll be in for a real mess. In the short term, it should stabilize rents, which have increased by more than 1/3 since the beginning of Covid.
You should apply for low cost housing lotteries in NYC. Could make it worth it. And certain places have waiting lists for affordable housing. My friend was on a wait list almost 10 years, now lives upper west side ,70s, blocks from Central Park.
I don't know if that is included in the calculator, but your time is also worth something. If you commute 50km every day, that's probably an hour or two per day. If you value your time at the minimum wage, living closer to work becomes the better deal very quickly.
I'm so glad you set the cost of my eBike in the Netherlands in perspective at the start of the video because halfway through, I got a call from the repair shop telling me its latest service and repairs (after five years of use) would cost about €500! Ouch. But nowhere near $10,000 a year...
Awesome video! It's really important to spotlight this, and the overall societal cost of cars (because it boils down in taxes). Personally, I learned how to service my own bike. and over a period of 5 years I have spent ~500$ on my bike (it was new, non-electric, and included in the price was equipment like bags, luggage rack, fenders, lights, locks etc), and now after 5 years I just switched the tires and tube for the first time in 5 years (70$). For me I don't even consider it to be a cost at this point. I live in Sweden by the way, but still enjoy the channel and the talking points! :)
I agree and have been living that solution. Two years ago we moved our family from our 3 bedroom home in Saskatoon to a one bedroom condo in East Vancouver. We got creative with downsizing and are making it work. I have a 5km bike ride or walk to work downtown or a 20 minute bus ride. Our neighborhood is very walkable to most amenities and there is decent bike infrastructure. We are really happy we didn’t do the usual route of opting for a one or two hour commute so we could have a bigger place!
14:19 The Netherlands is a very bike friendly country. I live in Sweden which isn't as car centric as the United States. However bike infrastructure is quite a new phenomenon here and not available everywhere. I've had a few close calls with the grim reaper when I rode my bicycle on the death trap that is my commute to my work. For safety reasons I now drive to work and bike on the bicycle paths that don't lead to any logical destination when I want to exercise.
I'll be honest, a major reason i can't fully switch to bike is weather. Too much of the year here is minimum 90°F by noon, if not earlier. Getting to work might be reasonable without becoming a sweaty mess that absolutely requires a shower before being presentable professionally, but even electric assisted biking does nothing to protect from the ambient temperature. Take a bus on those days, you might say. Well, the bus stop by my house will only have a bus come by once per hour, without a scheduled stop- you just have to hope you're there when it passes by, as only two points on the route have scheduled stops. Further, multiple buses are needed to arrive at most major destinations with a pretty high base fare, making transportation anywhere from $3-10 daily for a commute likely to be minimum 1 hour for a location that can be driven to in 20 min. I wouldn't expect anyone locally to really come out ahead using public transport here. It's far too infrequent, inconvenient, and expensive. Infrastructure is vital to make biking and public transport possible, and it simply doesn't happen outside cities here. It's not like I'm far from the major city near me either, it's about a 20-40 min drive depending on traffic.
Fantastic video. Sent to my wife. She keeps telling me we should move out of the city to save money. I have to remind her that we would likely need to get another car to make it work.
It really depends where you are. In Belgium, for example, it doesn't matter how you commute and from where. Many companies will pay for car allowance, public transit and cycling to work and back. What liberals in Canada did at very first year of getting back in Ottawa? They have canceled tax return for commute via public transportation.
Car maintenance on newer cars with all the electronics in addition to mechanical wear will keep you broke! 😂
I feel like moving to the country to save money is the worst idea you could have; sure things are less expensive.... but there's also a lot less money changing hands, and jobs are few and far between unless you know someone who can help you get a job.
And then like you said, you gotta drive everywhere in most rural places.
Perhaps you could find a middle ground by choosing a small city/town that is in a very rural location, like Burlington Vermont or Portland Maine. (There's a billion cities/towns that could fit this bill, giving you the convenience of civilization while being nestled far into the country. People should ultimately move into the country because they want to live a country lifestyle, rather than purely for financial reasons. The cost of living scales with the economy everywhere you go.
@@kostyafedot551 there are caps on those, though. And a lot of criticism, among them from the OECD, who rightfully identified the company car with fuel card as one of the major drivers for traffic congestion in the country. It's been abused to offset the high taxation on wages in Belgium, but frankly, I'd be absolutely fine with abolishing this fiscal advantages in lieu for a lowering of those wage taxes. The current system promotes people moving further away than need be (and that's not a joke, I have heard several people argue that they should move further from their work, because they could get more out of it). While I think there are good reasons to keep at least some reimbursement for public transport and bike facilities, I'd be fine if they were scrapped as well.
100%
0:34 Stop right there. We know people on theses shows are like :
men : works 1 hour a week at home sharpening colored pencil
women : resells egg online
Budget : 1.7 million dollars
😂😂😂
this is so fucking funny
Hahaha 🤣
That's because their actual "jobs" are in real estate and they already own all three properties.
The singular nouns of colored pencil and egg make this way funnier for some reason
Thank you for focusing on urban transport and not sport. A few years ago I listened to you and got a commuter bike e-bike and sold a car. I have not looked back.
😊Well done, Sir.
I haven't sold my car yet, but I rarely drive it. Otherwise, same here.
As my car started breaking down, I started to ride my bike to work. But even now when it drives well, I still use my bike. I have so much more money in my pocket.
Hopefully someday you'll get a multifunctional bakfiets
I live in Seattle and I constantly point out to people that parking alone can cost more than an "expensive" bike. $10/day for parking works out to $2500/ year for 250 working days.
I agree. ...but also, don't look up the price of Riese & Müller bikes. It's shocking.
@@nimblybimbly4002 True! I think of R&M as frankly an "enthusiast" brand rather than something utilitarian. REI has been putting out their own line of e-bikes at some considerable discount for awhile now, and while the gen e1.1 had issues early on, they responded to feedback and produced I think a great bang-for-buck general purpose e-bike.
@@nimblybimbly4002 Yes, the price of R&M is very high, because it is a top notch brand.
@@nimblybimbly4002 The survey found that people with e-bikes are better off than average. I'd never havfe guessed :)
Yes, the cost of owning a car close to the city centre seemed far too low - I'd imagine in the 'downtown' neighbourhood you'd need to pay for parking, whether it's on or off street.
I hate car maintenance so much that I try to ride my bike whenever possible. I installed some baskets on my bike and that has helped. Thank you for the encouragement to try to make more trips by bicycle.
The depreciation, maintenance, consumables and fuel for a car can be broken down by the mile so basically any time you ride somewhere you're basically paying yourself a bonus to ride a bike around. Kind of like how when some people quit smoking they start treating themselves to new toys or nice nights out because they realize they are gaining all the money they used to spend on cigarettes.
It's a risky strategy. I used to do that, and then on the rare occasions where I wanted to ride a car the battery was already dead 🤣 But I live in Europe, in the middle of a city area that has buses, trams and commuter rail, and I only rode 28000km in my car in over 6 years, and that was including vacation trips. I ended up selling the car.
Hi, I haven't owned a car in nearly 10 years now. I bike every day and I bought a bike trailer too. If I need a vehicle, I can rent one. But as far as owning another vehicle, NOPE. Vehicles are just money pits😂.
Selling our car this spring after a year or so of me and partner, bike commuting in Winnipeg. We're going to keep it over the winter and see how often we need to use it. I am assuming that the amount we may need to use city car share, will be easily justified by the savings.
One of the reasons for homelessness. People have to choose between their house or their car. They choose to live in their car because they need transportation to get to their job.
