I Want to Walk

Why Walk?

Good for Your Wallet

Scene: The local gas station. Your Honda is at the pump. You pull your credit card from your wallet and start pumping gas. The digitized numbers climb higher and higher. Your blood pressure is matching the rising costs.

“This is ridiculous,” you exclaim. “There has to be a better way to get around.”

There is!

Driving and Wallets
How much does driving really cost? When you purchase a car, the money starts draining the minute you leave the dealership. Aside from the sky-high gas prices, there’s also maintenance costs, depreciating vehicle value, and (our personal favorite) the blown tires.

Let’s say that you drive a sedan to work from your home in Fridley to your office in downtown Minneapolis. That’s approximately a 10 mile commute. Traveling between work and home twice a day costs you $7.16. Over one month, you spend $214.80. Over a year? That’s $2,577.60. And that’s not counting parking, car payments, insurance, and the occasional trip to the grocery store.

Ouch. You can kiss that family vacation goodbye.

Bicycling/Walking and Wallets
A family that figures out how to own one less vehicle saves thousands of dollars per year. Short trips are especially easy to convert to walking and bicycling. Walking a few miles is relatively easy, and you can bike even farther before you break a sweat.

Real Distances
The Twin Cities region is a remarkably easy place to walk and bike.Check out this page to challenge your assumptions about how much time it takes to get around.