Impacts of COVID_19 on Transportation and Planning

Congratulations! You’ve made it this far in the Covid- 19 social storm. We need to give ourselves credit for this accomplishment because some of us experienced some losses like a job, cars, or even a lifestyle you practiced. I’ve done my best to focus on a better relationship with myself, get better at budgeting and planning, as well as being more resourceful. As a curious person who enjoys writing and researching, online gaming, and figuring out how the numbers reflect the social environment, I had to share this useful tool and important information I found.

Covid-19 destroyed our employee economy. I read in this Bloomberg article that wages have been rising, but not enough to offset the inflation we’re experiencing. I started thinking about the slow recovery as a working economy, with a 61.8% workforce participation rate and wondered: How is the transportation industry fairing through all of this? What are people doing to save money and plan?

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With car manufacturing, there was a huge dip in production April of 2020. Looking at the database St. Louis Fed, there was an uptick in June 2020, another dip in September 2021, and some increase in 2022. So if people aren’t really buying cars, are they using public transportation to get around? You’ll see in this Northeastern University article a decrease in public transportation use. So then I began to think, if we are experiencing record breaking fuel prices how are people coping? GasBuddy shows prices over the last 10 years and a big drop from 2013- 2020 at about $3 a gallon, but the increase in 2022 has us paying up to $5 or more!

People in my community and all over the country are looking to keep track of MPG, fuel budget, and monthly or biweekly loan payments, and there is a lot of headache involved with it. In my search for an easier way, I started using Carpaymentcalulator.net to see how the numbers fall for my family.

This is the swiss army knife of online calculators, and a good resource for consumers like me who need help planning. Right now I’m planning on what type of car to buy. Is an electric car going to save me more money than a gas guzzler? Should I buy a new car or pre-owned? An electric car would give me a tax break, but MotorBiscuit shows there is more planning required for charging on trips, pricing is inconsistent, and there’s no predictability with brands or apps at charging ports.

People I know are asking themselves if they should keep the car they have or transition to a smarter choice. I just keep sending them to Carpaymentcalulator.net to plan out their next move.

This may be too much information but one of my friends pointed out there was an arcade on the site where you can play games! I love hidden games like the Google Dinosaur game. Sometimes the little things like this help me decompress after navigating this social storm as a 24 year-old. So, I hope you know you’re not alone in this social storm, we are surviving this together and coping the best we can!