When I first heard of station cars,
I wasn’t the least bit impressed. But the more I thought about it, the more I
came to see that, contained in this crude beginning, was the germ of a whole new paradigm
for personal mobility. It’s really the missing link of public transportation
systems.
Here’s an interesting comparison:
In terms of hours in use, a refrigerator is used 100% of the time, a typical electric
heating system in the Pacific Northwest home operates a total of about 26.6% of the annual
hours. And a house is used at least 58% of the time, even if you assume that it is unused
for the 10 hours per day when everyone. But a private car, although it’s one of our
mostly costly possessions, is used only a little more than 3% of the time, and the
other 97% it just sits there taking up space and costing money.
So in terms of cost per hour of utilization, we end
up with the following hourly expenses:
Refrigerator = $0.03 Clothes drier = $0.58
Electric heating = $0.33 House (24 hr/day) = $0.25
House (14 hr/day) = $0.43 Household car = $14.50
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