For sure. I totally agree.
If you have the option to 1000% be certain, if I give up my car and bike, I will be able to afford rent, amazing! Easy choice! But it is never that simple.
The way rent is these days..... and how fast it's going up? I can only imagine there will be a lot more people living in their cars.
The opioid crisis is probably the main cause of homelessness in North America
or rent a place and get a job close by??
Haven't job hunted in a while?@MrKongatthegates
As an transportation geographer, it's great to see you cover this. Academic circles have been criticizing this "drive 'til you qualify" suburban sprawl and super-commuting for some time since few people consider the cost of driving. Massive spikes in fuel costs, like after Hurricane Katrina, had a huge impact on those super-commuters. Value of Time could also be included in your calculation and would help biking look better because, as you said, commuting by bike doubles as your exercise. Another knock against the suburban house is that it locks you in to doing nearly everything by car. Add 50%-100% to your driving costs.
@@mustbetrue1602 if you ever do move to a rural farm area, please don't complain about the smells and noises that come with farming or slow moving farm equipment on roads. It would be like moving near an airport and complaining about noise from the airplanes.
Living in a farming area means you are living in sort an industrial area. Rural areas are not always the quiet and idyllic places urbanites and suburbanites assume them to be. They are places where people are trying to earn a living.
I don't how people deal with commutes to a job over 1 hour away. I always consider drivinga car to work as unpaid labor. Its kinda stressful and risky and it makes my day longer
@@edgeofEurasia Agree 100%. If you're out in the country there's all kinds of stuff to accommodate. The worst offenders imo are developers who overbid farmland and immediately do an unregulated (outside city limits) subdivision which causes huge traffic on otherwise low-traffic farm roads.
that's a good point. commuting by bike still takes time, energy etc but at least sort of neutralizes a lot of the huge drawbacks of doing it by car. i get in some exercise, i enjoy being outside, it improves my mood before and after work. it should still be paid as regular labour by your job but it's at least something we can do to even the odds on an individual basis
Yup I can see that quickly becoming an issue, it's pretty obvious living in a "rural" area by Dutch standards with just a bakery and butcher left in the town (10 km to the nearest city, 4.5 km to a nearby town with some shops, 7-8 km to the two larger towns with many shops and facilities. There used to be a grocery store while I grew up here, the building is still there but with a residential use now it's a pretty big home but as a store it'd be tiny by todays standards. It does result in most people defaulting to owning a car and doing all their grocery shopping by car, it's understandable since it saves time and especially with a larger household you'd probably need a cargo bike (especially when hauling crates of beer bottles).
Fortunately I can manage that just fine with just my ebike for practically everything, it does help that I just have to get food for myself and two cats but I'm sure with some planning even getting stuff for multiple people is doable by double panniers and a backpack and a weekly main groceries trip. Public transport is reasonable as well with a fairly frequent bus to the city which has a combined bus and train station.
For the incidental trips like vet visits, getting big heavy litterbox filling material for the cats, etc I usually borrow one of the cars of my parents that live 800m away from here. Just the costs for having a car add up quickly even if you don't drive it around much: insurance, depreciation, regular inspections with inevitable repairs/replaced parts as a result (yearly on older cars, less frequent if they are new).
@@edgeofEurasia And the farm equipment isn't just slow moving, it's also heavy and wide. Which matters especially if it let's say passes through whatever street the house is (mostly noise, possibly also vibrations) or you're on the often narrow middle of nowhere roads (here in the Netherlands at least) where both you and the farm contraption will typically have to slow down and let one side of the vehicle get off the road surface.
Oh and the plane thing yup that's a thing for sure, really baffled me many times living hear a military airbase. It used to host F-16 planes and that got replaced by F-35 recently, pretty sure they flew F-104 starfighters before my time. I can kinda understand people not liking their changed noise profile compared to the F-16 and the increased amount of flights due to training requirements and higher priority on exercises since the military situation to the east. But getting upset at every little plane is a bit silly. That's like choosing to live next to a traditional old church and being surprised they ring a bell every hour.
Started riding my bike so much that my car battery was dead every time I went to use it. Sold my car and it’s so nice not thinking about the maintenance, emissions tests, parking stickers etc. if I need to rent a car there’s an app for that
For now. Until they dry up all the drivers.
Uber drivers live in their cars too.
@@Nuhbuddysi think they mean car share where you can rent a car for a few hours
It might also be worth including the cost in time for the different commute options. Driving 20 km in rush hour traffic is bound to take way longer than a 1.5 km bike ride, even in traffic.
Exactly, a 1.5 km bike ride takes 5-6 minutes, + 5 minutes to take your bike out of storage and lock it to a post at your destination.
Very true, I live in Calgary and work downtown, I used to live 25km away (close to the house in the beginning of video) and now I live 2 km from work, I cycle now but initially I switched from a 25-50 minute drive to a 15-20 minute walk that's now a 5-10 min cycle, sooo much more pleasant!
My bike commute used to be slightly longer than my car commute. However, as traffic worsens every year, that has switched, and my bike commute is now shorter than a car commute would be. Still, the local government blows its budget trying to build more and more roads, rather than investing in driving alternatives.
@@OfTheGaps One year I charted out the average commute time between home and work (Seattle, Ballard to the UW, 5.9 miles) by bus, car, and bike. Total time from the door of my house to the door of my office. Bus averaged 47 minutes, bike 32, car 30. The car included a 7 minute walk from a parking garage. It's one of the factors that got me to ditch my car 25 years ago. Now traffic is much worse, and I invested in an ebike (aging sucks) that's dropped the commute to 22 minutes!
@@trystanswansonart massive mental health benefits when commutes are shorter and don't include the stress of driving.
This video inspired me to look up the numbers. In 2023, my Presto spending in Toronto was $561. Not one month. The entire calendar year. S94+tax on Bikeshare. $0 on Uber. $0 on Taxi. No car.
One of the most frustrating arguments against bike infrastructure: Who's going to pay for it?
Cause roads for cars are free,
Bike infrastructure is done by the same people working on road infrastructure. The only reason why road infrastructure is cheaper (I won't say free because we all pay taxes through property taxes and income tax that fund yearly road maintenance and upkeep) is because its construction was paid for a long time ago. Right now, on the major street near where I live, the City is repaving the street and also putting in separated bike lanes and revamping the lane structure and parking of that street at the same time in order to introduce bike infrastructure to my area. The car drivers are all up in arms about this, but those of us without cars and who bike and walk in the neighbourhood are all saying that it's about damn time! I can finally bike to the grocery store instead of taking transit!
Because cashflow is a thing. In college my richer friend couldn't understand why I paid 20 for cheap shoes that will fall apart rather than a 75 for ones that will last. Because I have 50 for the week and I need shoes now, and I need to eat.
Totally. This sounds like another argument in favour of a bike or transit.
You're familiar with the saying that "It's an expensive business being poor". On another note I have found that my shoes last longer now that I commute by bicycle so instead of needing to get new shoes I might get a new bike tire. Both shoes and bicycle take me places.
The Vimes Boots theory of economics!
And qualifying for an expensive urban apartment can be out of reach for the middle class. You usually need 3x the monthly rent in income to be considered.
@@MrBirdnoseI hate that so much. Surely it's up to me what I can afford? Just give me the damn apartment and let me work out how much income I need.
I have a 2018 golf, I calculated the 6 year total cost of ownership at right around $55,0000 over the last 6 years since I got it. The sticker price of the car was “only” $25k, but when you factor in insurance, gas, tolls, parking, taxes, and the opportunity cost of having that money tied up the total cost balloon quickly. We went from a 2 car family to a 1 car family thanks to an ebike and public transit, and while we could afford a second car I’d rather put that nearly $10k a year to savings and vacation.
