by Bri Kennedy

Created on: February 06, 2007   Last Updated: December 28, 2011

Save $5000 a year using public transportation. Do your part for the environment. Minimize the risk of personal injury or personal property damage. There are a million good reasons to take public transportation. Here, I will propose a scenario that can save you upwards of $5000 a year.

All Cars are Luxury Cars-The Real Cost of Your Vehicle

But it's so expensive to take public transportation. I don't know how many times I hear people talk about how much it costs to take public transit. It might seem like it. For instance, the cost of a ride on the Chicago "El" train is $2.00. A transfer is $0.25. The ride back is another $2.00. It seems like a lot, right, especially considering the fact that we don't have to put $2.00 cash into our cars to make them run...right? How much does it cost to drive?

Let's begin with an average car payment. Say, $350 a month. At $350 a month, you'll pay $4200 a year. At a (low) average insurance rate of $75 a month you'll shell out $900 a year in auto insurance. Take the price of gas into consideration and your figure really skyrockets. Average city use of gas is well over $200 a month, but let's say you get really good mileage. At $200 a month (that's a fill-up about once a week), you're paying out $2400 a year.

Factor in the average yearly cost of maintenance and repairs, including the cost of at least a couple sets of tires over the life of your vehicle, oil changes, air filter changes, wiper blade changes, and the occasional repair and you're shelling out a conservative estimate of $500 a year. Add in the cost of registration at about $200 a year. Finally, if you live in a city like Chicago you'll pay a toll every time you take the freeway, pay for parking downtown, and sometimes even as much as $200 a month just to park near your own apartment. We'll leave parking and toll costs out of our estimate, but keep those in mind if you live in a big city.

The grand total comes to a whopping $8200 a year. With median household income for the country somewhere just below $29,000 and taxes eating up a good portion of that, I'll wager that $8200 is a good third of most people's yearly income. Keep in mind that estimates were pretty conservative, so actual costs could fall well above these figures. Now let's look at what it costs to take public transit.

The Good News

The good news is the cost of public transit is a fraction of that figure. In a city like Chicago, you'll shell out well over $10,000 for all the costs mentioned above in addition

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