Three Money Saving Tips with Modo

All buckled in & ready to go

Last weekend we got invited to a special event at a movie theatre in Surrey. It was almost 40km from home & nowhere near the Skytrain. I checked out how long it would take to get there by transit or cycling & neither of those options sounded that great, so I decided to book a Modo car. Here are three tips I use to save a little money when driving with Modo:

Photo Credit: wuestenigel Flickr via Compfight cc

Trip Stacking

Rather than doing just one thing with our Modo, I always try to see if there's an errand we can add in along the way to make our trip a little more efficient. This time, we hit up Ikea on our way home, since we needed to pick up something for our kitchen. The detour to Ikea added less than a kilometre to the trip, & only a couple extra hours of booking time, so it cost quite a bit less than booking another separate trip to just go to Ikea.

Photo Credit: Phillip Pessar Flickr via Compfight cc

Think Short, Not Fast

Another trick I use to save money with Modo is taking the most efficient route in terms of distance. I 

Google Mapped the route & looked at each of the three suggested routes, picking the one that is the fewest kilometres. For some of our regular trips, to see family in Coquitlam, for example, taking the highway might be two or three minutes faster, but it costs $3-4 more in kilometre charges for the round trip. So we pick the shorter route, not the faster one. Over a year, those little savings add up.

A Kia Rondo can carry the four of us plus a small Ikea haul

Small is Beautiful

The other thing we do to save a few dollars here & there is to pick the smallest, most efficient vehicle size for trip. The vast majority of the time, all we need is something that will seat the four of us--we don't need much cargo capacity to carry, say a couple of birthday presents to a family party in the suburbs. Even Ikea trips are very doable with the Daily Drives category of cars--we drove a Kia Rondo & bought a kitchen cabinet, as well as a handful of other things at Ikea & there was more than enough cargo space in the back hatch for our flat packs.



The other great thing about these three habits is they are more environmentally friendly too--driving fewer kilometres, making fewer trips, in smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles minimizes your carbon emissions.

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Decisions, decisions: Carsharing, Biking, or Transit?

Our Honda Fit got us to Richmond in about 25 minutes

When you're going out for the day, how do you decide how to get there? We have quite a few options for getting around, including biking with our own bikes, bike share, walking, transit, carshare, & car rental. The vast majority of the time we just hop on the cargo bike--that's how we take the kids to school, to appointments, to playdates. It's how we get groceries & run errands. But when we're going places outside our neighbourhood, I usually think about how to get there a bit more.

Almost showtime!

I thought I'd share with you how I decide which mode to use when I'm planning a day out like we did today.

My decision-making process for a recent outing went something like this:

Getting a kitty painted on her arm

1. Google Map the location: Silver City in Richmond, then the Pacific Autism Family Network.
2. Compare the directions for cycling, driving , & transit: cycling would take about two & a half hours round trip, driving would be about an hour, transit would be almost three hours.
3. Estimate the costs of each method of travel: free, $45, $18.90. 
4. Cycling comes out as the winner for cost, though it takes twice as long as driving. So next I'd look at the route, hilliness, what cycling infrastructure there would be, if any. Richmond is pretty flat, but getting home again up & over Vancouver is a bit of a slog with a cargo bike full of kids. As for bike infra, there wasn't really a great route all the way there. I've biked to the Pacific Autism Family Network before & it's really not great getting on & off Sea Island.
5. What is parking like? Are there bike racks near the building we're going to? In this case, yes for PAFN & not sure for Silver City. Is it a high bike theft area? I wasn't too concerned with this for our outing to Richmond, but a number of places in Vancouver are fairly risky, so I'd be more likely to use bike share or another mode, rather than our own bikes. 
6. Next question is will we need to bring much stuff with us? We didn't need a lot of gear for a movie & lunch, but we did come home with a few prizes from the event. Not something that would preclude cycling or transit though.
7. Last question would be how much do we want to walk? My hip is currently sore & the weather forecast was for fairly warm, so I wasn't keen on walking far. Transit would involve the most walking, Modo would mean walking a couple blocks to & from the car to pick up & drop off. Biking would be the least walking.

