Denmark’s energy minister called on citizens to reduce their energy use amid the ongoing Middle East conflict.
Oil prices jumped to over $100 a barrel on Thursday, raising fears of rising inflation.
“If it is not strictly necessary to drive the car, then don’t do it,” the minister stressed to Danish citizens.
Do you have numbers to backup the twice as expensive as driving claim?
Sure, why not.
My car does 5l/100km. Distance to work is 31 km, so 62 both ways. That makes it 3.05l of gas. Gas was about 13.50 over the past year (it will be more now obviously, but who know what exactly), that makes it about 41kr for gas for the day.
One way ticket in public transport is 37kr. That is if I go straight to work and straight back. But often, I would like to stop by and do my shopping on the way back - then the ticket goes up to 42kr. That makes it 79kr for the day.
It is not exactly double, but I would say close enough.
I know you will be all like “but gas is not the only cost of having the car!!!”. To which I have to say - unfortunately when you live in a suburb, the car is part of the cost of the house. I tried living in the suburb without it, it took me an hour to take my dog to the vet. My doctor is 9km away - I won’t bike there with a flu. So I’ve come to the conclusion that owning the car is just a part of the price of a suburban home ownership, hence I don’t count it to my daily cost, as I would have had it anyway, even if I took the train to work every day.
Sure you need to own a vehicle to live outside of a city so it’s a cost you have to incur, but you have to incur much more costs the more you use it.
The maintenance is part of the cost per km. Almost every aspect of maintenance is directly related to how much the vehicle is used, and idk about you but after a considerable amount of km I spend more on maintenance than on fuel. And there is of course the cost of the vehicle itself, which also deteriorates as you accumulate kilometers.