My family made the switch from 2 cars to 1 car + e-bike and it has really helped cut down on expenses. I have to visit the airport sometimes, which i do with my motorcycle, but in general we get 99% use out of the car and bike. I rent a trailer for landscaping, use a bike trailer for groceries on occasion. Just counting insurance and gas alone it's nearly $2,500 a year in savings.
I've never understood the average person spending so much on cars.
I bought a 2007 Volvo in 2019 for £3300. It will need more repairs than a newer car, but it's still way less than what my neighbours have spent on their nearly new SUVs. I know so many people with £200-500 per month car payments. No way could I afford that, and I doubt they can either!
I moved to Montreal and was able to afford a home thanks in large part to not owning a car. With the good public transit and bike infrastructure, I can get by without a car which opens up $800-1200/month for a mortgage
I recently learned about bike lane opposition in Montreal. The "Oh The Urbanity!" channel on here just posted a vid about an anti-bike lane community meeting they attended in Montreal. The objections were...interesting 😅
Yep, comparing to Calgary, Montreal has a Metro. Which is great for winter snowstorms, no cycling :)
I suppose part of the issue is that, most people will have a hard cap on what banks are willing to lend them. It's not like you can promise to not buy a car and use alternatives, and then the bank will increase their loan offer. So some people may not have the option to pay more up front, and buy in a more expensive area better connected by public transport, and avoid the long term costs of car ownership. This will be true as long as in a particular city or region car dependent suburbs are the norm, and good public transit service is the exception.
I live in Germany and here it's not as common to own your house.
I think almost 60% are renting - we have robust laws that protect renters.
Of course that all can change and has changed - in bigger cities house prices and rents increase - so exactly where transportation could be cheaper without a car.
You can try to find a middle ground - but with more demand next to a good connected train station it's not easy.
I think there are some initiatives to combat that - a whole community trying to buy the apartment building for example.
But to combat hedge fonds and other big players buying up property and artificially increasing its value - it's hard to fight against it.
@@theresabu3000 Your last paragraph is a problem in the US too 😭 We also have individuals pooling resources to buy an apartment building, called co-ops. But those are usually in big cities and exceedingly rare.
Thanks for the video! I live in Washington DC and recently ran in to a real estate agent at a coffee shop that specializes in "bike real estate" She said they focus on finding housing for people that want to prioritize biking for their transportation. I thought that was so cool! Next time I look for a place to live, I'm going to try and find a real estate agent like that! (They do all their house showings via bike too!)
This is very cool. Contrast that with a realtor I interviewed several years ago who said in his 20 years he had never had anybody ask him about transportation costs.
wow that is amazing. Do they have a website or socials I've never heard of such a thing but it should be.
This kind of holistic approach to cost of living is really illuminating, I'm glad you're shining a light on it. There will always be people willing to pay a premium for car ownership and a secluded home far from urban life, but it's important that people have complete information to make informed choices. The cost of selling your home early is substantial, so you don't want to find out after taking out a mortgage that your transportation costs are much higher than expected.
I made these calculations in the early 1990s. It enabled me to retire before my 50th birthday.
When you consider that a lot of these costs are borne by the municipality, this leads me to believe that a lot of cities struggling to balance their budget would be in much healthier positions if they pursued dense, transit led development. Multiply the savings you've experienced by all the taxpayers paying those costs over those decades.
I have organized my entire life over not owning a vehicle. I have many reasons for this, mostly out of fear of injuring someone or becoming a statistic myself, but I have to constantly point out to people that I can live my life so much better as a result of not owning a vehicle. The only caveat to this is rural living, which generally requires a vehicle but also allows for many different types of lifestyles that an urban centre simply can't accommodate.
Thanks for continuing to post great content to encourage more commuter bike use!
That's certainly a worthy aspiration! Unfortunately for myself in the suburbs without proper supportive infrastructure I got into a nasty tangle with a distracted driver very quickly into my bike commute transition. I really want to make this work but ironically the danger of vehicles makes it harder to abandon driving. It's really messed up and I'm currently looking for solutions to someday get closer to what you're doing.
Grateful for the trust I've earned with friends' cars, but 100% with you on never wanting any kind of vehicle besides my bike. Upgraded it to electric and it has mostly filled in the deficit in mobility thanks to my limited energy, so now I can bike where I would normally only consider driving. It's so enabling that I'm reconsidering bike-packing for a while, highly highly recommend it
I'm a lifetime car-free American too. Walking and public transit, been lucky enough to be able to afford such places even as the cost soars due to our broken zoning laws. For me biking has always been about local utility trips: faster shopping, nearby friends, local cruising. Now that I have a folding bike, I might be more inclined to do bike+transit combinations, but given US infrastructure I was never bike-first.
Living in rural Danmark, we do not own a car, have one e-bike for my wife, an old cargo trike for bigger needs, and an mtb for me. holidays are on bike. commute is to the nearest train station for her (5km) and take the train to work. me, I have 11km to work, so I bike. the dog goes in the trike or the trailer when he needs to come along.
In Europe, generally, even in rural areas, there is a public transport system, and only rarely you will find yourself more than 10km from a public transport stop.
There are still jobs in rural areas, for those who do not want to commute further.
If you are commuting further , like my wife, (70km), Working from home is often an option , even if just for one or two days a week.
Nobody needs a car. Contrary to popular belief, they are nice to have, not need to have.
and cars are a nice I prefer to go without.
@@bartstofregen9193 that's totally fair. Definitely not the case in North America sadly!
I have always tried to live within walking or cycling distance to my workplace even if it meant slightly higher rent. One of the biggest benefits of that is time. An hour I could have given to traffic and searching for a parking place is mine to do with as I please, twice a day.
I did this same math 15 years ago deciding where to live. City centre was a third more expensive in rent than the suburbs. But including travel cost they were the same. Went for the city centre apartment and saved two hours of commuting each day.
hey shifter,
I love the ideas here, but to be honest, the 'conclusion' section was super underwhelming. when the premise of the video started at "people should consider transport costs as part of housing costs" and you started to bring out real number examples of houses, that was a great direction. but then, at the end:
- veered off into talking primarily in cost to society numbers. this is important for policy, but not what most people take into account in detail when making the personal living decisions that are the main point here, and feels like it's making a moral appeal to individuals when you don't need to, and it's taking away from the fact that the actual personal transport cost numbers should speak for themselves
- made cost calculations for bike and car modes in pure dollars per mile, which doesn't makes sense at all when a huge portion of both are somewhat fixed monthly costs e.g. depreciation, insurance, etc. transport dollars per mile are also super weird, when you could have just looked at the actual daily transit ticket cost for each real house's commute
- did not actually show the combined housing + transportation cost for each living situation (though the choice of picking 3 identically priced homes makes this less interesting)
I feel like it would have been way more compelling to look at 3 houses which were as comparable as possible (e.g, all detached homes, or all townhouses, with nearly identical room count, yards, and sq footage) but with rising prices closer into the city, and then do the math on both home loans or rent and personal transport costs to show how in the most viable transport situation for each (0 car in city, 1 car in middle, 2 car in suburbs) the cost of cars fully reverses which situation is most expensive for a family overall.
The second he said "we're fixing the home price" I gave up. I don't know this channel but this was just another spin of the "not just bikes" mentality without taking into consideration the actual reasons why people time and time again choose to commute by car whenever they can afford it despite its many, MANY disadvantages:
1. Weather
2. Not having to deal with homeless/crazy people/muggers
3. Space for moving somewhat heavier stuff around when you need to bring stuff up the office/from the office
4. Not arriving at work drenched in sweat in the summer or having to wear ski gear just to commute in the winter (see 1.)
