[Axo1ot1]

Posted this at The Other Place™, but I thought you lot would be interested as well.

In today's Week in Review section of the NY Times there's an interesting article on how Americans are buying a ton less gas and using public transit way more since the beginning of the summer, and how that's only increased since Katrina. It includes some very interesting statistics on what driving trends were before this happened. These are all the number of times households used cars to do **** in a given year:

shopping trips: 1990: 341, 2001: 496

trips to church or school: 1990: 89, 2001: 105

trips to the doctor or dentist: 1990: 18, 2001: 47

driving vacations: 1990: 2, 2001: 8

trips to visit friends and relatives: 1990: 149, 2001: 129

It also says that in 1990 the average household could get from New York to Denver on its annual mileage. In 2001 the average household could get to Juneau, Alaska.

Have you ridden the bus lately? If the bus in your area sucks, have you asked your government why that is lately? Have you driven a Ford lately?

[Railroader]

My driving habits have not changed at all since gas prices exceeded $2.00. Prior to that though, I traded in a GMC Jimmy for a Cevrolet Cavalier. But I didn't really trade it in entirely for gas usage reasons. I traded it in to buy a newer, more reliable car. I miss my Jimmy sometimes when the snow gets really deep around here, but my car has performed greater than I expected it to.

[Cubeoid]

I have a Ford. I drive it.

[Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by Axo1ot1

It also says that in 1990 the average household could get from New York to Denver on its annual mileage. In 2001 the average household could get to Juneau, Alaska.

That's not much, is it ? I did 30k km last year and I'm just a student . Maybe I'm a bit biased since my family members drive a lot for work etc. but nonetheless that average seems low to me.

[nredman]

2002 honda civic - i drive it for long trips and sometimes around town
1987 buick lesabre - i drive it for work and around town more then the civic

[Artful Dodger]

I drive a hearse. I use it exclusively for dating. It really impresses the ladies.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Axo1ot1

Have you ridden the bus lately? If the bus in your area sucks, have you asked your government why that is lately?

I don't need to ask the government why the bus in my area sucks. I know why it sucks: it doesn't go where I want it to when I want it to and it's full of people. Much the same reasons as to why any bus sucks.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Doofy

I don't need to ask the government why the bus in my area sucks. I know why it sucks: it doesn't go where I want it to when I want it to and it's full of people. Much the same reasons as to why any bus sucks.

Huh, I'd swear you said you lived in another country, but you wrote word for word my exact experiences here. Hmmm.... 'cept our busses are always empty and spewing black deisel fumes.

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by Axo1ot1

Have you driven a Ford lately?

Indeed...my 2001 Ford Taurus SES.

[ajprice]

Originally Posted by Axo1ot1

Have you ridden the bus lately?

Yes I have, mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, going to and from the local Wetherspoons for food and beer.

If the bus in your area sucks, have you asked your government why that is lately?

The buses come past my house, so no I haven't asked the government.

Have you driven a Ford lately?

Yes I have, between October and May I had my driving lessons and passed in a Ford Focus, why do you ask? I now have a Skoda Fabia.

[PurpleGiant]

Originally Posted by Axo1ot1

Posted this at The Other Place™, but I thought you lot would be interested as well.

Pssst. Linky wont work for non-crew.

I like the train, myself. Great place to meet people.

[JoshuaZ]

Car? What car?

[ghporter]

2000 Honda CRV-my wife's primary vehicle. As we have a couple of large dogs, we call it the "Canine Relocation Vehicle." Heh heh heh.

Ok, that's not really that funny.

Anyway...

2002 Honda Civic Coupe-my primary vehicle. I go to school. A lot.

We take trips in both of the cars, sometimes deciding which one to use based on how much luggage we're taking, and other times choosing because our son is almost 6 feet tall, and the back seat of the Coupe is kind of unsuited for tall people.

[mdc]

2002 hyundai accent.
bought it almost two months ago, and it is my first car in this country. i've been alone for almost 2 years. i use it to drive to work and back every week day. (30 miles there and back) and then any extra driving, going out, shopping, etc, etc. i average somewhere around 1,000 - 1,300 miles a month.

before my car i would cycle to school, and if i needed to get further than that it would be a taxi (not cheap) or the bus.

from living in london i have no issues with public transport. if was good here i would not own a car. i have come to the conclusion that the public transport here is awful. not bad, not not good, but awful. the bus system is in counties. for a month i lived in a different county to where i went to college. i had to walk 30 minutes in the morning to a bus stop for my college's county, because the county where i lived's bus service wasn't running that early in the morning (and then a 1 hour bus ride to college). when i got to the final stop of my college's bus route (on the way home), i would end up walking 30 minutes back home since i didn't want to pay for another bus and because i normally ended up waiting about 20 minutes since the buses are not in sync.

the thing that's terrible? a 30 minute walk and 1 hour bus ride. i've driven this since i got a car and it took me 15 minutes to get from my school to where i used to live.

stuff like that is, in my opinion, terrible and doesn't work.
going locally isn't _that_ bad, but again, not good.

if i had to get from my house to work every day i think it would take about 2 hours, since again, different counties and different bus "companies." i wouldn't even want to do the route as a dare.

[Mastrap]

Toronto has an excellent public transport system and I use it a lot. The streetcar stops 30 seconds from my house and 2 minutes from my office - a 20 minute ride - and the subway is ten minutes walk or a two minute streetcar ride away. During rush hour streetcars run every five minutes and are only marginally slower in traffic than cars.

We use the car mainly at the weekend to get out of the city or for doing the weekly shop.

[SSharon]

I live on campus so no need to drive to class but I drive to go food shopping. I also drive to Jersey to visit my girlfriend. I have taken the train/bus there many times but it can actually be more expensive and take longer so I don't like to.