Heading home with way too much candy & a short-lived balloon animal

So for this trip, as you've already seen from the photos, I decided to book a Modo for our trip. Since I wasn't sure when exactly we'd be heading home, I just made it an Open Return booking so we didn't have to worry about getting back by a specific time. The kids really enjoyed the movie, the treats & the games at PAFN & we were able to get home quickly in the comfort of an air-conditioned car on a warm, sunny day. 

Disclaimer: As a Modo Blogger Ambassador, I receive driving credits in return for posting about carsharing with Modo Car Cooperative. 

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3 Reasons I Love Modo (speech from the HUB Cycling Bike Awards)

Modo gave me the opportunity to speak again as one of their Blogger Ambassadors at the annual HUB Bike Awards on February 28. It's always funny to go on stage to talk about driving at a cycling event, but stay with me here--cycling is actually relevant to Modo in my experience. Here's the text of my speech at the event, plus the images from my slides, in case you missed it.

I've got just three minutes, so I made a quick listicle for you. 

Three things I love about Modo:

In January, I decided to total up our transportation costs for last year, including travel. Our biggest category, unsurprisingly, was biking: repairs, then Modo car sharing, a few Ferries, some Poparide ride sharing, plus a little Transit. The total came to: $3520. 

(note: if you read my post on the costs of living as a #carfreefamily a while back, I included the cost of a new bike for Linnaeus in the total of $3820, but I decided to remove that, since we'd likely have bought him a bike even if we mainly used two cars to get around)

For comparison sake, if we'd done the majority of that by car, we'd have needed to own two. Based on the average in BC, that would have cost us about $19,000 last year. !! Since we spend well under $4000 on getting around, that's a savings of over $15,000!

I know a lot of Modo's messaging is about how fun it is, how much money we save, how we have access to all different types of vehicles, & how easy it is to book... This is all true. But part of what I love about Modo is the *inconvenience* of carsharing. Because, let's face it, I am a little lazy. I want to get there in the fastest, easiest way possible. Which, if I had a car sitting out front of my home, would often be driving. Because I *don't* own a car, I have to take a few extra steps to book a car, then walk a couple blocks to go get it. Plus, if you have children, installing the car seats. Compared to this, riding my cargo bike out of the garage is more convenient. So my driving is a lot more intentional. Using Modo & not owning a car makes me less likely to drive & much more likely to bike.

The latest new thing for Modo members is here: Open Return! Open Return is a new booking option that allows you to reserve a car for a full 24 hours, & return it whenever you want within that time. Once you park the car & fob out, you go to the Modo app & end your booking manually, paying for just the time that you used, plus a $3 fee.

As I mentioned, we mainly bike to get around, but when we do drive, now we book with Open Return. It's hard to predict in advance how the day is going to go when we're out & about with the kids. Using Open Return means if they get tired we can come home early & save a bit on our booking. Then the car is available for another member to use. Or we can stay out later & not have to worry about rushing home because someone else has the car booked right after us. No need to worry about getting stuck in traffic. & we can squeeze in one more errand on the way home.

IF you haven't joined Modo yet, use the code HUBAWARDS2019 to save $50 on drive time when you join! For more about open return, check out Modo's website. Members, if you haven't already, try Open Return on your next booking! 

If you'd like to see how we live as a #carfreefamily, you can follow me on instagram, my handle is SPOKESMAMA. Thank you.

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Save $50 on Drive Time with Modo Car Sharing

A perk for my Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island, & Okanagan readers: if you are interested in signing up for Modo to start carsharing, you can save $50! 