(Among many others I just can't remember)
Yes, it's a comfort. Yes, you can totally do without. But stop pretending they aren't factors. Anyone who just tries commuting like that (say when their car breaks down) sees the night/day difference between the two transportation modes.
Car is a ridiculous cost to an individual's lives? YES. Parking sucks? YES. Traffic jams such? YES. Will people stop driving any time soon? No. Especially not in North America where money is easy to come by and the infrastructure isn't there.
(And to put in context, I originally am from Brazil and I commuted to work (1 bus, 1 train and 15 minutes walk), so I know what's life like when you commute every day. It's more like "survival". Every now and then you get a dose of cortisol. From a shady character here and there, from a crazy lady screaming to her boyfriend, from the candy salesbeggar that hops from one train to another, from the group of teenagers that think the bus is theirs; to that day you forgot your umbrella because the weather changed and now you need to walk back home (or worse, to school after work) under heavy rain.
So please, when you make those arguments that "you can just bike and take the metro", stop pretending these aren't factors. THEY ARE.
Exactly. I thought he was going to make a case why I - potential homebuyer - would choose a home/bike combo over a home/car combo elsewhere. I mean, to be blunt, I couldn't possibly car less about the "cost to society."
Great video Tom, thank you. As a person who lives in a Brooklyn apartment and owns two bikes (one of them an ebike) I always tell my friends, that owning a car seems to be a nightmare, and I don't only mean the money factor, parking the car in the city is almost impossible, my friends spend around 20 min extra, driving around the same 3-4 blocks to be able to park when they're coming over to hangout, they have to use expensive parking buildings if they drive to work and you never know the time you'll need during traffic (and time is money). Everyone for these reasons is very tired all the time. You mentioned the mental health aspect of biking but I think it is a bigger factor than just a small mention, not saying that we won't need therapists anymore but overall cutting down on the complicated logistics of day to day commute is already a life changer and yes to your point so much better for your wallet.
You nailed it at the end. Many people driving are having the massive societal costs subsidized, so in their eyes the cost to convenience is low.
I can’t speak for Canada as I only lived there a year, and didn’t have kids, but I’ve lived in many US states and I can tell you that nothing you say, or the info in the video, matters much to parents of school age kids. The only societal cost they care about is the cost that inner city school districts impose on them. The combo of high taxes and bad schools and high crime is why they will move out and drive in.
@@nunyabidness3075 it's a self fulfilling prophesy with a dark past. Because of current US school funding models (property taxes) those people leaving for "greener pastures" are part of the problem. The districts would improve if they would just stay put. But instead, people make individual decisions with local, imperfect information, and only care about themselves and immediately clear and short term results. We then make this even more enticing by heavily subsidizing such movers. At the very least, we can make them pay fair share and realize that there is real cost to moving elsewhere for "better" schools.
@@DagaenGolomb I’m sorry, but it sounds to me like you are blaming people for voting with their feet when it’s really their only choice. They pay higher taxes and get worse services. The amount spent in urban districts is usually MORE. The teachers unions and other public employee unions have too much power in those areas. Regular people who cannot afford private schools will complain only so much before they leave. We had some friends who actually made a deal with their public school to run a school within the school using a TON of parent volunteer time. Of course, the kids who didn’t have a parent who could volunteer did not get into the better classes. It was really kind of disgusting. The whole thing is a mess because of politics.
@@nunyabidness3075 Urban cores almost always HIGHLY subsidize suburban and rural communities via almost every service and infrastructure provided outside of the immediate municipality. It is because of this massive subsidization that suburban areas with wealthy, strong property tax residents can "afford" amenities like better school systems. I'm not blaming people for voting with their feet. I'm saying we need to stop subsidizing it so that people bear the true cost instead of being nudged towards socially sub-optimal and unfair decisions for their own benefit at the expense of everyone else.
@@DagaenGolomb Sorry, I know that is all over the internet these days, but it was all based on flawed data from a McKinsey con man that made a mint on consulting cities with it. The flaws are based on zip codes having mixes of residential and commercial properties and also the fact you cannot separate the businesses from their workers even though they aren’t in the same zip codes. Furthermore, picking only infrastructure costs is misleading in the extreme because other services and costs are much higher with increased density. Cities WANT to believe it because density correlates with higher taxes, but that’s misleading as well.
You can check yourself by simply using municipal spending, population, and square mileage information and comparing cities.
If you go check the usual proponents, you will see they aren’t really pushing that line much this year.
As someone that lives in Calgary on the SE side far from downtown, similar to the first house shown. I choose to buy a e-cargo bike (Tern Orox) this year actually from Power in Motion, and use that for 95% of my trips around the city. I even had my wife on the back of the bike when we went downtown for the Stampede. I completely understand the bike was overkill for what I need but I had the income for it and decided to splurge.
Anyone I've spoken too who is not a bike rider is completely baffled by the fact I was willing to spend 10k CAD on a bike. But when I start mentioning things like it literally cost me less than 0.10 cents of electricity to go 100km or the fact I don't have to pay a $150-200 a month for insurance, pay for parking downtown and maintenance is a lot cheaper, and I dont have to figure out a space to park a second car it does make them stop and think for a bit. And again it can be done on a much cheaper bike/ebike, I'm just stupid with my money and wanted the latest and greatest.
A 2016 GasBuddy Calgary poll (22,044 voters) indicated 16% of Calgary households have 4 or more vehicles, 20% three or more, 40% two vehicles, 21% one vehicle and only 1% no vehicle. The fact that more households have more than 2 cars here is crazy and no one bats an eyelash to the idea of getting a second gas guzzling pick up truck that they only use to grab groceries by themselves yet always complain about rising gas prices. And scoff at the idea that people would spend even $1000 on a bike and that we would take up all their precious space on the roads.
People in North America in general are just willing to accept the idea that they have to have a car and that public transport or biking or walking is more inconvenient or looked down on with their social standing. Thinking if you don't have your own car you're poor and less than us with their mighty lifted and modded pick up truck owners (sorry just like to pick on truck owners that have one not for work purposes). Owning a car has become a rite of passage into independence into adulthood and we put car ownership on a pedestal in our society so we just accept the cost of owning a vehicle here. But thats just my 2 cents.
Good comment.
Though as a person who also splurged quite a bit (half your amount but a couple of years ago) on a non-ebike, one can not neglect the costs for maintenance. A bike is considerably cheaper than a car, but you still have 10-20c/km, depending on your bike and if you do the maintenance yourself. Even after 50000km, I am still above 10c/km. One just has to be aware of those costs, otherwise one might get a shock when the next visit to the bike-shop costs 300-500CAD in maintenance. The electricity costs on running an ebike are next to none compared to the costs of wear and tear, especially since bike-parts are weight-optimised instead of wear optimised as most car parts.
I do my own maintenance and replace parts later than a bike shop, because I can monitor the condition better, thus I run my bike rather cheap. I would estimate that the maintenance costs would at least double, if a bike-shop would do it.
It's not so surprising if you consider how much money car makers spent on influencing public opinion. Just think about all the ways cars play a prominent role in the movies and TV shows we grew up with. Most of that is very much not coincidental.
The idiocy kills me when people with expensive sports cars or unnecessarily large trucks whine about the price of gas….
I've owned and rented 3 different homes in my city over the last 24 years, each of them in central locations. The commuting options are all just so much cheaper. Sprawl is a personal wealth killer.
