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Comment by q845712 | Hacker News Reader

that's super badass, but my recollection of having a commute slightly over 30 miles roundtrip is that it was thoroughly exhausting. Or in other words, the same difficult circumstances that inspire one person to remarkable success will still grind many other people down. We can all aspire to be great, be by definition most of us will hew pretty close to average for our circumstances. I think this thread is pointing out how difficult some circumstances can be, which doesn't need to discount the possibility for someone to transcend them, but you're pointing out an outlier in a discussion about median results.

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Would an electric bike close the gap? It's not as expensive as a car. It's also better for the environment and your body. A $3k car might sound like a better deal than a $3k bike but then you'd have to pay for fuel and maintenance.

If we're talking broke, we're talking $1k cars and $100-200 bicycles.

My first car was $800 and I bought a few motorcycles over the years for around $400 each.

Yeah. My first car in 1996 was a Buick Century that I got for $1,000. My brother had this shitty mid-80s 2-door Pontiac Sunbird that he got for like $600 in 91 when he graduated from high school. I kept that Buick in service until 2001 when I enlisted, I don't know what happened to it after that. I got a 94 Ford Ranger, around 2003, when I needed a car again and was making some better money for around $4,000. I sold that truck to an old colleague in 2009 (he still has it today) and got a used Scion xB for $6,000, which I till have today.

It blew me away when I got that Scion. It was a steal of a deal. I was looking at used, late 90s model Civics at the time, because I needed a commuter that could do 50 miles one way with decent MPG and with something I knew that I could keep on the road, and those cars held their value so well into the late 2000s that it blew me away. People were asking $3,000-$4,000 for them with 150k-200k miles.

Today, I make something crazy like about 15x what I made in 1996, but I still have that Scion. I plan to keep it on the road for another 11 years. After all, it's a Toyota and it's given me no trouble at 150k miles. It goes to the shop for tires, everything else I handle in my garage. It's a commuter for my wife that goes about 5 miles one way these days.

My neighbors comment on it all of the time. They think it's an unsightly beater sitting in front of our ludicrously expensive homes. I thought about selling it for a while but their shitty attitudes have convinced me to keep it around.

Those xB were really a great car and practical. I still remember those Scion meetups they would have where they encouraged an active aftermarket community. For their odd design it has aged well. I still see a lot on the road, I think you'll have no problem getting it to last that long.

Electric bikes are less safe. That might not fit the risk profile of many, justifiably.

It’s why I prepended off topic on the post. There is no way I could do that day in day out and I’m faster than average on a bike.

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