lansbury

I don't use public transport and we use one or other of our vehicles whenever we go out. My Jeep which I purchased in June 2015 has done 4700, and the truck which is a year older has done 11,000. Not going to work every day drastically reduces our vehicle use.

loubiblu

Yes, the replies surprised me too. Even though I live in a very walkable area with a comprehensive transit system, most of my friends drive, even very short distances. I expected more answers similar to Pulaski's original response. This country is huge, not everyone lives in the city, everything is so much more spread out.

As an aside, I'm not a housewife, I work part time 4 days a week. I mostly take the el, but do commute by bike at least once a week. I chose not to drive to work (as does my husband) because from leaving my house to sitting at my desk takes around 35 minutes by walk/train, around 50 by bike (inc changing clothes) and around an hour if I use the I290 with $20+ a day parking. If we lived in the burbs, that maybe different.

Bob

I practically never drove in the UK, only time I did was really going home and back to uni. When I worked, I either took the bus or cycled everywhere.

Living in a town, close to work for the missus and working from home for me, doesn't make us typical though. Also, we're managing on one car.

FIL, was doing almost 300 miles one way for a spell and no, he wasn't a truck driver. He's down to nothing as he gets picked up now that the last of the Dodge trucks have died and the company saved money by not getting everyone a work truck to get to the woods but it's probably an hours drive in the morning.

Company is finding that they're not saving money as they hoped on reduced petrol and trucks because if one guy that has the truck can't make work, then that's 2-3 other people who can't make work and if one of them is running the crane or the slasher, then a site is basically dead for the day and that's not always because the driver is sick, but maintenance on the truck etc.

Pulaski

Me too, .... or the train and tube.

I had a car and rented a garage for it, four miles from where I lived, because I simply didn't need it other than on weekends. I either rode my bicycle over to the garage when I needed the car, or I picked it up on the way home from work on Friday (the garage was also near a railway station), and put it back in the garage on Monday morning.

I/we did shopping for canned and packets, plus things like laundry detergent, every 2-3 months, and then did ad hoc shopping for fresh food on the way home from work and carried it on the bus.
Not working would cut our miles too, but we would drive a lot more for pleasure, so I doubt the aggregate miles driven would drop much below 25,000 miles per year.

mrken30

Maybe a lot more people work from home these days or decide to live nearer to work whenever possible. Not everyone wants to live miles away from civilization.

Walmart has penetrated the deep realms of the USA so now people don't have to drive 30 miles to the grocery store.

AdobePinon

28 to 30k a year. There you go.

Pulaski

Have you considered using a bicycle and public transport instead?

loubiblu

Behave

Pulaski

Wintersong

My husband, who works, drives far fewer miles than I do. He's done around 6K in the 15 months he's had the car. Mostly, his car drives to BART and back whereas mine is used at weekends and on longer journeys.

mrken30

Are you a travelling salesman?

scrubbedexpat091

During the day especially around the morning and evening rush hours, chances are you will get to where you want to go quicker or just as fast in Vancouver using sky train then driving because of how bad congestion is.

Currently for example Surrey Central to Downtown Vancouver with current traffic driving is showing 37 mins, where sky train ride is 37/38 mins.

Why spend money on gas and parking to arrive no earlier really then taking the sky train? By the time you find parking, pay for parking, chances are the transit user got to the office first..lol

Times from google maps/transit


Depending on where one lives and congestion on roads, driving may not be any quicker.

AdobePinon

Why, yes I have. But it would add an hour to my commute, assuming that there was space on the bus for the bike.

Beaverstate

And Amazon etc is even closer.

Hiro11

~16K / year. 37 mile one way commute. I was attending grad school downtown up through last year but I've graduated now. As a result, my mileage should drop significantly this year. I bought a Mazda 3 with the smallest engine that gets ~50mpg on the highway a couple of years ago, love that little car.