My true cost of owning a car was $23 per day or $8,395 per year. Last February I gave up my personal car and have no regrets and never looked back. I live in the downtown area of a major US city so I bike, use public transit, or carshare. I prefer not to drive because it's a stressful activity. My transportation costs are low so more money for restaurants, clothing, groceries, etc. Biking to the grocery store is way easier than driving a car, I've been doing that for the last 4 years.
One thing that's a bit lacking in the downtown core of most big Canadian cities is access to green spaces. I lived in Montreal for 15 years, just a few blocks away from Mont-Royal, and it was still too much concrete for me in the end.
I moved to a smaller Canadian city in the Okanagan, and I work remote. Every once in a while I'd like a car to get around to interesting places (and to account for the persistent wildfire threat over the summer) but it's hard to pull the trigger on it when I absolutely don't need one for day-to-day life. I ride my bike to the grocery store (or get groceries delivered) and we bought in a part of town that's close to all the amenities. And crucially, I'm surrounded by lakes and mountains and access to green space just moments away in any direction that I strike out.
This is, of course, a problem with car-centric cities by their nature as well--so much space is taken up by roads and parking that we don't have as many trees and gardens.
What we also need in Calgary is easily accessible secure bicycle parking for events (e.g. Stampede/Concerts/Etc) and close to popular venues
💯
Not just Calgary, this should be standard everywhere
Ideally, this would be standard everywhere. I know I have chosen my car when I don't know of a safe place to lock my bike.
@@CanadianWinters when my wife and I I go to baseball games in Washington DC, we bike there because they have bike parking that is watched over by ballpark employees. They call it a bike valet.
Victoria has a year-round bike valet, hours vary by season (and if there's a big event in town), they trialed it for a summer I think and it was so wildly popular that now it's year round. People can even drop off their strollers there, whatever, it's not just bikes, and it's so useful (ours is next to City Hall). Hopefully you can gather enough support to start one in Calgary, even on a trial basis.
Awesome message. I sold my last car almost 2 years ago after a lifetime of being a “car guy”. Best decision!!! I have more freedom to take a mix of car share, ride share, transit, active transit, airplanes, trains, or whatever works best for a given trip. I got more fit. Plus, even after spending money on all those I save $8k per year and get an extra $1100 per year in parking spot rental income. Helps me live in the city without feeling house poor anymore!
Fantastic video! I did this math too when buying a new home and have always advocated to other people my age buying to consider this. If I could wave a magic wand I would have transportation costs (even just individual out of pocket) be included in mortgage applications, just like utilities and taxes. It's frankly insane it isn't.
It's not included because it can vary so much and so quickly. Case in point. A friend of mine lost his job when the company went bankrupt. He quickly found a new job but his daily commute went from 5 miles a day to 150 miles a day. All this in the span of a few weeks. Moving was not an option with house, wife and a toddler anchoring him to our current town. Luckily he within a few months found a new job only a few miles from home.
cost of transportation isnt included because 1) you are presumed to have a car so its factored in the larger DTI, and 2) The majority of car ownership costs is fixed, so average trip length really doesn't affect cash flow all that much. What makes a difference is living completely car free, but in most cities this is far more expensive than having a car in the suburbs.
Commute time and being able to continue biking to work was one of the biggest factors on where we were looking to buying a house.
My Commute ended up going down from 12 minutes to 7 minutes, biking past our kids' school, daycare and grocery stores. A mall, river and parks are all within a few minutes bike/walk, our yard extends into the woods and we frequently have deer visiting. We live just outside a city in Norway with a population of 215k. Going into the city centre takes 25 minutes by bike.
When I switched to an e-bike it paid for itself in a couple months between parking, insurance, ferry/tolls/etc. not to mention gas. Also living close into the city, it's so much more convenient and, for my commute, actually faster. No sitting in traffic, waiting in long lines, searching for parking spots, etc.
The problem I have with the analysis here is that while it pointed out you may have to spend more for an extra car in the far suburban location, it didn't factor in that if you're in a closer location and need only one car, or no car, that you could apply that savings to the cost of your house, and could afford to spend a bit more to live closer in without necessarily sacrificing square footage.
There have been examples in the US of financial institutions that will allow a somewhat larger mortgage for buyers who want to be closer in, who won't have as high transportation costs. Although given the constant upward pressure on housing prices due to cheap credit and tight demand, one might not want to have another reason to get larger mortgages. Nonetheless, having lower transportation costs does give you more money to play with, so you could potentially buy a more expensive house, if your lender will play ball.
People forget they can rent a car now and then. If you can get by without a car most but not all days, just rent.
Very overlooked indeed! I realized this hack maybe five years ago after we got rid of our car. We were already living within biking distance of the entire city, so we didn't need the car anyways. After 5 years of saving we're now able to move into a luxurious town house in the city, it does not have a garage or driveway so the land cost is minimized.
Owning a car you also need to factor in the "alternative cost", i.e what the money you spend on the car you have been if you invested/saved it for many years. Paying interest on an asset that is depreciating in value is kind of insane to me.
Very insightful video. These type of videos and analysis gets the conversation going. I sold my car 5 years ago not wanting all those expenses and got an e-bike 2 years ago and can’t imagine my life without it now.
I am lucky I live in Victoria with tons of amenities for bikes.
Important to remember you can mix and match your transportation between, walking, biking, public transit, and ride sharing.
A couple other important things to keep in mind when thinking about transportation costs and planning:
-Only about 20% of all trips are between home and work. Most trips are for other things (appointments, education, shopping, social events, etc, etc. etc.).
-Also, the average work commute these days isn't from a suburb to a job in a central city. It's from a suburb to a job in another suburb. Makes it even harder to make longterm housing decisions. (What happens if you buy a house in a suburb because it's close to your suburban job but then in a couple years you get offered a job [or your employer moves] to a suburb on the opposite side of the central city?
So many things about the way we've built our work make it hard to avoid the car ownership trap, even if you make decisions about your housing with an aim to eliminate the need for car ownership. If all the planners are assuming you'll get a car, it can be difficult to go against that baseline assumption.
These are great points. Thanks for sharing.
"Most trips are for other things (appointments, education, shopping, social events, etc, etc. etc.)."
Though a lot of those trips are also pretty short, and thus more convertible to biking than work commutes.
Great video, we're in the process of house hunting and transportation access is a big factor.
One item missed in your video though...the 'magnificent middle' and 'downtown delight' have over $800 a month in condo fees.
Yep, this is part of why I live in a missing middle neighborhood... At the end of the line in an untrendy area. Condo fees are insane and houses are unaffordable in neighborhoods with lots of great restaurants.
A non-sprawling suburb that's a little ways out seems like a good compromise if you don't like density, but I don't know if they have that in Canada.
New suburban developments and HOAs go hand-in-hand in America, and that's not cheap either. It's a selling feature to ensure conformity. Like apartments, only with the added expense of a good lawnmower, lawn service and so on.
@@vulpixelful Sadly very few non-sprawling suburbs in urban areas in Alberta. I understand it is what it is, I'm just surprised that he didn't take the significant condo fees into consideration. Nearly 10K a year in additional condo/maintenance fees is significant when looking entirely at budget.
@@vulpixelful depends what you count as sprawl and what you count as a suburb. Plenty of streetcar suburbs in Toronto for instance, or non sprawling suburbs in the Montreal area. As for liking density... Density is great, but the additional costs incurred for it are often high e.g. condo fees.
The house next door to mine was on "House Hunters." Fun fact: Turns out the couple had already purchased another home, but in order to make the show, the agent showed them two other houses and they pretended to go over the pros and cons of each house even though they had already bought another one.
