I'm not sure if former Car and Driver editor and occasional TTAC contributor Stephan Wilkinson has changed his mind about the whole QOTD deal. Originally, this site's spiritual mentor dismissed our vox populi as the worst kind of page view pandering. (The fact that our counter's broken should put paid to that idea.) I guess Stephan's ameliorated his antagonism somewhat; he recently suggested a QOTD about the Best and Brightest's passengers per vehicle. Given the gas, political and environmentally-conscious temper or our times, it's a highly relevant inquiry. Miles/CO2 per passenger must be a better measure of efficiency/environmental responsibility than what kind of car you drive. Fully loaded 'Sclade vs. one-up Prius? That ought to get you going. That said, I can't imagine a boatload of Cadillac Escalade passengers all going Dutch on a tank of fuel. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen seven people in a 'Sclade– although the TV ad makes special mention of the luxobeast's capacity for human cargo. Personally, I've started driving the Boxster to the grocery store instead of the Odyssey. I can't tell you how much better I feel about myself. So, how about you? How many people travel in your whip? Have you upped the head count since gas crested $3 a gallon? Altered the vehicle of choice?
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98% of the time, it’s just me. My wife and I have different starting times for work – 2.5 hours different- so ride sharing just isn’t going to happen for us.
I’ve also started commuting by bicycle. The bike also carries just me. The CO2 emissions per mile are extremely low, and the gas mileage is better than a Prius.
I’m alone in the Accord about 95% of the time right now. (I’m single, no kids.)
I’d feel good about myself if I were driving a Boxster to the grocery store.
Glad Stephan’s coming around to qotd. Many of them, such as yesterday’s are absolutely great for vicarious driving fun. Don’t know how you manage to keep coming up with such good ones.
Just the driver. I’m a single guy, no kids.
That said, I drive a relatively fuel-efficient car, and I live very close to my work — my daily commute adds up to 4 miles. And I drive about 7,500 miles per year.
Since there are just two of us, that is the maximum except for special situations like visits from relatives. About half of our miles come from my commuting to work by myself. Public transportation and car pooling are out. The nearest bus stop is an hour’s walk from our home. No one but a masochist would try to fit around my erratic work schedule.
Last fall, I bought a new car, an Infiniti G37S. Gas mileage is in the lower twenties. By spending another $15k on a Porsche Cayman, I could have raise the mileage 15%. If it gets to the point where going to work is no longer cost effective, I will retire. Buying a fuel sipping econobox, that I would detest driving, was never an option.
Certainly I should contribute, then. My wife and I–both big gym rats–go to work out at entirely different times (we both work at home, we’re both writers, she does three-hour workouts and I’m only good for 90 minutes…) so we’re each in our cars solo 90 percent of the time, maybe eight percent of the time together going to a restaurant, say, and two percent of the time with another couple in the car.
Equally important to me is trip-planning, though our “trips” are pretty tiny, since we don’t commute. It pains me if for some reason I have to go to the UPS store in the morning and then pass that same store on my way to the gym in the afternoon. Why didn’t I plan better? Perhaps because three years ago, I wouldn’t have thought twice about making multiple trips.
99% of the time just me or I bike it. The 1% of the time is my 4mnth old son, at 18 lbs I am not sure how much he contributes to global warming.
My fiance and I drive our own cars to work, with very different start times for work. She, a Mazda3 and me, a GTI. But the weekends are mostly the two of us in one car or the other. We usually run all Sat. errands in one car and all Sun. errands in the other to spread out the gas pain. Her commute is less than half mine, but it’s all city miles. I commute mostly highway miles. We both end up refilling every 9 – 10 days.
Whenever I drive I always take all my children, so I feel at least as environmentally friendly as someone toting their offspring in a huge SUV and trying to claim 60 MPG/person while actually achieving 15 MPG. I get at least 50% better mileage than that.
Mostly, though, I walk to work. I just hopped into the car today (Saturday) to do my once-a-week grocery getting and realized I had to reset the seat position from when my girlfriend drove me home from a party last Monday.
50% of the time I’m by myself, 25% my mom’s with me to make sure my driving is safe, 25% I’m with my friends.
I drove about 40 miles today just for fun along PCH by myself. Beautiful sunny day, from Seal Beach to Newport. It was nice, but not sure if it was worth the 8 bucks of gas.
Ridiculous. A typical day hanging out with my friends costs me around 15 bucks just for gas.
99% of the time I’m by myself.
I have a 20mpg (combined) sports car or a 38-48mpg (combined) 10 second sports bike. Can you guess which one I run my errands on?
