Private Vehicle Ownership Is Both A Boon and A Curse

Things can go out of hand if you aren’t careful about how you use your newfound privileges.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

“Upward mobility” has been the buzzword for a couple of years now, especially in articles talking about developing economies. Millions of people have been pulled out of poverty over the past decade, and it is definitely something to celebrate. However, for a lot of people that celebration seldom lasts because there actually can be “too much of a good thing”. They’ve after all, struggled for so long to reach where they are, busy eating, drinking, and smoking away their worries every single day instead of doing the actual hard work of processing their emotions.

They were so focussed and centered on getting out of their desperate financial and living situations that they had absolutely no opportunities to work out that discipline muscle. Suffering needn’t necessarily imbibe you with discipline and self-control. This is also one of the biggest reasons why so many lottery winners ultimately end up right back where they started, or even worse, on the streets.

Upward mobility is a double-edged sword in a manner of speaking. You are now empowered with your newfound privileges, whether it is owning a personal vehicle or having a house of your own. But you must possess the discipline and restraint to not become a victim of your own impulses and checkmate yourself in the process.

It takes discipline and values to live a richer life. Not everyone possesses that. Impulsivity and lack of discipline isn’t just linked to those who made quick money, but even those who’ve been struggling for so long to rise up that they never had the chance to keep a check on their impulsivity. Imagine someone drowning their daily sorrows in coffee, cigarettes, or alchol. Then one fine day, when they’re suddenly elevated from that desperate situation (whether financially, emotionally, or anything else) into a more comfortable life, it feels incredibly hard to shake off the old habit which acted as their coping mechanism during the tougher days/months/years. I guess this is why rehab exists.

Many forms of privilege can turn into double-edged swords. In this article, we’ll talk specifically about private vehicle ownership.

Private vehicle ownership

As humans, we’re social creatures who’d give anything to feel accepted and have a sense of belonging. We completely forget all the social aspects of vehicle ownership while contemplating to buy one. I still remember to this day, how my friends and I sat down in the college cafeteria one day to calculate how much I’d save if I invested in a motorbike instead of commuting to the college by the city bus. We were wimpy immature college kids who never factored in the social costs of private vehicle ownership. We only looked at the positive aspects.

I lived in a newly developing area of the city that didn’t have last mile connectivity, and the bus stand was 1.5 kms from my house. There were no footpaths and the roads were incredibly dusty. Walking this distance each and every single day in the mornings and evenings used to suck all the interest for college out of me. And hence, to rid myself of the daily hassle of walking all the way to and from the bus stand, I asked my parents to get me a motorcycle.

In my bid to ease my pain and make my life a bit more comfortable, I forgot that it could go the other way and become a bit too comfortable.

The temptation of hanging out with friends after classes is just too high to forget the additional costs it would incur since you aren’t dependent on public transport anymore and have a private vehicle to get home. You start doing bigger and more expensive things, not just out of peer pressure, but because you possess the means to do so. In addition to that, the testosterone-fuelled adolescent thrill to go for long rides on fast bikes is just too hard an urge to shake off.

No one ever told me:

1. That I’d be spending way more time on campus with my friends since I could go home whenever I wanted. This translated to increased spending on cafeteria food because that’s where we usually hung out.
2. I’d be forced to bunk classes with my mates since they too had bikes and we could pool bikes to go to the mall to hang out at the food court or head to the movies. Something I would never have been able to do had I been dependent on public transport. Yes, it’s not like those without vehicles did none of these things, but the frequency of their outings were much lower. When that inconvenient last mile walk is removed from each and every single place you go to, the urge to go there is even higher. This translated into increased expenditure on whatever we splurged on at the mall.
3. I’d end up lending my bike to my friends on more than a dozen occassions when they had some work to do or had to take their girlfriends out.
4. I’d end up going to the movies a lot more during the week. When I used the bus to commute to college I’d usually go straight home and not to the movies.
5. I’d end up sleeping over at friend’s houses more often because of all the late nights and bunked classes.
6. I’d end up spending way more on food and drink outside, since food and drink formed a huge part of private vehicle-enabled socialization.
7. I’d end up visiting and hanging out at shopping avenues with friends over the weekend. The costs here included everything from parking fees, to shopping, to food and drink outside. Things I would have never done had I been stuck with public transport all through college life.
8. I’d do plenty of treks over the weekends since our vehicles were powerful enough for long rides to hillocks situated on the edge of the city. These places were never accessible by public transport.

Everyone assumes that once you purchase a vehicle to commute to work/college, you save a ton of money. But once you own a vehicle, all those calculations on fuel savings go straight out the window. The temptation to hang out with friends is higher since you now own a vehicle and are no longer restricted from staying out as long as you want (unless your parents themselves prevent you from doing so). The night is all yours.

You can easily go shopping on the weekends since you have a vehicle to carry all your stuff home. You can also pool bikes with your friends and go hiking over the weekends while still being a college kid. In fact, that’s exactly how I became a trekker. Since you’re not dependent on the skeletal services that public transport gets reduced to over the weekends (This is in 2010), the entire city is yours for the taking and you are free to spend your weekends however you wish.

Imagine how much money my car-less and bike-less classmates might have saved during all those years of college! Sure, they enjoyed themselves too, but it wasn’t unrestricted and uninhibited fun like it was for those of us who had our own rides. Late nights as a concept don’t exist when you’re dependent on public transport. (again, unless you live in a city that has transportation round the clock.)

So what’s the point I’m trying to make here? That the moment one owns a vehicle, they become impulsive and stupid? No. All I’m saying is it takes discipline to be empowered by something and not take undue advantage of it. There were many folks around us who also used personal vehicles to commute to college, but went straight home after classes were done. But they were in the minority. Most of my college classmates who owned vehicles used them for all sorts of other purposes.

All in all, you spend exhorbitant amounts of money on transport in rather spontaneous and unintentional ways once you start owning a vehicle.

So if you really want to save money, stay on that damn bus! ;-)