¡Saludos desde Puerto Rico!
Voy en bicicleta al trabajo desde 2005. En Puerto Rico no tenemos ciclovías fuera de algunas áreas turísticas y el transporte colectivo es totalmente ineficiente. Aquí son 4 millones de personas y hay 3 millones de carros. La infraestructura se diseñó para el transporte en carro, para beneficiar la banca mediante préstamos para automóviles. Todo el mundo aquí tiene una deuda para poder tener un carro y moverse. Yo decidí por la bicicleta, aunque estoy obligado a tener un carro usado para poder ir a destinos más lejos o transportar a mi hijo cuando es necesario. ¡Me encanta tu programa!
You are still saving on car maintenance by reducing your car trips. Good luck!
@@vulpixelful Indeed!
Pragmatic and practical. Another awesome video, Tom!
excellent discussion and comparison. for some, an occasional need for a vehicle is a must. e.g. taking a senior to a medical appointment. but it would still work and costs can still be kept down if they join car share or call a taxi. Thanks!
Yes, I think a lot of us still need a car in our lives, but even reducing its use can save a lot of expense. This is amazing support, thank you! I really appreciate it.
Yes, I don't have a car, and that means I have the money to pay for an occasional cab fare without any issue. Big items, I pay for delivery. And if I ever get a driving licence, I can rent a car for those trips into the country side, where transit is lacking or even absent, and distances too important to cycle.
Always love when a new Shifter video comes out very informative
Thanks, for a well written video. Bike storage is a problem with downtown older apartments, and townhouse Condo's, even newly constructed Condo's.
Folding bikes can help there. A Zizzo is well-made and costs a few hundred dollars.
@@mindstalkscooters fit everywhere. We could convert to 100% scooter based transportation with no modification to the built environment
Bike storage is so cheap to build! It's infuriating that it's not everywhere.
Crushing it with the video and audio quality in these videos!
Excellent. One of your best videos.Thanks
GREAT analysis - did this decades ago, got a house in a fantastic neighbourhood, one of the best decisions in my life. Too many people get sucked in by HGTV and car ads, and end up paying for it for the rest of their lives. Thanks!
love videos like this, making something people don't usually focus on but effects everyone and making it easily understandable‼️ I must say its really infuriating that bikes and transit can help everyone and save so much mobey but advocating for it is made so difficult whilenit being such an easy choice.
This is a very well laid out and persuasive argument. Well done!
Another amazing video. Love the channel
Excellent video. Excellent information. Every Canadian needs to watch this video.
The Netherlands pays you $.23 per kilometer you cycle to work! Also most companies will also cover all public transit costs so getting to work is free or paid for if you choose the more sustainable option. Also that downtown delight looks miserable with a high traffic road right outside, the middle looks like a much better option. I agree living somewhere that isn't car dependant is important, but I moved to the Netherlands from the US because downtown neighborhoods have highways going through the middle of it.
Really loving these longer format stories with „nutrient-dense“ info! Thanks for making the effort!
in 1993 i started my bicycle commuting ,1994 brought a new job and a standard 60 km round trip commute for 3 days a week 8 month per year ,that meant being able to operate with one vehicle which alone in 1996 to 2000 represented approx 900 dollars a month .this went on for 8 years until a move 70 kms from work precipitated a daily car commute and essentially forced my cycling to a recreational activity .from 2003 to 2018 fuel cost doubled ,retired 2018 and still ride albeit an electric now great story
I really like the framing and lighting of the last shot of you walking and talking in the city.
I used to live in a two bedroom mobile home with a yard, had a car, since I'm single again I moved into the city, studio apartment, got rid of the car since it was starting to cost more for parts I do my own repairs and switched to walking and riding my bicycle to work which is around 3km.
I'm a few minutes from several bus stations, 5 km from the Train and Bus Depot
I take the train to go see the kids a couple of cities away, I can take my bicycle on the train.
There is a strip mall a block away with a grocery store and fast food places.
Not having the car got rid of a 1500.00 dollar insurance bill, fuel, oil and other costs.
Moving to the studio apartment the rent is higher being downtown but not paying for a car more than offsets
And not having to pay for lawn care equipment and supplies I do have two plants an orchid, an aloe vera plant (good for cuts and burns)
The cool part is if I need to shop after work I can ride to the store right on my way home.
I sometimes order my grocery store app and have my groceries delivered, yes there are fees an tips involved but they are not bad and I figure Im not spending money on a car to drive to the store, I mostly order the heavy stuff like can and har goods, bulky things like cereal and rice I take my bicycle to go get my fresh food, like fruit, veggies and salad.
IF the weather is really bad I can always take a ride share, the streets flood when in rains but I got a nice rain suit and rubber boots for that and I got a nice bicycle rain suit should;I need it, I prefer to walk in the Rain a bit safer since I off the street and not a target for inattentive drivers.
The funny part Is I'm a retired Mechanic, who works part time delivering auto parts.
Great video, very interesting. I live about one mile from the town centre and use my bicycle for all my local journeys and also most days for leisure.
It's crazy that $670,000 is an "affordable house in the suburbs".
If that's canadian dollars, then that's only 430k€. Which will get you a one-room-appartment in Munich. Or one third to one half of a house (in a state of disrepair, needing new roof, heating, etc) 60km out of town. So yeah, for a house, 670k$ (canadian) seems damn cheap!
Welcome to the new world, that Covid inflation hits
@@turboseizein Toronto, that gets you a one bedroom condo. Or out in the suburbs, a 2 bed townhouse fixer upper.
i chose my current apartment because it was right next to a bike path. i love this area so much, it makes it so easy to get to places by bike
Great post. I live in Denver and live without a car. I live in the Denver University neighborhood. It has excellent (for the US) bike access to the city core. I can ride most of the way almost free from auto traffic and the scenery is awesome. I can get into the city as quickly as driving, although I do ride faster than the average cyclist.
My wife and I just moved from Edmonton to Kimberley BC and we're making huge strides in reducing our car dependency. I was already riding my bike in Edmonton for nearly all my transportation needs, but we still needed two cars. We've now gone to one car, one ebike and one regular bike. We live
Oh the Urbanity! has an interesting video about it, and while I don't agree 100%, I'd definitely recommend it. Part of the attraction of living in a big city is not being forced to stay in your little enclave, you can go to that new Cambodian restaurant that just opened on the other side of town, or go to a concert of your favourite band (who would likely skip most smaller towns), etc, so a good public transport is still essential.
@@barvdwI lived in the city for 40 years so I’m pretty familiar with the benefits. Cities could be the best of both worlds. By structuring them so people can be within walking and biking distance of their basic needs, they can live easily without a car. Then have excellent transit that allows longer range movement so they can access wider ranging areas.
This is not Edmonton. Not in the least. Like most North American cities, car dependence is forced upon most residents.
@@johnshellenberg1383 Plus modal filtering / super blocks / low traffic neighborhoods, so you can have areas with no through-traffic by cars. Benefit of suburb cul-de-sacs, without limiting traffic by foot or bike.
What a great video. Superbly researched and put together. Full of insights.
The bike-friendliness of my town is average at best. But the commute to work is an easy 4.5 miles using bike paths and side-streets (along Lake Michigan! Wonderful views everywhere!). And the town has enough streets that are acceptably safe to make a bike-commuting lifestyle almost as convenient as living in a bike-friendly city.
Thanks for all the hard work you and your team put into making these videos! I get a lot of value from this channel. I think it's time to join your Patreon, to help support your work.
Tom, another super video here. I'm loving these "big story" segments you're doing. Great job. Cheers.
