Except you guys have something we don't: A decent public transportation system. Ours sucks, and is expensive as hell, so we have no choice but to drive everywhere. Plus everything here is so far apart, that working 30 to 60 minutes away is considered normal. Think of what you spend on buses and trains there, and that's pretty much what we spend on cars (plus maintenance).
Hah, their public transportation is as expensive as hell too, it's just subsidized by taxes so the general public don't notice.
Actually... true. We subsidize roads and drive on them with private cars and trucks, and they subsidize rails and ride on them with private trains... I like trains more though.
True. Though I'd like to eliminate all subsidies. However, besides the subsidies, they also penalize driving heavily. Petrol tax in the UK is around
80% of the cost. Yet still people are buying bigger cars and ever more of them. When I was a kid, in the road I grew up in, everyone parked in their driveways. Last time I went back, it was impossible to find a place to park on the road.
The truth is that public transport generally sucks and often doesn't provide the advantages that one would think (you have to run that bus service, even if nobody uses it so you end up running a vehicle that uses three times the fuel of a car for no reason). It's a solution to a problem which doesn't really exist anymore in the first world and the only solution it is good for (disengaging the passenger from the process of manipulating the vehicle) will be solved in a matter of years (also opening a solution to the issues regarding electric vehicles and allowing a sharing of vehicles for those who don't need or want to own).
I participate in a car-sharing system in the city I live in. It's quite good. No monthly fee, 0.28 € per minute (gas included). I just walk up to the car (after locating one using a mobile app), put my rfid on the reader and go. Can park it anywhere within the operating area for free on public parking spots (usually metered, they have deal with the city).
It's an ideal addon for my normal tram and bycicle usage (cycle 10km to work and back in summer, use tram in winter), comes in handy when I have something to move too big to take with the bicycle or tram.
I grew up in a rural area. Such a concept is not possible there, but in larger European cities there is really no need to own a car.
Frankly, I thought $30 might be the top of the bubble.
