Getting to Vegas

[aggienaut]

[Poll #1089599]

   If I take my carmovehicle, I can leave for Vegas and from Vegas whenever I happen to feel like it. I believe parking at our hotel is free (I'll check on that in the morning). Also packing is easier because I can put whatever I feel like in my trunk.
   If I take Greyhound I have to find parking in Anaheim or Santa Ana (the closest stations) and hope its free or not too expensive, bus apparently takes 7 hours to traverse the 272 miles that google says should take my car 4 hours; and then it deposits me five miles from my hotel and I gotta taxi it up I guess.
   Bus fare is $85 "standard" fare or $56 "casino" fare (I can't for the life of me figure out what makes casino fare casino fare). I think driving might actually be more expensive in gas.

   Actually I think writing out the pros and cons has convinced me of which route to go, but heck, I've already written this, may as well post. (=

   Anyway, I loathe Vegas with a passion, but its the AMWEST Model UN conference there this weekend and I'm going with team Northern Arizona University (NAU) and its gonna be awesome! (=



   In unrelated news, I think every girl I've talked to in my French class is taking dance classes. A.Wall, Devon, girl that sits in front of me, avant-gard-fashion-girl, and most unexpectly this punkish girl Ashleigh who's hardly ever there and I pointed out to her all the other girls were dancers thinking she'd think it was weird too but she was like "yeah so do I."
   Silly JC kids, still trying to live the dream.

Comments

[davyjones6.livejournal.com]

after taking the train up to seattle. and numerous delays from amtrak and greyhound.. i would suggest taking your car.. :) but since you've already decided hhehehe it doens't really matter.. i just like to take polls..

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Haha well I'm still curious what everyone else has to say on the subject.

And you didn't vote in my LAST poll! )=

[xaositecte.livejournal.com]

272 Miles \ 25 miles per gallon = 10.8 gallons to get there, and another 10.8 to get back.

At 5$ a gallon (I saw a headline somewhere that gas had gotten up that high) - you're looking at ~108$ round trip.

And if there's one thing I learned from Lost, it's that 108 is the magic number. Even if you choose otherwise, seemingly coincidental events will conspire to make you take your car, whether you want to or not.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

I _think_ gas is like $3.00ish around here right now though, so that would make it only about a $60 round trip. And I'm pretty sure my golf gets really good gas mileage, so maybe its all around cheaper in the automovehicle.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

The average price of gasoline in Orange County is currently $3.37/gallon [http://www.gasbuddy.com/]

My Golf got about 30±2 miles/gallon on the highway. Dad's is a little higher, I think.

The actual cost of driving, including fuel, vehicle maintenance, depreciation, and insurance, is closer to 50 cents/mile (AAA).

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

So while the cost in gas should be $61.11, the triple A estimate puts the trip at $272 ... meaning there are $210.89 in hidden costs? That doesn't seem right d=

cost of driving

[nibot.livejournal.com]

They're hardly "hidden" costs.

A new VW Golf has MSRP between $17k and $20k. Assuming $17k purchase price and that it will be driven for 200,000 miles in its lifetime, that's 8.5 cents per mile.

Assume that, over the lifetime of the vehicle, maintenance costs will equal the purchase price. That's another 8.5 cents/mile.

At 30 mpg and $3/gallon (approximately), fuel is 10 cents/mile.

That gets us up to 27 cents/mile. Admittedly still not quite 50 cents/mile.

The other big driving cost is for insurance. While this may seem like a fixed cost, it is related to the number of miles you drive--my insurance company asks me for my odometer reading every six months, and inquires about my commuting habits. I am not sure what the insurance costs over the lifetime of a vehicle would be. I pay $100/month for the minimum insurance allowed in California, but I have an old car--for a new car, you would pay much more in insurance because you would want to protect it.

Let's assume you get only the minimum insurance, and let's assume that the car lasts for 20 years. 20 years * 12 months/year * 100 dollars/month = $24000. Divided by 200,000 miles, that's another 12 cents a mile. So we're up to $0.39/mile. (In reality, insurance costs will be much higher.)

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Here's AAA's report: http://gss.case.edu/RTAdocs/YourDrivingCosts2007.pdf

[spencerfern.livejournal.com]

Most of the costs he mentions (registration, insurance, and some part of depreciation) are fixed whether you drive the car or not. I think that might also include finance charges, which you may not have.

The actual operation costs are more like $0.15/mile. They usually figure maintenance is about %50 of gas costs. Obviously this is much less if you maintain the car yourself, and much more if you insist on having your Hummer serviced at the dealership.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

That makes more sense. I find it extremely hard to believe the non-fuel costs of driving are more than three times the fuel costs. d= (But I'll look into it further Tobin)

[nibot.livejournal.com]

You would believe them if you were actually paying them. The marginal cost of driving someone else's car is very low.

[spencerfern.livejournal.com]

Also, you need to figure in the cost of carbon offsets.

If you don't buy those, Al Gore will get in his motorcade, drive to the airport in Nashville, fly his Gulfstream to McCarran, charter a helicopter, and while your taking a leak at a gas station in Baker, he will land outside.

When you come outside he will give you a stern talking to about your callous abuse of our environment.

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

Not to mention, you're not losing 6 hours of your life. I'd like to think your life is worth more than $10/hour.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Good point!

[michaelpop.livejournal.com]

I've only taken Greyhound once, up to San Jose for New Year's Eve 1999, and it was the worst ordeal ever. It took like 48 days to get there. Unless you absolutely have no other means of transportation, avoid taking the bus.

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think literally every tale I've heard of taking the bus has involved it having unexpected delays and such d=

[neugotik.livejournal.com]

I took the greyhound from Oregon to Minnesota once - long trip. I got some interesting experiences out of it - weird bowling alley stop w/blacklights - no real food for the _entire trip_ (we just stopped at poorly stocked gas stations the whole way - the _best_ food stop was in S.Dakota wefinally stopped at a Dairy Queen.Yup.the best of the 3 day trip -gah.

I was in no rush - yet the constant, every 10 minutes it seemed, stops in tiny towns to maybe pick up someone,but usually not.. kinda drove me nuts. What was a 24 hour drive (1.5 days) doubled. And you can't pick where to stop. And some lady sprayed an entire bottle (exageration) on herself of nastyperfum. right before she got off the bus. The rest of us breathed her perfum for 2hours. & a nasty onboard toilet. and.. er.

If you couldn't drive, I'd take the train,honestly.

[mia76.livejournal.com]

well just look how many people agree with me! tsk!

mega bus?

[thetalesend.livejournal.com]

http://www.megabus.com/

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

I, for one, am a control freak - if I'm going somewhere, I like knowing that I'll have transportation readily available at a moment's notice.

The exception is, of course, if I'm going out drinking, in which case I'd rather catch a ride with a flake and risk sleeping in someone's backyard.