Even if we opt out of cycling on bad weather days (i.e. super hot Vegas summers, snowy-frozen Canada winters), the transportation savings still add up. Another housing cost factor not mentioned is HOA fees -- a common cost many people forget to budget into their home purchasing plans. We have to be vocal and push for more bike-lanes and routes in our neighborhoods and communities.
We just purchased our home in January and transportation was definitely a factor in our choice. I ride my bike to work so our maximum distance from my workplace was 10km. We also live next to a transit hub so it means we can go down to one car, even in the winter.
I loved living in bike and walkable cities, and am dying to move back. Sadly my work for now requires a vehicle, and the uncertainty of housing makes me reluctant to give up a vehicle that i could live in fairly easily.
But I will definitely return to my hearts home eventually!
17:42 Thank you so much for going over this as well. A lot of people would hear the first numbers and assume that the lions share of the cost wasn't to them.
I think this is one of your most important videos yet! I wish I could convince everyone I know to watch it.
This was great, and I totally agree!
Something that's been hard for us with younger kids is that if we get a place closer in, all the cities around us in the US are overrun by cars. So the paradox for us seems to be that if we move into the city to be less car dependant, we end up exposed to more danger and externality of cars 😞 I'd be willing to sacrifice so much in other areas of life to be able to live in a dense area not overrun by cars
Main point starts at 7:53
❤ the last shot of victoria. Great video, clear breakdown of the cost. Im glad you talked about the cost to the individual because most people don’t care as much about the unpriced externalities.
Commuting with a bike I probably lose an hour more a day than with a car. The median pay in calgary is 28$ an hour so add also that cost if people value their time.
We live in a town of about 100k people, and we decided to not replace our old car when it gave up the ghost. Instead, we put that money into buying an apartment in the town centre. We have never regretted that decision. For only the cost of parking a car near our home, we can rent a new car when we really need one. And as it turns out, that’s not really all that often. Our life is better now.
Great video! I went back to school for 2 years from 2022 to 2024. I used my ebike to go to school every day, even in winter. Using my ebike I've saved a lot of money (parking alone was $7/day on campus or $105-130/month). At times biking was quicker than driving for commuting (e.g. during peak hour). I now use my ebike to commute to work and it's great as my office building offers bicycle parking and I am able to avoid a lot of transportation costs (parking cost in particular) compared to driving a car.
That's great! Can I ask how you manage winter maintenance for your e-bike? I recently got an e-bike and am trying to use it as my main source of transportation, and I am interested in riding it in the winter. I see a lot of people talking about riding a beater instead during the winter, but I would love to still ride my e-bike. Curious if you have any tips! :)
@@ray8326The salt slush mix that collects on your bike is the enemy. Wax your chain and lube more often. Keep the bike dry after each ride. Clean your bike regularly and after the big slushy days. Your bike will get 2to3 summers of use per winter.
@@ray8326 playlist5455 gave great advice. I would also make sure the battery is maintained correctly according to your manual ( and never charge it below 0 Celsius). Get studded tires for winter, they are 100% worth the money.
@@ray8326 playlist5455 gave great advice! I also suggest buying studded winter tires, they are well worth the price to me. Follow the charging instructions for your ebike battery and never charge at temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius.
Really good episode Tom. Thanks for including the Calgary calculator.
You really pulled out the stops for this video, thanks. I'd be interested to see what you think of the situation in England, I live in a rural area and would love to stop commuting by car.
I'm glad YT recommended this video to me. Very interesting explanation, never thought about it this way before.
Loving all the new urbanist content on my algorithm 🙌🏽
My house is a 30 minute walk from my workplace, a 30 minute walk from the high street (downtown), a 30 minute walk from the nearest train station and a 15 minute walk from my doctor. Although the house isn't great, the location is absolutely perfect for getting places. We even have a small grocery store right across the road and a country park about 15 minutes walk away! I own a car but I really don't have to. What I've learned is that finding the right location can really make your life easier.
(This is a small town in England).
Thank you for mentioning the externalities and "hidden" societal costs of car dependent development that are often buried in taxes. If we truly made drivers pay for a "fair share" of their desired transportation method (aka re-internalizing the many externalities), I'm sure many many more would choose to live car-lite (if not car-free) and the many car-brained urban planners that dominate most of North America in this age.
I changed jobs for the exact same annual salary, but a daily difference of 70 miles of commuting. The new job allowed me bike commute, which I did about 1/2 the time. I figured the new job was equivalent to about a $20,000 a year raise. No regrets!
My house cost me 600,000 everyone told me why when I could have gotten something cheaper but I told them that now I can just walk to work and shops and don't have to worry about my car so much
great video! It's especially fun that I can identify most of the locations around Calgary.
It'd be really nice to see a follow up to this video where we look at more drastic differences in housing prices in the suburbs and the city and how it would change if there was only 1 car per family and the impact to the family's budget. As a millenial in Toronto, I have many friends who have done this math in real life and lots of them have moved to the suburbs where houses are 20-40% cheaper then downtown and they get by on only 1 car and the GO train. Eventually they move to 2 cars and maybe a bigger house but sadly with the transportation + housing costs around here, they still find it worth while and once someone owns a car, they never want to give it up.
Going down to a one car household has been a substantial savings for my wife and I, even considering we're both cheap with cars because they're appliances. However, despite being double income childless cat people, we don't have "downtown" jobs and neither does anyone we know. Currently things allow one of us to commute by bike, but we're just a job change away from needing a second car. Especially in the U.S., most Corporate America jobs or medical or engineering or architecture or infrastructure etc are out in suburbia, which in the U.S. is likely to be in a county rather than within city limits (type of local gov't definitely influences development patterns). Was always reverse commuting out of the city and most of my coworkers were commuting from other parts of Suburbia. I have noticed since moving to Canada that the downtowns aren't nearly as dead as their U.S. counterparts though. Also, just showing the direct cost to the consumer might be more impactful as it is a significant number on its own and doesn't leave you open to accusations of "inflating" the value with "made up" factors like the externalities like health, environment, wellbeing. They are real costs, but not to everyone and definitely not to anyone still clinging to driving everywhere.
For most of my regular travel I walk, cycle or take a train. I work from home, so have no commuting costs. For regular shopping, i always go by bike or foot. I've managed in the past without a car, but a couple of years ago I bought a tiny second hand camper van, thinking I'd use it for camping trips. But I don't really use it much. I only use it for long trips away 1-2 times a year.
It's been parked up outside my house for at least 2 months, unused. Today I 'needed' it to pick up a new office chair and some other large items. Of course I could have got these things delivered, but they was heavily discounted, so it seemed like a bargain. Of course if I didn't have the van, I'd have bought the stuff differently, but it's paid for, so why not use it?
Hiring a vehicle always seems so expensive, more to the point, it's just inconvenient.
Bike efficiency was our #1 consideration when we moved to Cranbrook, BC
We picked the neighbourhood 2 blocks from elementary school, 4 blocks from middle school and 8 minute bike ride from downtown.
Even in a small town, this has saved us HOURS: my son has walked or ridden himself to school EVERY DAY of School! From K to 12!
Can you imagine how much time and $ that has saved us?
Great video! I always look forward to your content. I live in Sydney in the suburbs and travel cost and time is real. It would be interesting to compare our cities. I have small 3 kids and rely on cargo bike to get them around. I still have our car but because I use my bike as much as possible it helps keep the maintenance and petrol cost down. I try to teach my kids that a bike is not just my “passion” as my daughter likes to call it but a way of transport that gives freedom from the early age. I hope politicians will continue to expand the bike infrastructure for the next generation. Keep up the great work!
