If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed that from time to time I talk about transportation. I share my views on expanding transit, lowering the cost and general accessibility. In fact, one of the issues that drives me crazy here in my state of Colorado was how difficult it used to be to go to the mountains. There was very limited bus service. But, with inflation going up, gas prices hitting ridiculous highs due to inflation and global conflicts it’s time to have a real discussion about the cost of a car and why we need to rethink how expensive it is to get around our towns. By the way, Denver’s transit costs have frequently been pointed out for being much more expensive than larger metropolitan areas. Despite that, I’ve made some changes to how I move across town and my state. My hope is by sharing these experiences that people in other cities and towns will be inspired to embrace the programs that I use and push for thoughtful transit designs in their towns too. And, happily, Colorado now has the Bustang service that takes people to the mountains daily. If you’re wondering how I saved on transportation costs read on!
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How To Save on Transportation Costs
It’s not lost on me that where you live really impacts your ability to save money on the cost of transportation. If you live in a city that has been built with an emphasis on car usage, it may be very challenging to do some of the things that will be suggested in this post. So, I decided to get a little creative and think outside of the box while at the same time sharing how I’ve saved $30,000 on transportation expenses in the past three years.
- Pay off your car loan-If you have a car loan, that monthly expense (depending on how large it is) may be a drain on your wallet. A couple of months ago, a TikTok video went viral with dealership staff sharing their monthly car payments. I was shocked. Some of these folks were paying over $1300 a month for one car! In the case of several of the team members, they had two car payments totaling around $3,000 a month. I’m not suggesting getting rid of the cars, but at least pay off your car loan as quickly as you can so that it’s one less thing to worry about.
- Be intentional about your car usage-Do you really need to use your car for every errand that you’re running? Every time you turn on your car you’re paying for gas to do whatever it is you’re doing. Hoping in the car to drive 3 blocks when you could walk down the street may be something that you reconsider. In being intentional about your car usage also think about your habits in general. I discovered that I really prefer to use my car road trips and going into the mountains for hiking events. I wasn’t really using my car often in-town.
- Use a gas app-There are apps that help you save on the cost of gas. Definitely do your due diligence and research the different apps out there. Here are a few apps to look into:
- Gas Buddy
- Fuelio
- Waze
- AAA TripTik Travel Planner
- Wrap your car-If you drive a lot, advertising local businesses or being a part of larger national campaigns may be a good way to earn more towards the cost of owning a car. I won’t suggest any companies because I want you to do your due diligence if you opt to do this. Some things to consider when reviewing the different car wrap programs:
- Duration of the advertising campaign
- The average decal size-is it covering your entire car or just a small part of your car?
- What are the payment terms?
- What are the expectations of the company for participants in the program?
- How do they deal with damage to your car? Will you be compensated for that?
- Sell one car-If you’re a multi-car family, consider getting rid of one of your cars. Having a car costs money. General maintenance, insurance, gas, dealing with accidents, taxes and the list goes on. For each additional car, the cost goes up. You’ll again have to be intentional about your car usage if you’re a multi-car family but you may be surprised by how much you use your for unnecessary trips.
- Use public transit-I primarily ride the light rail here in Denver and take regional buses. But, I also take public transportation in other towns across the world. I’ve learned that it’s a real skillset and that many people have no idea how to use the transit in their towns. You’re likely paying taxes to use these services. At least take public transit when you are going to a sporting event, the theater or parade. Have exact change-buses almost never break change OR use the app for town’s transit system.
How to Use a Car Share
Now, before I share what a car share is, I do want to disclose that I am a board member of a carshare program. But, I do want to share how that happened and what a car share is-they don’t exist everywhere and I truly wish that they did. A car share program is literally what it sounds like. You are a part of a community of people that has shared access to a vehicle or fleet of vehicles. There are two types of car share programs that I’ve seen so far:
- Non-profit-This is the business framework for the car share program that I use. I love this because the mission drives (no pun intended) how the organization is run and is in keeping with my social good focus.
- For-profit-You’ve likely seen car share programs popping up in larger cities. These programs function in the same way as in terms of how people gain access to the cars. But, profit will always outweigh social good with any for-profit business as one would expect.
How a Car Share Works
If you have access to car share programs in your town, I definitely urge you to try them out. Here’s how most of them generally work.
- Provide proof of a good driving record-If you’re in a car share program, you need to show that you’re not a risk to use their cars. The teams/companies want to make sure that you’re not going to crash, road race, or drive recklessly with their $15,000+ cars. If you fail the initial trust test=you’re not going to be approved to use the program.
- You’ll have to provide your driver’s license-They keep these on record and there are different ways that information is stored by the team. In my customer profile there is a copy of my license. When your license expires you will have to provide an updated copy.
