Advantages and disadvantages of having a personal car in the Age of Gig Economy.

After living in three small city where I own a personal car, I have moved to a large metropolis where I have decided not to have a car due to many reasons.

Let us opine in next few sections.

In our life, transportation is a big part and parcel of our life. We travel for many reasons such as go to workplace or school, shopping or vacation. Many people think having a personal car is an advantage while others think that it is disadvantageous to have a car. In my personal opinion, it depends on our situations. For example, where we live and how we want to live and, I will discuss my arguments in the following sections.

At first, let us discuss the advantage of having a personal car. If one lives in a small western city, having a car has plethora of advantages. For example, a personal car can be the main transport vehicle in absence of well covered and efficient public transport in a small city. Even the public transport can be expensive depending on the expense of high usage due to the all the trips. Though public transport may provide competitive cost for monthly charges still it will be inflexible due to the rigid schedules, stops and transfers. On the other hand, a personal car will be cheaper option due to low insurance cost, garage cost and parking cost. Usually, insurance rate is relatively lower in small city, and as such garage cost. Moreover, in a small city the most parking lot will be free or charge very low fee. Finally, it will be absolutely flexible to chose the time and place to travel, which is not the case of infrequent public service. One issue may be that car can be environmentally inconvenient due to emission, in that case, a fuel-efficient car or even an electric car cover that issue quite impressively.

On the other hand, having personal car can have many disadvantages too. If one lives in a large city or metropolis, having a car will cause lots of discomforts. Let us discuss the biggest issue the cost. The insurance, car registration tax, garage and parking cost can be significantly higher than a conventional small city. Moreover, a large city usually has a well designed and convenient public transport. In some cases, it can be even faster due to having dedicated roads or lanes that avoid crippling traffic jam which is very common for a large city. Finding a parking spot in a bustling city can be both outright costly and worrisomely time consuming. Finally, due to big amount of time spending in travel or traffic jam can add pollution to the fragile city environment. On the contrary most public transport run on either electricity, low emitting natural gas or outright fuel efficient by virtue of carrying large number of passengers. Moreover, having a well design public transport ensures smooth transition, less wait time and frequent pickup or drop-off stops.

To recapitulate the concept of having a personal car's advantages and disadvantages, we can argue that it depends on the location and situation of the person. Having a car in small city has many benefits of low cost, flexibility and convenience, even be environment friendly, On the contrary, having a car in a large city can have many inconveniences from high cost of parking, fuel, garage and in some cases, long wait time in traffic jam. Over all, I strongly argue that a personal car is a boon or bane depending one's location rather than choice.