Los Angeles consistently ranks among the most traffic-clogged cities in America. The county has been trying to reduce its traffic for decades and nothing has worked. Many researchers and economists suggest charging people for using the road in a system called congestion pricing.I grew up in Los Angeles and worked on the construction of its subway. I know first hand how bad its traffic was and still is and at least did something to relieve it. I'm not surprised that it wasn't enough, but I wonder how Angelenos, who weren't even used to paying tolls on expressways — they took the "free" in freeway quite seriously when I lived there, but some of the express/high-occupancy-vehicle lanes now charge tolls — would accept congestion pricing. I suppose they will tolerate it if it means they can get somewhere faster. As the saying goes, time is money and people have shown they are willing to spend money to save time.
Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
Speaking of CNBC explains 'Why U.S. Speed Limits Are Wrong,' a driving update, I concluded it by telling my readers "I expect I will post another driving update for Pearl later this month or early next month, when I will also post a graph of total miles driven and analyze my driving on both vehicles." Time to follow through.
Pearl's odometer rolled over 55,000 miles yesterday, March 24, 2022, exactly 22 weeks (154 days) after she passed 54,000 miles on October 21, 2021, resulting in averages of 6.49 miles per day, 198.05 miles per standard month, and 2,204.81 miles per year. That's much less than the averages of 19.61 miles per day, 598.04 miles per standard month, and 7,156.86 miles per year I drove her between August 31, 2021 and October 21, 2021, but closer to the 5.78 miles per day, 176.03 miles per standard month, and 2,109.83 miles per year between March 11, 2021 and August 31, 2021. Hey, one of the silver linings teaching remotely from home during the pandemic — I was able to reduce my driving once again! Still, I fully expect to return to in-person teaching in May and have my miles driven increase again. To paraphrase what I wrote in September, it's nice while it lasts.
For my actual miles driven over the last year, 378 days (exactly 54 weeks!) passed since Pearl rolled over 52,000 miles on Thursday, March 11, 2021 and Thursday, March 24, 2022, resulting in averages of 7.94 miles per day, 242.06 miles per standard month, and 2,896.83 miles per year. While that's more than the 6.22 miles per day, 189.83 miles per standard month, and 2,271.78 miles per year I drove her between June 26, 2020, it's still not the 4,000+ miles per year I thought I'd be driving Pearl by now. That's still two or three more updates away.
Of course, the real measure is how much I'm driving both cars. For that, I estimated the miles driven on Snow Bear by adding the miles driven between March 11 and March 16, 2021 (5 days*4.17 miles/day) and the actual miles I drove her since February 7, 2022, 103 to the 1000 miles I drove her between March 16, 2021 and February 7, 2022, then rounded the result to the nearest whole miles (1,124). I then added that to the 3,000 miles I drove Pearl during the same time period. The result was 4,124 miles during 378 days for averages of 10.91 miles per day, 332.76 miles per standard month, and 3,982.17 miles per year. That's more than the 7.97 miles per day, 243.06 miles per standard month, and 2,908.75 miles per standard year my wife and I drove both cars between July 26, 2020 and March 16, 2021. Maybe I was premature about not driving 4,000+ miles per year; I just missed it. On the other hand, it's still much less than the partially pre-pandemic averages of 11.32 miles per day, 345.31 miles per standard month, 4143.69 miles per leap year, and 4132.37 miles per standard year I drove both cars between November 14, 2019 and July 26, 2020. Even so, my wife and I are adding to the increased miles driven by all Americans that still aren't up to pre-pandemic levels.
So ends this month's driving update. Stay tuned for Earth Hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment