Comments for the pittsburgh pedestrian experience http://breen.wordpress.com by breen masciotra Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:40:42 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on Day Three: Easy Does It by breen http://breen.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/day-three-easy-does-it/#comment-1017 breen Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:40:42 +0000 http://breen.wordpress.com/?p=33#comment-1017 Matt, Good points. Thank you for bringing this up. In addition to the cost of gas and tolls, I should be figuring in the cost of owning my car to the total cost of a road trip. If I take the total monthly costs of insurance ($70) and my car payment ($100), and find the cost for the three days that I will be on the trip ($16), then I get a total trip cost of roughly $185, which is still cheaper than the Zipcar rental for the same trip and time period. Alternatively, if I start from scratch using the standard IRS mileage reimbursement rate of 58.5 cents per mile, and multiply it by the roughly 900 miles I will drive to and fro, I get a cost of $526. Add the cost of tolls to that and it's $545. That is significantly more than the cost of the Zipcar rental. The benefit of this method is that it also takes into account wear on the vehicle (although it is not accurate in terms of cost because it does not consider specific conditions). It's food for thought. I'm not sure which is the best way to measure but I will say that if I did not own a car and were taking this trip, I would most likely be going by plane (or maybe train), rather than rental car. Matt,

Good points. Thank you for bringing this up. In addition to the cost of gas and tolls, I should be figuring in the cost of owning my car to the total cost of a road trip.

If I take the total monthly costs of insurance ($70) and my car payment ($100), and find the cost for the three days that I will be on the trip ($16), then I get a total trip cost of roughly $185, which is still cheaper than the Zipcar rental for the same trip and time period.

Alternatively, if I start from scratch using the standard IRS mileage reimbursement rate of 58.5 cents per mile, and multiply it by the roughly 900 miles I will drive to and fro, I get a cost of $526. Add the cost of tolls to that and it’s $545. That is significantly more than the cost of the Zipcar rental. The benefit of this method is that it also takes into account wear on the vehicle (although it is not accurate in terms of cost because it does not consider specific conditions).

It’s food for thought. I’m not sure which is the best way to measure but I will say that if I did not own a car and were taking this trip, I would most likely be going by plane (or maybe train), rather than rental car.

]]> Comment on Day One: Trial and Error by mattmp http://breen.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/day-one-trial-and-error/#comment-1016 mattmp Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:16:49 +0000 http://breen.wordpress.com/?p=24#comment-1016 Are you going to try biking to work? Not sure if it's reasonable with the hills, but if you could do 10 mi/hr, then you could get there in less than 20 min, and sleep in 10 or 15 min longer. Are you going to try biking to work? Not sure if it’s reasonable with the hills, but if you could do 10 mi/hr, then you could get there in less than 20 min, and sleep in 10 or 15 min longer.

]]> Comment on Day Three: Easy Does It by mattmp http://breen.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/day-three-easy-does-it/#comment-1015 mattmp Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:10:44 +0000 http://breen.wordpress.com/?p=33#comment-1015 Have you dropped your car insurance for the length of the challenge? In your long-distance calculation, of course if you add the cost of keeping insurance and maybe a car payment, a zip car subscription works out better, right? Have you dropped your car insurance for the length of the challenge?

In your long-distance calculation, of course if you add the cost of keeping insurance and maybe a car payment, a zip car subscription works out better, right?

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