
Drive less, spend less
Ride your bike
A decent bike can cost about $300 and last 10 years or more. A helmet costs about $40 and should be replaced every three years. Add in $125 worth of recommended gear (lock, lights, tire pump) and assume they’ll all last five years. With a tune-up every other year at $90, the cost to own and operate a bike is only $9.44 per month.
Walk
You probably have shoes and a coat. Maybe even an umbrella. So that puts the cost per month of walking at $0.
Take the bus
CCTA passes cost only $50 for a month of unlimited rides, or $12 for 10 rides.
Join CarShare Vermont
With CarShare Vermont, members only pay to use a car when they need one. They also tend to develop a good sense of when they actually need to drive (or could just as easily walk, bike, bus, or hitch a ride instead), so they drive much less than the average person.
Here are a few examples of what CarShare Vermont members spend to drive each month (all of the estimates below include gas, insurance, CarShare Vermont’s membership fee, and VT sales tax):