True Cost of Travel - Introduction
A Quaker Sustainable Travel Fund
True Cost of Travel is a program established by Yahara Friends to keep us mindful of some of the less recognized impacts of our travel and provide us with a way to offset the carbon (global warming) impact of that travel. We have prepared a pamphlet with some basic information about the program which can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking here. This web page will attempt to go into more detail and answer questions that the pamphlet does not address.
Travel and More Travel; What is the True Cost?
It seems like we are always going somewhere - we drive to work, take the bus to school, walk to the library, drive to Meeting or to the farmers' market, bike to a friend's house.
Going farther afield, we may fly to a business conference, drive two states away to the grandparents' house for the holidays, drive up to the lake for the weekend, or take the train to the shore for a vacation.
All of this traveling has costs. Some of the costs are obvious. We pay the dealer for the car, we pay the state for the license, we pay for gas every time we fill the tank, and we pay the mechanic when repairs are needed. When we fly we pay for our ticket.
Some costs though are less obvious. Consider parking your car. When you drive to the market and park for free in the parking lot, it is not really free. The store owner has to pay for the land the parking lot is on, for clearing snow from it, for lighting it, and so forth. These costs are added to the price of the food you buy at the store. Non-monetary costs of driving a car include noise pollution, dealing with crashes, the barrier effect of roads and highways in our cities, air pollution, and global warming.
Global warming, global weirding, climate change - whatever you prefer to call it, it is a reality that we all worry about and wonder how we can help. The problem is complex, with many contributing factors. Our program addresses just one factor - travel.
Here is a video from the Center for Investigative Reporting that discusses some of the costs beyond what we pay at the pump:
Last update: June 23, 2011