- Insurance-You’ll pay into a group insurance policy. In the case of the company that I use, I pay for the highest amount of coverage possible. I DON’T skimp on this. So far it has been very affordable around $40 for the year. However, I would pay up to a couple of hundred dollars to cover my ass. I had one stupid fender bender that was my fault and they handled everything with the insurance!!! It was glorious. But, you can have up to one minor at fault issue a year. More than that in my program-you probably will have your membership paused or revoked.
- Reservations and Payments-You will schedule a time to use a car from 15 minutes to several weeks. There is a point where I have to speak to the team for a longer reservation. They want to make sure that the fleet is allocated across the city. Also, for a longer time reservation you typically would pay up front for the TIME usage of the car. Then you pay for gas out-of-pocket and mileage. Many of the for-profit car shares use an app interface or a website (or both). My program using a website platform.
Car Share FAQs
In the beginning I used to get asked A LOT of questions about using a car share program. Some were related to tropes around car ownership, other folks were genuinely interested in what the experience has been like and some folks were just unfamiliar with the concept because programs like these are still new or unavailable in their town.
- Do you feel embarrassed using a car share? Cars in a car share program are always wrapped or display the program logo. The answer-HELL NO!!! I love my car share program so much and my hope is that other people will experience the same cost savings and sign up. My biggest wish is for people to get rid of one of their cars and supplement that car usage with a car share membership. Then, they would free up cash and use it towards savings, investments, fun or whatever else they are needing.
- What types of cars are available to you? The car share program that I use has a fleet of electric and high fuel mileage cars. My favorite is the RAV4 and the Nissan Leaf. I use different cars to drive in town versus driving in the mountains. Some cars in the fleet aren’t good for mountain driving but I think the team is phasing those cars out. They even have an F-150 for those moments when you have to haul things.
- Can you make reservations at the last minute-You can but I wouldn’t recommend it. The likelihood that your preferred car is being used is pretty high and the one time you really need the car-you’ll end up having to reserve one further away. I live near several cars in the fleet, but those cars are reserved all the time.
- Is it hard to get used to using a car share? I found the first month interesting because I was really paying attention to my habits. The questions I would ask myself is “Do I want to pay to do this?” or “How can I do this more efficiently?” I almost always would end up deciding to get to wherever I was going in a different way. The other thing that I noticed was I became a lot more efficient when it came to running errands.
- What do you typically use the car share for?
- Road trips-I love traveling around my state and nearby states on road trips. I have a couple of road trips that I’m currently working on. One to Telluride, Colorado which is 7 hours away from Denver. I believe that area is the most beautiful part of the state. I would like to do a couple of road trips to New Mexico. One to White Sands National Park and the other to Santa Fe/Ojo Caliente
- Running errands with my mom
- Mountain hiking-I avoid driving I-70 into the mountains whenever possible, but some mountain hikes you can’t get to without a car.
- BIG seasonal grocery shopping
- Exploring other parts of town-I like to check out coffee shops around town.
- What could I get in trouble for?
- Returning the car late is a huge infraction-You also get charged by the minute and can potentially be kicked out depending on how often you’re late.
- Not reporting damage to the car-If it’s damage that you caused or was there when you picked up the car
- Having other people drive the car-immediately getting kicked out of the program because this is a huge liability and the other person also isn’t on the insurance.
- Speeding and other driving infractions
- Having your dog(s) in the car-This is a Colorado thing. But, there are a ton of dogs here and people want to take them everywhere. But, they also are an allergen for some people and leave fur everywhere.
- Not cleaning the car-Don’t worry, you typically wouldn’t have to pay.
How I Saved $30,000 on Transportation Costs
I used to have a paid off car and the story of how the car left me is for another time. But, now I find the story low-key hilarious and sad. Again, that story is for another day. What many folks don’t realize is that the average American spends around $TK a year on car expenses. I no longer own a car so all of the carrying costs are gone. Now that I use the car share here are my expenses:
- Monthly subscription-$13 ish
- Monthly usage-$0-$400 my usage depends on time of year and what I’m doing. If I go on road trips my usage amount is around $400 when you add in gas and the hourly rate. But, I typically don’t drive to the grocery store, drive for random stuff. It’s all pretty intentional. I always ask myself “Can I walk, bike or take transit to where I’m going?” Interestingly enough, I don’t really use ride-sharing apps.
- Yearly usage on average is around $700-$1,000
Basically, I saved money by not owning a car BUT in order for that to work, I had access to frequent public transit, can walk to many of the places I need to go and use a car share program. There are a number of different ways you can save money on transit. But your strategies will depend on where you live, if you have extended family and other unique factors that you may need to take into consideration. With inflation, the cost of gas and other expenses affecting our wallets, it may worth embracing alternative forms of transporation.
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