Some Stats About Driving

I thought that these were some interesting stats regarding the hidden costs of owning and operating a car.

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According to the AAA, the average person spends $9,641 per year for the privilege of driving. Keep in mind that these estimated costs are based on an average gasoline cost of $2.256 per gallon. The numbers also don't include the cost of parking

Note: Those numbers include personal costs only, not social costs like roadway repair and construction, highway safety and patrol officers, health insurance costs, increased cost of other oil related products, and environmental externalities.

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Car Crash Stats: There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes.

In 2003 there were 6,328,000 car accidents in the US. There were 2.9 million injuries and 42,643 people were killed in auto accidents.

In 2002, there were an estimated 6,316,000 car accidents in the USA. There were about 2.9 million injuries and 42,815 people were killed in auto accidents in 2002.

There were an estimated 6,356,000 car accidents in the US in 2000. There were about 3.2 million injuries and 41,821 people were killed in auto accidents in 2000 based on data collected by the Federal Highway Administration.

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An average of 15 hours per week is spent in-car, representing nearly 14% of waking hours. During weekdays, Americans indicate they are spending 11 hours in-car and 4 hours 10 minutes incaron the weekends.

http://www.commutesolutions.org/TCODBro.pdf

We are indeed addicted to cars.

Would that we could step back and examine the positives and negatives of our car/truck/train/plane/ocean liner society.

Perhaps more bike riding and regional self sufficiency would trump the great capitalist mantra of economies of scale.