Devo called and they want their energy dome hat back...oh, wait, it's a cycle hlemet. Riese & Müller must've made you wear it, eh? Taking my facetious hat off, good points very well made. Thanks. When I lived in Vancouver I was very grateful that I worked 300 m around the corner from my home.
The energy dome provides extra power to the electric motor?
Love the "cameos" in Victoria -- that market you're across from in Chinatown, Fisgard Market, has an entire freezer dedicated to dumplings. Such an awesome grocery store. 😍
From the U.K. where a car is more ‘optional’ due to smaller country size and more public transport (although the two car family is still very common).
Used to have a 30 mile each way commute. Calculated it once and my car costs (after tax deductions so calculating from my ‘take home’ pay) were equivalent to me working from 9:00AM to 10:40AM (first 1 hour and 40 mins). So technically my first hour and 40 mins I was paying my tax and travel So not putting any money in my pocket for that time .
Switched to a train which got it down to about 10:05AM (taxes and annual train pass), until I was putting any money in my pocket. However, it added about 1 hour to my commute (walk from my house to the train station was 30 minutes each way, each day). In the end the day got too long with the commute and I was definitely getting into a work/sleep/work/sleep lifestyle.
Got a job two miles from my home and sold the car and now got a lot more savings / spare cash and since the pandemic, I have been working from home.
Been about 6 years since I sold my car and I’m hoping I can now be car free forever 🤞
This is a great way of thinking about the costs.
Great video! Just one thing to note, the study done on people that ebike to work revealing that they made more money, probably has something to do with the fact that they're working in cities where that's a viable option and those cities have higher costs of living and generally higher salaries. You made really great points and had valuable insights, I just wanted to add that thought there!
Great video!! Something I would love an investigation into are covered bikes or velomobiles. They seem like a really cool idea but also seem to be incredibly uncommon.
I live about 10 miles from NYC, in a fairly urban suburban New Jersey town that’s well served by public transport - at least if you’re headed into the City. I COULD do without a car altogether if more-effectively arranged my life around being car-free. I’m walking/biking distance to 4 supermarkets, lots of restaurants, two post-offices, doctor’s offices, dentists, … Purchase prices of houses here average about what you’re seeing after you do the currency conversion. Rents, for a decent, not luxurious 2-bedroom have risen to about $3K USD/month around here. I qualify for a senior discount, so if I had to commute to NY every day, it would cost me about $27 USD/week for 5 days, or $120/month. So, adding that to rent, I’d be paying about $3200/month for housing + transportation. Average rents for a decent, not-luxurious 2-bedroom APT in Manhattan run about $6000/month.
Bottom line: It’s still a lot cheaper to live where I live rather than to move to the City. Then add City taxes, lack of space, noise, … Where I am is a sweet spot. Further out would run into the problems you talk about, where you couldn’t survive without a car. Closer in, the housing costs rise exponentially. So … you need to work the numbers for your own individual case, and evaluate the tradeoffs.
Calgary has fewer supply issues than the NYC metro area, though not zero. Part of that is just that demand will always be high in NYC's safe core, but restrictive regulations and NIMBYs are a bigger part.
@@szurketaltos2693 There’s actually a ton of new mixed-use construction going on in my town, mostly concentrated in a very old, industrial-ish zone. By the time they’re done, they’ll have added upwards of 500 new apartments. There are also a number of formerly commercial properties that are being converted to new-construction mixed use. It’s not clear what the impact on infrastructure and services will be, but I’m guardedly optimistic that it will start to relieve the crunch. There’s a fair amount of NIMBY in our neighboring (more desirable, for now) town. But we seem to have gotten over it here.
@@dinosilone7613 NJ has a new housing requirement right? Sounds like your town is doing its part. I have heard that several NIMBY NJ towns are really pushing back on the requirements. That said, 500 units isn't a ton on the scale of the NYC metro; 500 for each NJ town (mid to upper 10s in the metro?) is decent but still not enough.
@@szurketaltos2693 According to the 2020 census, my town had just under 15,000 housing units, so an additional 500 amounts to an increase of a little over 3%. So yeah, not earth-shattering. But your comment made me curious, and I found an article that says that the various new development already approved or underway will add over 1000 new housing units, which brings the total added units to over 6%. They’re counting on most of the new tenants to be young people who’ll use public transportation to go to jobs in NY, but that’s a big gamble. If enough of these people decide they need cars, we’ll be in for a real mess. In the short term, it should stabilize rents, which have increased by more than 1/3 since the beginning of Covid.
You should apply for low cost housing lotteries in NYC. Could make it worth it. And certain places have waiting lists for affordable housing. My friend was on a wait list almost 10 years, now lives upper west side ,70s, blocks from Central Park.
I don't know if that is included in the calculator, but your time is also worth something. If you commute 50km every day, that's probably an hour or two per day. If you value your time at the minimum wage, living closer to work becomes the better deal very quickly.
On a bike, you are spending your time exercising. Bikes enable you to arrive at work sweat-free even on the hottest days
Bikes don't sit in traffic. Cars do. You are also exercising, and on an ebike, arriving at work sweat-free.
I'm so glad you set the cost of my eBike in the Netherlands in perspective at the start of the video because halfway through, I got a call from the repair shop telling me its latest service and repairs (after five years of use) would cost about €500! Ouch. But nowhere near $10,000 a year...
Awesome video! It's really important to spotlight this, and the overall societal cost of cars (because it boils down in taxes). Personally, I learned how to service my own bike. and over a period of 5 years I have spent ~500$ on my bike (it was new, non-electric, and included in the price was equipment like bags, luggage rack, fenders, lights, locks etc), and now after 5 years I just switched the tires and tube for the first time in 5 years (70$). For me I don't even consider it to be a cost at this point. I live in Sweden by the way, but still enjoy the channel and the talking points! :)
I agree and have been living that solution. Two years ago we moved our family from our 3 bedroom home in Saskatoon to a one bedroom condo in East Vancouver. We got creative with downsizing and are making it work. I have a 5km bike ride or walk to work downtown or a 20 minute bus ride. Our neighborhood is very walkable to most amenities and there is decent bike infrastructure. We are really happy we didn’t do the usual route of opting for a one or two hour commute so we could have a bigger place!
14:19 The Netherlands is a very bike friendly country. I live in Sweden which isn't as car centric as the United States. However bike infrastructure is quite a new phenomenon here and not available everywhere. I've had a few close calls with the grim reaper when I rode my bicycle on the death trap that is my commute to my work. For safety reasons I now drive to work and bike on the bicycle paths that don't lead to any logical destination when I want to exercise.
I'll be honest, a major reason i can't fully switch to bike is weather. Too much of the year here is minimum 90°F by noon, if not earlier. Getting to work might be reasonable without becoming a sweaty mess that absolutely requires a shower before being presentable professionally, but even electric assisted biking does nothing to protect from the ambient temperature. Take a bus on those days, you might say. Well, the bus stop by my house will only have a bus come by once per hour, without a scheduled stop- you just have to hope you're there when it passes by, as only two points on the route have scheduled stops. Further, multiple buses are needed to arrive at most major destinations with a pretty high base fare, making transportation anywhere from $3-10 daily for a commute likely to be minimum 1 hour for a location that can be driven to in 20 min.
I wouldn't expect anyone locally to really come out ahead using public transport here. It's far too infrequent, inconvenient, and expensive.
Infrastructure is vital to make biking and public transport possible, and it simply doesn't happen outside cities here. It's not like I'm far from the major city near me either, it's about a 20-40 min drive depending on traffic.