Picking up the colourful Modo cargo van at Olympic Village Station

Modo is your only local member-owned carshare service with over 700+ cars, SUVs, trucks & hybrids. Carsharing with Modo starts at $5/hour with vehicles located in North Vancouver, UBC, Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, Victoria, Esquimalt, Oak Bay, Saanich, Sidney, Squamish, the Sunshine Coast, Nanaimo & Kelowna. Modo also has vehicles at Tsawwassen, Swartz Bay, Horseshoe Bay & Departure Bay ferry terminals!

In collaboration with Spokesmama, Modo is offering $50 in driving credit for Spokemama’s followers/blog readers. Use code SPOKESMAMA when signing up as a new Modo member. Promo expires two months after redemption. The credit applies to vehicle usage only. Learn more at modo.coop.

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#CarFreeFamily: How Much Does it Cost?

I love riding my bike & there are so many reasons why. I'm happier & healthier when I ride regularly. I feel more connected to my community & I've gotten to know my city so much better because of biking. But living in such an expensive city, the money we save from using our bikes as our main form of transportation is a big factor.

On Twitter recently, I came across this, which inspired me to open up a spreadsheet & tot up our transportation costs for the year too.

Transportation costs for #carfree family of 4 (all old enough to pay bus fare) in 2018- Bus fare, carshare, bike repair for 6 bikes (I don't do much maintenance or repair myself), parking and one new bike. In Ottawa, Canada where it is winter 18 months a year. $3375.

— bikeyknit (@BikeyKnit) January 8, 2019

After about an hour of logging into online banking, sifting through my email for Square receipts, checking each of our Compass card usage records, browsing Modo invoices, & calculating ferry fares, I came up with a good picture of our transportation costs for 2018.

Photo Credit: damiengabrielson.com Flickr via Compfight cc

Here's the summary for you:

Bike repairs, parts, & accessories: $1357
Modo car sharing: $1213
Car rental, insurance, gas: $400
New (used) bike for Linnaeus: $300
Ferries: $238
Poparide ride sharing: $207
Transit: $105

Total: $3820

This transportation includes the daily commutes to work & school (when I take transit or use carsharing to work it's paid for by my employer, so that isn't included in the above), all the errands & socializing, appointments, recreation, & whatever else we do around the city. It also includes three camping trips, three trips to the Okanagan to visit family, plus a road trip to Seattle & Portland during Spring break.

*Womp womp* flat tire #2 on the bakfiets

The bike repairs & parts total was higher than I expected, but this is for four different bikes, including paying to get flats fixed four times. I will sometimes fix my own flats, but it just isn't practical a lot of the time. When I'm on the road with the kids, I can't really keep them safe while concentrating on changing a flat. Our cargo bikes are a bit more complicated than a regular bike when it comes to flat fixes. With the bakfiets, we have a dynamo hub & disc brakes on the front, roller brakes & an internal gear hub on the back. If I can just pull the tube out & patch it, it wouldn't be too bad, but we usually need to replace the tube, which means half disassembling the bike.

We spent less than I thought we had on transit--this total represents an average of one round trip each per month. Our Modo bills are a little higher than previous years because used car sharing for two of the road trips, but we spent less on car rentals because of this. Overall, I think we spent less on car travel than previous years, & less than half what we spent per year than we did when we owned a car from 2006-2008.

It's hard to say exactly what our costs would be if we owned a vehicle. The average vehicle in BC costs $9,500 per year, according to CAA, but we tend to drive less than the average family. I used the CAA car cost calculator, assumed we owned something like the Honda Fit that we often drive from the Modo fleet. Looks like we'd be spending around $5000 annually in payments, gas, maintenance, insurance, parking, etc. However, owning one car wouldn't cover all our transportation needs. I assume we'd still make at least some trips by bike & transit, plus the occasional Modo booking to use larger vehicles or when we need a second car. My guess is we're saving $3000-4000 per year by not owning a car.

Have you ever sat down & calculated every cent of your transportation costs for the year? I highly recommend it--you may be surprised at what you find!

