Not too long ago, I blogged about our new normal for 2021, and now we have a small change.
Ever since NPY decided to bring Baby to his parents once a week – because it was just getting untenable with her around two days of the week and he would work from home even if it was a week he was otherwise in the office and Baby was just over it with regards to amusing herself while we worked. She was really cute and independent for a week (two days) and on a decline thereafter. The two weeks where NPY went to the office while also doing school run followed by dropping Baby off with his parents went like this:
- Depart with Kiddo and Baby (I helped by bring the kids down and strapping them in)
- Drop Kiddo off at school in Mount Pleasant area (they depart as late as possible to not hang around and NPY watches from the car as Kiddo walks to his classroom so as to not have to take Baby out of the carseat and put her back in)
- Drop Baby off at grandparents in East Vancouver area
- Drop the car off for me back in Olympic Village
- Walk to train station
- Go to work arriving ~10:00am
- Take train home to get car
- Drive to his parents to pick up Baby
NPY had a couple of such difficult days and I did my best to “help” but it also demonstrated to him the (time) cost of having grandparents watch Baby instead of her going to daycare full-time. What he concluded was that we need a second car. Just like that, such throw-back thinking that the solution is to own a car. Oh, it’s only $200 a month for insurance – I don’t know, I’ve never owned a car or paid insurance before – and $100 a month for the second parking spot. That’s before the $300 a month my mother estimated it would cost to finance a car. To be really basic, how much food and other essentials (and non-essentials) could we otherwise get for $600 a month?!
My solution was to re-join the car-sharing organization who has a car in my parking garage, Modo.
I was a co-op member (i.e., paid into the co-op) starting in 2009 back when it was called Co-op or something like that, but during my extended maternity leave, I got my share purchase back because I hadn’t used carsharing for years previously. Now, I’ve re-joined on a monthly basis with the possibility (probability?) of rejoining the co-op because – fees!
| Modo Plus | Monthly | |
|---|---|---|
| Share purchase | $500 | N/A |
| Membership fee - Annual | $1 | |
| Membership fee - Monthly | $6 | |
| Per ride | $4/hr + $1.50 innovation fee + $0.40/km (first 25km) | $5/hr + $1.50 innovation fee + $0.40/km (first 25km) |
Mini-analysis ***
Is it really possible to compare? There’s the $6/month membership fee for monthly subscribers versus the $1 annual fee if you’re Modo Plus. That is invariable on top of the drives. Assuming my drivers are an hour long because it’s just for picking up Kiddo, I’m paying a mere $1 more per drive as a monthly subscriber than Modo Plus.
Or consider it this way: dividing the monthly fee over the number of drives, assuming to be at most twice a month. At that rate, the membership fee is ($6/2) $3 on top of each ride, $4 extra per ride for the flexibility to not commit.
My round trip is 5 km so that is $2 for the mileage each trip (same per km rate for Modo plus and monthly members thank goodness). The trip calculator estimates that the ride will cost me $8.97 (I rounded up to 6km) as a monthly member; $7.97 if I were Modo Plus.
The beauty of car-sharing is not having to pay for gas or insurance.
***
It’s Covid days, so we have to take extra precautions and preparation for a more comfortable and safe ride in what is shared use property.
- What I bring: in my Longchamp “dupe” from Banana Republic (i.e., a tote bag), I throw in the Mifold Grab-and-Go booster seat I recently bought because it’s 10x smaller than a regular backless booster, a jar of Lysol antiseptic wipes and a plastic bag to store used wipes.
- Before driving the car, I wipe every touchpoint I can think of:
- driver door handle, interior driver door especially the latch to open the door from inside
- the whole steering wheel, signal and windshield wiper paddles
- gear shifter, emergency break
- the car key
- driver seatbelt and buckles, driver headrest
- rearview mirror
- Kiddo’s door handle, interior door
- Kiddo’s entire seat, seatbelt and buckles
- During the ride, we are always wearing masks
- When we get home, strip off our pants and any other clothing that was in contact with the car
That’s it!
On this day..
- Foodie : Tarts! - 2006