CRD Housing and Transportation Cost Estimate Study - 2020

Yeah, I figured those without a mortgage would be skewing the data.

 

I'm probably an outlier in the other direction too. Have never bought a new car (or likely never will), so I agree on the "depreciation is for rich people" point. And I bike most places, so I'm only filling up on gas once a month.

 

And good point on the opportunity costs with transit versus driving. But on the other hand, there are also added health benefits to biking, and a 20 min drive might only be a 25-30 min bike ride (On trips that are bikeable - before I hear from the "you can't carry a cart load of goods on your bike from Costco" crowd lol)

I was being sarcastic. I drive, walk and bike. I have 3 cars in our 2 person household, I fill up each car once per month except when we go on roadtrips. What used to take 10-12 mins to crive from UVic to downtown now takes 20+ minutes due to road lane reductions or arterial routes. So just like socialism the objective to frustrate drivers in urban areas is the equal sharing of misery....     

The information that has been presented really doesn't tell us anything, other than how many cars there are per household and how may persons per household. I know the inclination is to suggest that the further you live from the core, the more you're going to spend on transportation, but that's not necessarily the case and is far too simplistic.

And then there's this:
 

Capital, operation and maintenance costs are all components of costs

associated with vehicles. The estimate uses a fixed cost of $6,300
per vehicle owned, which is a benchmark based on the 2015 Metro
Vancouver Housing and Transportation Cost Burden Study. An additional
cost, vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) of 14 cents, was applied per
kilometer driven. The VKT amount is variable and based on the use of
actual vehicles. Paid parking is largely limited to the core of the City
of Victoria with additional paid parking at key regional attractors such
as tertiary institutions and health centres. Elsewhere, public parking is
generally free to users. The region does not have toll roads or bridges.
Vehicular ownership and maintenance is the most significant cost, not
the distance travelled, and expenses are the same whether the vehicle
is driven often or rarely with the exception of fuel costs.

 

That is not correct at all. Expenses differ substantially depending on how you drive, where you drive, and what vehicle you drive. The wear and tear on a Honda Civic driven in the city 5,000km per year will be significantly higher than the wear and tear on a Sierra 1500 pick-up driven 20% in the city and 80% on the highway over 10,000km. The costs associated with that difference in wear may not appear immediately, but they will appear.

...expenses are the same whether the vehicle is driven often or rarely...

What sort of "experts" would make a statement like this? 

It’s all rather hokey. The entire report seems off.

At least it's been made public unlike a certain taxpayer-funded homelessness survey.