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Be Green & Save Some Green on Electric Vehicle Modo Bookings

With a folding bike, there are literally DOZENS of Modo vehicles within 10 minutes of home

Confession time: I've been a Modo member for over 15 years now, but I've never actually tried one of the plug-in electric vehicles in the fleet. I've driven hybrids over the years & a vast array of the gas-powered vehicles in the Modo fleet, but never an actual, proper EV. So when I heard that I can save 10% on booking Modo electric vehicles (EVs) until end of this year (December 31), I figured it was as good a time as any!

The kids are excited to try out an EV for the first time

I popped over to the Modo website & searched for EVs using the 'required features' filter. The City Hall Nissan Leaf was available--perfect--it's an 8-minute bike ride from home. We booked the car to go to our family's Thanksgiving gathering at a restaurant in Burnaby. Not impossible to bus or bike to, but a lot faster & more comfortable in a car, plus we could run a (heavy) errand on our way home.

In a flurry of getting all four of us dressed & presentable, I forgot to do any research on the car. After a decade & a half of driving literally dozens of different types of cars, I'm pretty comfortable with the quirks of each vehicle, like which side the gas flap is on, where the emergency brake is, how to get the trunk/back hatch open or if it needs to be manually unlocked, etc.

Family selfie time! 

When I arrived at the Leaf on my Brompton, I quickly fobbed into the car, folded up my bike & stashed it in the back. Next, to unplug the car. I pushed the button on the beefy EV plug & stuck it back into the charging station. The charging hatch latches closed automatically... but I wasn't sure how I'd get it open again. Decided to deal with that later.

I hopped into the car & yep, it still throws me off that there's no key, but a button to turn the car on. After poking that a few times & fiddling with what I realized was the e-brake in the console, I double checked the display on the dash to make sure the e-brake was off (it was) & the little nub of a "gear shifter" had me in drive mode (it did). I headed back to the house to load up the booster seats & children.

Lots of space for toting large, festive vegetables around!

Driving a hybrid is an experience the first time--the vehicle seems so quiet as you're leaving the parking space, but it still feels more like a regular fossil-fuel-burning car than an EV. With the Leaf, it took me most of the drive home to get used to the silent gliding feeling. Driving this EV reminded me of one of the things I love most about biking at night or in quiet trails. The silence, that feeling of slipping unnoticed through your environment. Driving the Leaf was the closest I've come to that feeling in a car.

When I got home & the kids came out of the house to see which Modo we were driving that day, they were impressed that it was all electric. After setting up their booster seats, we realized the back of the car is actually roomier than you'd expect for a family of four.

One thing of note about this Leaf, which is a 2011, is that it has a relatively small range. When I started the car, it showed a 99km, which was more than enough, as we were only going about 30km.  However, the range started dropping fairly fast as we were driving through the city & read 55km at one point. It does go back up a little from regenerative braking, but we seemed to be using battery capacity at faster than the distance we were actually driving.

Plugging in an EV is easier than getting gas!

After our dinner we headed to pick up some pumpkins for Halloween, then home. The little Leaf is super easy to park. Once we unloaded the children, pumpkins, & booster seats at home, I headed off with my Brompton to return the car. When I arrived at the parking spot, I pulled open the car details on the Modo app & took a look at this blog post for details on getting the charger flap open, using the charging account card (logically, this is stored where the gas card usually is). It took me maybe three minutes to sort it all out.

If you want to be more organized than I was & read up on some tips to using a Modo EV before you arrive at the vehicle, check out this video, or the aforementioned blog post.

Overall, I liked driving the Leaf & I'd be interested to try out one of the other EVs in the Modo fleet too, like the Prius at the Vancouver School Board location. By the way, Victoria & Kelowna also have EVs, a Kia Soul & another Leaf. All of them are 10% off until December 31. Check them out & save some green!

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