Weekend reading: Park the car, fuel the ISA

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• 

  Maven

  1 Jonathan the Evil April 18, 2026, 11:24 am

  “I presume nobody wants to go to bat for no cigarettes!”

  Only an evil person would do that.

  So, cigarettes are a good thing, when they bring pleasure to the user, and the (health) cost of using them is negligible. For example, some enjoy a last cigarette before being executed. Above a certain age, the pleasure of good cigarettes exceeds the cost of life-expectancy reduction due to the vice.

  I’m middle-aged, and remember reading a 1960s book of woodwork projects for boys when I was at school (it was an old book then, I’m not yet ancient). One of the most intriguing was a wooden cigarette-holding box for terminally-ill patients, connected to the mouth by flexible tubing, so that a weakened patient could still enjoy smoking tobacco without setting fire to his or her bed.

  It was a starkly rational solution to the problem of dealing with imminent death. These days, puritanical and virtue-signaling health zealots have banned smoking and fast-food from our hospital sites, so that those experiencing the last few days of life have no chance to enjoy a final cigarette or Big Mac.

  I tend to find that the way people react to the idea of cigarettes ever being a good thing tells me a great deal about attitude to risk, rationality and economic thinking. Perhaps this is that About Duke was trying to convey to the general public in her book “Thinking in Bets”.
• 

  Maven

  2 xxd09 April 18, 2026, 11:28 am

  Great article ……
  As an ancient Monevator (80) investor that lives deep in the countryside with his wife I have to confess to many “Cs”
  We both have cars-necessity-distance/weather/independence
  She (not me) has smoked from birth-now same age as myself-tried stopping once or twice but the risk of a mental breakdown caused by withdrawal pains was too much-too late now
  Had 3 children -all flown the nest and independent
  On the plus side my latest car is a hybrid so driving much slower at no fuel cost as often as possible
  Mortgage free cottage
  A worthwhile retirement was achieved in spite of everything-so far !
  xxd09
• 

  Maven

  3 wmfd April 18, 2026, 12:25 pm

  “Add in a shift to electric vehicles, and our roads could be very different – safer and more pleasant, and with far fewer empty cars crowding up the pavements – in just a decade or so.”

  I may be getting old and cynical, but isn’t there a risk that we are replacing the cars on the pavements with cars on the road.

  If we’re essentially dropping the inconvenience of time on the road to be very low (presumably I can read, eat, work or even sleep whilst the robotaxi gets me there) then I can see the demand for roadspace jumping enormously.

  A journey relaxing whilst my automated robotaxi takes me to and from the heart of London sounds idyllic compared to almost 2hrs each way on a mix of public transport (especially when it all goes to pot as the east coast mainline did on Thursday evening).

  As others have the same idea, the 2-3hrs it currently takes to drive in will only rise.

  Of course when I get there, if it isn’t taking fares, then it’s probably cheaper to have the robotaxi cruise around slowly, with everyone else’s, rather than pay for a parking space.

  In fact a night in a well equipped slow moving self driving car is then probably a lot cheaper, and more pleasant, than an overnight stay in a tired London hotel.

  I’m not saying the development can’t be a good thing, but I suspect it’s going to be a bumpy road (sorry!) of unforeseen consequences and need some forms of management/road pricing etc to get there.
• 

  Maven

  4 Azamino April 18, 2026, 1:04 pm

  An internet search on cycling dropped me on MMM, which led me to the idea of FIRE and eventually the good offices of Monevator!
  MMM can puts the case for utility cycling better than I can, but a glimpse around the early retirees in my cycling club (admittedly a self selected group) speaks volumes.
• 

  Mogul

  5 BobbyD April 18, 2026, 1:10 pm

  Long time lurker, first time commenter – the paywall’s working! About time I contributed given the value Monevator’s provide me over the past decade.

  Regarding the three C’s – like a lot of big city parents it’s actually the arrival of one of them that’s finally precipitated the purchase of another.

  Like you we both moved to London for our careers and have enjoyed a car free life ever since.

  However without family nearby our emergency childcare plan for when they’re too ill for nursery has been to buy an on the day open return train ticket on the 7am out of Waterloo (£180 each time) so parents can look after the little one and we can work remotely. It’s actually more economical to get an electric car on salary sacrifice (£350pcm) than having to get a train twice a month with no notice.

  Regarding autonomous cars – they’ve been a few years away almost as long as fusion power has! Big difference between a single taxi service which has a backup connected to another AI (all Indians) versus replacing today’s entire fleet.
• 

  Mogul

  6 ermine April 18, 2026, 3:04 pm

  > The car becomes part of your identity — your freedom, your autonomy, your adulthood.

  Hmm. Have you used public transport out of London? Self driving cars may solve this, they could do wonders for the fortunes of country pubs. London public transport is perfectly serviceable, frequent etc. I actually did own a car in west London many years ago and would agree, it was a right PITA and i often had to walk 100 yards to where I could park the thing, and try and remember where that was, which was easier when I was younger 😉

  Outside London the bus services pack up in the early evening and even the taxi services are ratty, presumably because the business case is marginal. Perhaps Waymo will shift penetration deeper into the sticks. I don’t see the point of owning a self-driving car, and indeed car ‘ownership’ seems to be trending to rental/PCP whatever. Which matches the depreciation characteristics of EVs better anyway.

  I don’t disagree that there’s a lot of psychology around car ownership. but you miss out on an awful lot of interesting stuff and ease of life outside The Smoke without one.
• 

  Maven

  7 Matthew Ainsworth April 18, 2026, 3:19 pm

  If you buy a cheap older car on a 0% purchases card and balance transfer when needs be, could be much cheaper to run!
  To me a car saves precious time more than anything
  I do agree that self driving cars will make ownership less necessary, and they could take themselves off to be valeted and charged, and that there’s no thinking time in the braking, and humans aren’t perfect themselves, so I can see a day when humans eventually won’t be trusted to drive
• 

  Maven

  8 Trufflehunt April 18, 2026, 3:36 pm

  Country Life.

  Where I live, large village/small town in rural Somerset…..

  Buses.., 1 every 2+ hours from 7.30 till about 18.30. Nothing on Sundays.

  Taxis…, Uber hasn’t reached here, it’s still your local man with all their opinions.

  My current car…, 2006 Yaris 1.0 3-cylinder, 50+ mpg without trying. Won for £995 on Ebay nearly 6 years ago. I do the oil changes, and servicing. Anything that involves using a breaker bar, it goes to the local repairer. Repair costs plus MOT’s tend to average out at around £350 a year. Insurance for me is typically about £250.
  Road tax £165.

  In my younger years a lot of money went on cars. A Porsche 911 whose 12000 mile service and heat exchanger replacements cost £2000 in 1988 is one of the more extreme examples.

  For me now, a car is a practical necessity. The independence and freedom aspects, the emotional bits, are much diluted. As it happens, over the back fence of my (well, the landlord’s ) garden is the local bypass. It’s the railway line that closed with the 1960’s Beeching cuts. I’d love to be able to just hop on a train to the smallest city in England. By car, it’s just a grind.