Based on a report from AAA Texas, ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber aren’t a cost-effective replacement for owning a car. Information from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that the average driver living in an urban area will drive an estimated 10,841 miles every year.
A recent study conducted by AAA wanted to determine whether owning a car or using ride-sharing services was the more cost-effective method. By determining how many miles the average driver drives in a year, and the cost of ridesharing in various cities across America, they were able to determine that owning a car is a better value.
Cost per year
In Boston, relying on ride-sharing services will cost a person on average $27,545 every year. The average cost of owning and maintaining a car that’s driven 15,000 miles a year is $8,469 per year, three times cheaper than using ride-sharing as your primary form of transportation. There are online tools that help you calculate the cost per year of owning a car, taking into account insurance, gas, registration and loan interest, and compare that cost to the average price of ride-sharing services.
Most expensive cities
From studying 20 major urban areas, the study found that relying solely on a ride-sharing app could cost an individual a bunch of cash. In fact, Boston ranked as the most expensive city to use ride-sharing at $27,545, while Dallas ranked as the cheapest city, costing only $16,944. Still, whether you own a vehicle or not, a lot of people take to ride-sharing because it proves a convenient method of transportation. While ride-sharing is convenient from time to time, owning a personal vehicle is still more cost-effective over the long term.
In some cities, owning a vehicle may be less cost-effective than ridesharing. For some city-dwellers, they rely on walking everywhere and spend very little time everywhere. However, for the most part, purchasing a car is a valuable investment that will save you money in the long run.