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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

That's about $580 US. The average monthly payment on a NEW car in the US is around $500 [0][1]. Add in parking (even "free" parking isn't), depreciation, gasoline, insurance, and registration fees and that's pretty darn close to $580.

From my perspective, living the DC suburbs, I would love to have an all-access app for multi-mode transport. I own two cars (one for me, one for wife). I walk to work, so my car only gets driven on the weekends, and only if my wife and I are doing different things. It's a VERY expensive way to maintain my weekend "freedom". Lyft/Uber would fill much of the gap, except I frequently go camping 2-4 hours away. If Lyft had a "long term borrow" plan, I could get rid of my $400/month car payment and all associated costs.

[0]https://www.thebalance.com/average-monthly-car-payment-41376... [1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/06...

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> The average monthly payment on a NEW car in the US is...pretty darn close to $580.

True. However, car long-term ownership also can reduce the overall cost substantially, a possible benefit you lose with services like this.

My 2002 Sierra cost me $15K when I bought it in 2007, and it's still my daily driver. That's roughly $113 per month. Maintenance has been infrequent and inexpensive, and I do the work myself. I'm WAY below $580 per month.

You should compare the monthly price to leasing, which is around $250/month for a decent new car. Using your "other costs" the total goes up to $330/month. (However, I think the other costs would be higher).

Rent a car for the weekend? Though there's obviously some transaction overhead associated with doing that.

I've considered it. But, the transaction overhead isn't small. I'd need to reserve the car in advance, Lyft to the rental agency, etc. Currently, I can decide to go to the mountains on a whim Friday afternoon.

That makes perfect sense. It also highlights some of the reasons why, a lot of the time, people own items that they don't use frequently. e.g. you may only use a lawnmower 15 times a year but most people aren't going to rent one each time.

Absolutely.

But, the cost of a car/truck is massive relative to most people's overall budgets. So, there's probably lots of room for optimization through transit-as-a-service.

Sure. The cost of a car and, potentially, the cost of garaging a car in a city definitely merit a harder look at alternatives than other items may. There are definitely city-dwellers who don't drive a lot and, with increased transportation options in a lot of cities, the marginal car-owner increasingly has other options they can consider.

I know a couple in SF who don't own a car that probably wouldn't have been able to do so prior to Uber/Lyft, Zipcar, food delivery, etc. Of course, they also don't really do outdoor trips requiring a lot of gear on a regular basis and their kids are grown up and moved out as well.

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