From: D Walford on
Fran wrote:

> One thing a serious cost on fuel could do is generate funds
> specifically to provide the seed capital for new investment, not just
> in PT but in high density housing near (within about 25 kms) of the
> city.
>
Possibly and I wouldn't be against Govts spending up big on improving
rail infrastructure but most likely the increased revenue from fuel
would just go into consolidated revenue.
I would object to Govt's spending money to ruin our lifestyle though, if
most Aussies wanted to live like Chinese peasants it would be easier to
move to China.

> Another possible idea would be to attack the psychology of vehicle
> usage. Suppose each vehicle had to have a gauge that game you real-
> time feedback on the fuel-efficiency of your current driving? When you
> were at or near optimum, it gives you a five star rating -- at the end
> of each day and the week it rates you for the week. It could also give
> you projections based on your current driving style on how many km you
> had left in the tank.
>

Lots of cars already have trip computers that tell the driver
instantaneous and overall fuel consumption.

> A pretty simple measure but I'll bet we'd get a more sensible use of
> cars and it might help author some longterm culture change.

Doubt it would make any difference as like I and others have said before
fuel cost is insignificant in overall vehicle running cost.
I work with a lot of young tradies who are earning very good money at
the moment, many of them own V8 utes and don't give a damn about the
price of petrol, compared to their other living costs petrol cost is
insignificant.


Daryl

From: D Walford on
Nev.. wrote:
> D Walford wrote:
>> G-S wrote:
>>> CrazyCam wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Scooters, pushies and walking, yup, I'll believe, but you have to be
>>>> joking about car-pooling and public transport.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Public transport in and around Melbourne and across the state of
>>> victoria is showing consistent growth of between 4% and 8% depending
>>> upon location and mode.
>>>
>>> With those sorts of growth rates sustained (and they have been for
>>> some years now) it isn't long before we'll start to see noticable
>>> pattern shifts.
>>
>> Not likely when you factor in population increases which has as much
>> to do with the increased PT use as anything else.
>> For PT transport to have much effect on car use in Melbourne the State
>> Govt needs to spend mega bucks improving rail infrastructure.
>> I've lived in Melb's outer West for 30yrs and in that time there
>> hasn't been any infrastructure improvements.
>
> So would be an inopportune time to remind you that a recommendation of
> the 2008 Victorian Transport Plan was the construction of a new rail
> link in the outer western suburbs... ?

Its been "recommended" for at least 30yrs but so far nothing has happened.
Where I live already has a rail service but its single track which
limits its capacity, since the area is flat and the current rail line is
a straight line it would be relatively inexpensive to duplicate and
electrify it but I don't think its going to happen any time soon.



Daryl
From: theo on
On Jan 7, 2:55 pm, Fran <fran.b...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 7, 9:49 am, theo <theodo...(a)bigpond.com.au> wrote:

> > Regardless of the pain of opening your wallet at the Servo, fuel is
> > the cheapest component of owning a motor vehicle. A vehicle costing
> > $30K new being driven 12,000 kms per annum (the stated average for
> > private vehicles) at 10 l/100km paying $1.20 per litre will cost $1440
> > in fuel. It will cost $500 in Rego fees, $500-800 in Insurance, will
> > require one service at $250, depreciate by at least 25%, $7500, and
> > will cost at least $2400 in Finance costs (I have taken this to be 8%
> > of the $30K you no longer have in Fixed Term Deposit, actual borrowing
> > will cost more). I won't bother with tyres ($200) and other minor
> > incidentals, such as RAC membership.
>
> > Your total costs are $12,590. An additional $0.50 per litre will add a
> > whopping $600 to your costs. 4.8%. Whoopee!
>
> As noted above, I substantially agree that *in the short run* (which
> is to say within the cycle in which people trade their cars) 50 cents
> per litre isn't going to make a lot of difference. (I'd be surprised
> about the 12,000 annual km figure though -- maybe there are some
> wealthy inner city dwellers who don't use their cars much, but I'd be
> surprised if more than 50% of urban commuters who use their cars o
> commute don't approach 20,000km each year). Work it out -- if you live
> just 25km from work and go to work and home 276 times per year,
> there's 13,800km already. Throw in recreational vehicle use, shopping
> etc on weekends @ 40 km per weekend, and there's easily another 2100.
> Annual trip to the snow and the north coast for Christmas? Add 2000 km
> each. Commuters to Sydney drive from the Central  Coast, Wollongong,
> Picton and the Blue Mountains. Even Penrith is 50ks out.

There are many people who don't commute by car, and many people who
don't have employment, including myself. You also appear to be
expecting people to commute 6 days a week. Surely five is more common.
If allowing for 20,000 kms, the total cost would increase to $15,000
of which your addtional $0.50/l will be $1,000. Still only 6.7%
increase.

