Where is My Non-Car Owner Credit?!
by Sarah on April 13th, 2010
I am a proud non-car owner. My family is even taking bets to see how long I will last sans a car. Now, I am fortunate that ShoreBank participates in SASI, which deducts my public transportation costs from my pre-tax salary. But not everybody is as lucky. Just as car owners receive an “alternative motor” tax credit for replacing their vehicles with new eco-friendly ones (and therefore, for positively impacting the economy and environment), why shouldn’t more people receive a financial incentive for not owning a car? I propose that by not owning a car and by taking alternative forms of transportation, people are creating a triple bottom line impact in the following ways:
Financial:
- Generating more disposable income. For people like me, whose savings rates rarely increases, the greater your disposable income, the more you spend can (and I know that I do!) spend locally.
- Saving time (and time equals money). When I lived in San Francisco, I calculated that it would take me the same amount of time to get to the commuter shuttle stop to Silicon Valley via foot as it would via bus. By walking 4 miles every day for a year, I saved $540.
- Increasing local business activity and employment from foot traffic. It is much easier to just duck into an interesting shop if you don’t have to find parking!
- Creating health cost savings from the exercise we get from walking, even if just to another form of transportation. Walking has saved me $1,300 on a gym membership.
Community:
- Decreasing external transportation costs by not contributing to car emissions, noise pollution, and potholes (and the fixing of them!), etc.
- Improving community cohesion – the quality of relationships among people in a community among people of different economic classes and social backgrounds. Running into the same people on the street or waiting for the bus makes my urban Chicago neighborhood feel like my small Missouri hometown (as if to emphasis that point, I really did sit across from a girl I went to high school with in MO on the bus to my Chicago apartment).
Environment:
- Reducing energy consumption and pollution emissions.
- Lowering “heat island” effects, including air condition costs, heat-related illness and mortality, and water quality. “Heat Island” describes how the annual mean air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F (1–3°C) warmer than its surroundings.
We really can make a big impact by not owning a car. But more people may need financial incentives to go “non-car owner”. Being a non-car owner is what ‘green’ means to me.
This is my picture for ShoreBank’s “What does ‘Green’ mean to me” photo contest. What does ‘Green’ mean to you? Take a photo and enter it in our contest starting April 22! It is time for us to give you your green credit.
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Tags: environmental sustainability, green transportation, tax credits, triple bottom line