I actually weighed the body armor that resides on top of my normal clothes and it’s just shy of 20 pounds!!!
I feel absoutely no shame going out and eating 6 gallons of gas in a day @ 40+mpg riding the bike for fun since I only drive one day per week.
The wife drives a 25-30mpg 9 year old neon about 2-3 times per week. I don’t think our gas bill is over $150 per month even @ $4 gas.
I went from a job that was 28 miles highway each way (driving the sports car) to walking to work or (if raining) hopping on the train.
When errands need to be run, we generally go in the neon. Because of cheap OTD prices @ local dealers, low interest rates, and the fact that our next apartment will have a garage, the wife & I are looking at a vulcan 500 for $3900 or so! Should get great gas mileage, should be super fun to run errands in, but exceedingly slow…..I really just want the wifey to be able to enjoy the motorcyle too (she already has a helmet, body armor & gloves….)
My daily driver (and only car) is a 2-seater but I have been known to utilize the trunk/passenger seat to fit as many as 4 people in it simultaneously when there are females that need to be transported
Wait. First of all, do we have a good, reliable measure of CO2 emissions from various sources? When I walk to the store in the evening, am I really lowering carbon emissions? By car I would be there in 2 minutes, walking I am there in 10-15 minutes. Before you say, “well, you would be breathing during that time anyway”, consider that one certainly breaths deeper while walking than, say, resting on the couch watching Al Gore’s special on PBS about global warming.
So, am I helping or destroying the planet by walking to the store instead of driving? Inquiring minds want to know.
Both our cars seat five in a pinch (Focus and Civic), but I’ve been commuting on a forty-seat bus with standing room only for about a year. Very environmentally sound. My partner commutes with my Focus. Only about 15 miles, but in a direction where there is no public transit. I’ve been driving the Civic on the weekends (usually by myself), but we’re going to sell it and reduce down to one car (it’s all we need now, and the Civic has been problematic). The Focus is currently getting a refill every two weeks or so. The Civic about every three because it’s driven less. We’re spending under $150/month on gas in Cali, and one of us still commutes. Not bad.
As far as walking, we try to eat more locally sourced organic foods. Fairly low CO2 impact. That way when we eat and burn energy walking to the store, we are saving even more fuel than otherwise. Even if we didn’t eat low-CO2 food, walking is still a far better alternative to driving, even if the store is only 2-3 minutes by car. You may also lose some weight from the walking, which will save you on your car’s gas bill ultimately.
75% of all rides in the US are with one person in the car; 86% of all rides in the US are with two persons or one in the car.
Which begs the question: what’s with the ten-seat cars?
90% of the time, I’m solo in the car.
4 days of the week, average of 2 people. 3 days, 3-5. the monthly trip comes by where 6-7 seats would be nice (looking into a used minivan, needless to say).
it’s quite funny to drive beside the uncountable suburbans (1980’s-brand new) around here with my xA full of 5 adults… especially since about 8 out of 10 have 1 person, and the other 2 have 2-3..
Oh, BTW, nobody around here tows or hauls, save from the construction workers. So we have 8-seater full-size pickups around here ALL OVER THE PLACE, neither towing nor hauling (off-road? what’s that?), mainly with 1 person. The logic is beyond me…
It’s just little old me in my Toyota Yaris, even with more than one person in there, she’s a fuel sipper. I also plan to keep her until she’s ready for that big car graveyard in the sky, because it’s more environmentally friendly, that way.
“In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen seven people in a ‘Sclade”
Chances are, if you have that kind of money, but choose to buy a Cadillac Escalade*, then, you probably don’t have any friends…..
Thank you! I’ll be here all week! ^_^
* = in instead of, say, a Range Rover, BMW X5, Volvo XC90 or a Lexus RX 400h.
Almost always just me in my three-fifty-Z
99% of the time, just me. If it’s a workday, that means a 6 mile round trip to the train station. For those fast corner carving nights, 50% alone, 50% with the wife. How lucky am I to have a woman who says “go faster”! When we were dating, I heard her tell her friends ” I totally trust him with my body, It’s my heart that worries me”. We still chuckle about that today.
being a poor student i usually walk everywhere, but when i have to drive my 35hp mini doesnt consume to much fuel
F One Fiddy R/C-Passenger usually one one, me. Sometimes three. Little one in middle, of course.
Fokus SE-All three or two, rarely one-except Monday-Wednesday when it becomes Dads commuter vehicle.