Theo
From: Fran on
On Jan 8, 9:42 am, theo <theodo...(a)bigpond.com.au> wrote:
> On Jan 7, 2:55 pm, Fran <fran.b...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > On Jan 7, 9:49 am, theo <theodo...(a)bigpond.com.au> wrote:
> > > Regardless of the pain of opening your wallet at the Servo, fuel is
> > > the cheapest component of owning a motor vehicle. A vehicle costing
> > > $30K new being driven 12,000 kms per annum (the stated average for
> > > private vehicles) at 10 l/100km paying $1.20 per litre will cost $1440
> > > in fuel. It will cost $500 in Rego fees, $500-800 in Insurance, will
> > > require one service at $250, depreciate by at least 25%, $7500, and
> > > will cost at least $2400 in Finance costs (I have taken this to be 8%
> > > of the $30K you no longer have in Fixed Term Deposit, actual borrowing
> > > will cost more). I won't bother with tyres ($200) and other minor
> > > incidentals, such as RAC membership.
>
> > > Your total costs are $12,590. An additional $0.50 per litre will add a
> > > whopping $600 to your costs. 4.8%. Whoopee!
>
> > As noted above, I substantially agree that *in the short run* (which
> > is to say within the cycle in which people trade their cars) 50 cents
> > per litre isn't going to make a lot of difference. (I'd be surprised
> > about the 12,000 annual km figure though -- maybe there are some
> > wealthy inner city dwellers who don't use their cars much, but I'd be
> > surprised if more than 50% of urban commuters who use their cars o
> > commute don't approach 20,000km each year). Work it out -- if you live
> > just 25km from work and go to work and home 276 times per year,
> > there's 13,800km already. Throw in recreational vehicle use, shopping
> > etc on weekends @ 40 km per weekend, and there's easily another 2100.
> > Annual trip to the snow and the north coast for Christmas? Add 2000 km
> > each. Commuters to Sydney drive from the Central  Coast, Wollongong,
> > Picton and the Blue Mountains. Even Penrith is 50ks out.
>
> There are many people who don't commute by car, and many people who
> don't have employment, including myself. You also appear to be
> expecting people to commute 6 days a week. Surely five is more common.
> If allowing for 20,000 kms, the total cost would increase to $15,000
> of which your addtional $0.50/l will be $1,000. Still only 6.7%
> increase.

Yes ... that's fair comment -- I don't know how I got 276 days ... 240
(48 weeks * 5 days) would be closer (perhaps allow a couple of sickies
and public holidays too) so 230 ...

16,000 still sounds light though.

Fran
From: Fran on
On Jan 7, 10:27 pm, D Walford <dwalf...(a)internode.on.net> wrote:
> Fran wrote:
> > On Jan 7, 7:30 pm, D Walford <dwalf...(a)internode.on.net> wrote:
> >> Fran wrote:
> >>> On Jan 7, 9:49 am, theo <theodo...(a)bigpond.com.au> wrote:
> >>>> On Jan 6, 9:44 am, Fran <fran.b...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>> What do you suppose would happen to vehicle miles (and the composition
> >>>>> of the vehicle fleet) in Australia if the price of petrol went up and
> >>>>> stayed up by, say, 50 cents per litre?
> >>>> It's already done that in the last few years. And nothing much
> >>>> happened to the composition of the fleet, except that 'performance'
> >>>> cars got bigger and more powerful engines using more fuel.
> >>>> Regardless of the pain of opening your wallet at the Servo, fuel is
> >>>> the cheapest component of owning a motor vehicle. A vehicle costing
> >>>> $30K new being driven 12,000 kms per annum (the stated average for
> >>>> private vehicles) at 10 l/100km paying $1.20 per litre will cost $1440
> >>>> in fuel. It will cost $500 in Rego fees, $500-800 in Insurance, will
> >>>> require one service at $250, depreciate by at least 25%, $7500, and
> >>>> will cost at least $2400 in Finance costs (I have taken this to be 8%
> >>>> of the $30K you no longer have in Fixed Term Deposit, actual borrowing
> >>>> will cost more). I won't bother with tyres ($200) and other minor
> >>>> incidentals, such as RAC membership.
> >>>> Your total costs are $12,590. An additional $0.50 per litre will add a
> >>>> whopping $600 to your costs. 4.8%. Whoopee!
> >>> As noted above, I substantially agree that *in the short run* (which
> >>> is to say within the cycle in which people trade their cars) 50 cents
> >>> per litre isn't going to make a lot of difference. (I'd be surprised
> >>> about the 12,000 annual km figure though -- maybe there are some
> >>> wealthy inner city dwellers who don't use their cars much, but I'd be
> >>> surprised if more than 50% of urban commuters who use their cars o
> >>> commute don't approach 20,000km each year). Work it out -- if you live
> >>> just 25km from work and go to work and home 276 times per year,
> >>> there's 13,800km already. Throw in recreational vehicle use, shopping
> >>> etc on weekends @ 40 km per weekend, and there's easily another 2100.
> >>> Annual trip to the snow and the north coast for Christmas? Add 2000 km
> >>> each. Commuters to Sydney drive from the Central  Coast, Wollongong,
> >>> Picton and the Blue Mountains. Even Penrith is 50ks out.
> >> 16,000klms is the figure that is used as the national average for klms
> >> travelled per year.
>
> > It sounds light to me -- a bit like the difference between the average
> > wage and the wage that most people don't get.
>
> A couple of credible web sites agree on the 16,000klms, its not a figure
> that was plucked out of the air.
> Many people would do a lot less but of course many like me do a lot
> more, my May 09 Hilux has already done about 25,000klms yet my wife's
> 3.5yr old Subaru has only done 54,000klms.http://www.valuemail.com.au/explanation.aspxhttp://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/29/Files/is15.pdf
>

Thanks for the links -- the second was really interesting.

Fran
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