The Sienna has 4 or 5 on board, for school bus duty (no bus service), summer camp, Costco runs, and the occasional long road trip. The Mazda5 is my commuter, 20 miles round trip miles on weekdays. We’ve started packing the 3 kids in for trips on weekends which don’t require much luggage.
The Mrs. works just down the street from me but our hours are different and inflexible enough to make commuting together a serious PITA; her Camry usually is a one passenger vehicle which we plan on passing onto a family member, and downsizing afterwards.
Hmmmm… great question.
I really look at the cost per mile equation. For a while I did my commutes in a plain jane Saturn SL with a 5-speed. Averaged 40+ mpg due to all the hypermiling I due. Bought it for $1510 and sold it for $2995.
At the moment we’re using two 1999 Saab 9-5’s. My wife averages in the mid-20’s and I tend to get in the high-20’s to mid-30’s. The low coefficient drag and the 4-cylinder turbo are great for economical commuting and the strong safety record also helps quite a bit.
I have used some gas guzzlers on occasion. A 2002 Mercedes S500 (which I’ve actually got to 26.5 mpg on the highway with 20″ rims) and an Olds Bravada if I ever need to tow. I also have a 77 Mercedes 350SE that I rarely drive these days along with a Yamaha XC125 that rarely sees the road due to our combining of errands.
Overall I’m happy with my choices. Sometimes I wonder whether I should have kept that Prius from a few years back or the Jetta TDI I had a few months ago. But the $6000+ profit I got from the two will pay for an awful lot of gas and our current consumption is quite reasonable (300 miles a week).
In the Mazda 3: 1-2
In the Mazda 6 wagon: 2-4
During the workweek I drive TO work solo, but I usually give my boss a ride home on the way back (I’ve asked, but she doesn’t mind catching the bus to work).
One question no one ever asks is whether that one guy driving to work by himself is keeping a vehicle off the road that gets worse mileage.
For example, I drive in to work by myself. I don’t take the bus because the schedule is awful, and I don’t car pool because if a server blows up or some other big problem crops up I could be staying late for a while. Additionally, all of the places we shop at are on my way home so if there is anything we need I can run the errand on the way home. That means my wife isn’t loading all the kids into the minivan or Yukon and running out gas to make the trip.
I can care less about how many people are in my car for the environment. The environment can kiss my ass. Although I do love earth, I’ll look for other ways to save the planet. Also, I like having people in my car, part of the reason I want a sedan. Although its just me 90% of the time. The hell with feeling guilty about that, I say fuck the environment. I dont need public opinion to make a choice. I like the environment, but I’m not its bitch.
I’m willing to admit the truth and change if I am wrong, I mean if carpooling suddenly looks like its not victimization by societies bullshit. I am a “good” person, the fuck with societies judgmental eyes. “good” people can kiss my ass. I mean I hate some folks behavior right now, I need to vent, and I’m very angry, and life is sweet. I love being myself. I love guilt free drives. I’d hate to change things, but I’m willing to surrender if need be.
Just me 90% of the time. Apart from test driving customers that is. Always a Honda, which i sell so dont feel to badly about it.
DearS:
I say fuck the environment. I dont need public opinion to make a choice. I like the environment, but I’m not its bitch.
Nirvana; “love myself better than you, i know its wrong but what can i do?”
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It’s usually me plus 20 and then me plus 200. You see, I actually utilize public transportation to get to work. I take a bus to the subway and then walk.
Mon-Fri : just me.
Sat-Sun : me, wifey and baby makes three.
One. Even though my motorcycle has seats for two.
3 out of 5 working days I commute with my wife 60 mi round trip on Suzuki Aerio averaging 25 mi/gal.
Other time we use Mazda 5 with 28 mi/gal.
It’s usually just me in my 08 Honda Fit, but I take another 3 people from work when we go to lunch. Strangely, the car can fit 4 large people rather well. I would like to ride my bike to work again, but I think I’m going to hold off until I can get an electric bike so I don’t have to shower when I get to work.
As for the “last time you had fun” question (or hating an econobox comments) I took the Fit out to an autocross yesterday and shocked a lot of participants. Sadly, it was a horsepower course (over a mile long with most runs over 70 seconds) but I did manage to be several people in raw time. It was awesome bringing a car with two mountain bikes, a ton of stuff, and great A/C on between runs while spending a lot less on gas than a lot of them do.
I’ve got two cars that both seat 2 people max (well, 2 people and two dogs if you count the seats in the back of the 944)
and a Civic sedan which I’ve never had more than 3 people in.