How many miles a year do you drive?

[dez1978]

retired

interesting-our small district (about 500 k-12 in total) has the least snow days called of any district in our region despite dealing with all the gravel or bare dirt roads. we attribute it to them almost exclusivly employing local farmers as bus drivers-they are capable of safely driving in the worst of conditions. when my kids were school age they would GROAN when they heard all the other districts announced on the news as having snow days but almost never ours. those complaints were forgotten though when they routinely ended their school year up to 3 weeks earlier than the other districts

We now just do virtual learning on snow days. Takes an hour, counts as a school day, and guaranteed to be out of school the 3rd week of may. It's like the one good thing that happened after Covid lol

 

[barkley]

We now just do virtual learning on snow days. Takes an hour, counts as a school day, and guaranteed to be out of school the 3rd week of may. It's like the one good thing that happened after Covid lol

covid was a major wake up call for how poorly connected some areas in our neck of the woods are. the educational powers that be just assumed everyone at least had internet access available to them so while it might be an issue of providing funds for those households that could not afford it they did not consider that rural areas might not have it at all and even if they do it's spotty, unreliable and if the snowfall is such that it's compromising the busses then there's a good chance internet is down. after almost a 2 year wait we finaly got starlink which has been amazing but there's still big swaths (and lots of little annoying spots) of the 300 square miles that our school district includes that have no coverage available in any form.

 

[dez1978]

You're probably right. Just filled out the form, I get one every year. Not sure how insurance companies verify mileage in states where they don't do that. We did have insurance reform here 20 years ago because people found they were being charged for a lot more miles than they actually drove.

I've seriously never heard of insurance even verifying or caring about mileage. Just age, type of car and driving record.

We have a smog check program here where when a car is 8 years old or older it gets an official inspection every other year, so they could also get mileage figures from an independent source that way. And many service facilities report mileage of cars they work on to CarFax, although my neighbor went to sell his car and found that a quick oil change place reported his odometer reading 50,000 miles higher than it was.

Now, they may be using Carfax info now that that is a thing, Idk. Here we have to get safety inspections every 2 years after the car is more than 10 years old or has more than 150K miles on it.

interesting-our small district (about 500 k-12 in total) has the least snow days called of any district in our region despite dealing with all the gravel or bare dirt roads. we attribute it to them almost exclusivly employing local farmers as bus drivers-they are capable of safely driving in the worst of conditions.

A few years ago, we had a weird storm. Like it was 60 at 8 am, and by 1pm roads were covered in ice. The schools didn't let out when they should have and thought they could wait until after whatever magic time counts as a full day. Lots of buses got stuck, parents freaked out, it was bad. Now they just call it. Sometimes even before it starts resulting in snow days with no snow lol. Part of the problem here is that the gravel roads aren't as well maintained as they could be. So when we get snow, they get mushy and muddy and the buses sink or get stuck in the mud. Or a couple of times this year, my kid has texted me that they had to stop to let someone off or for another vehicle, then the bus couldn't get up the hill.

 

[dez1978]

covid was a major wake up call for how poorly connected some areas in our neck of the woods are. the educational powers that be just assumed everyone at least had internet access available to them so while it might be an issue of providing funds for those households that could not afford it they did not consider that rural areas might not have it at all and even if they do it's spotty, unreliable and if the snowfall is such that it's compromising the busses then there's a good chance internet is down. after almost a 2 year wait we finaly got starlink which has been amazing but there's still big swaths (and lots of little annoying spots) of the 300 square miles that our school district includes that have no coverage available in any form.

We were lucky here that our electric co-op started an internet service a couple years prior to covid. It's fiber, buried in the ground so it's not affected much by weather. It was a huge improvement over the satellite provider we previously had. Before this, we had directv and satellite internet so when we had bad weather we were kind of screwed. Our house has horrible cell signal so we couldn't rely on that either. The service we have now is fantastic!

 

[tvguy]

I've seriously never heard of insurance even verifying or caring about mileage. Just age, type of car and driving record.

I seriously never heard of an insurance policy that didn't specify a mileage range you are rated at. Some who drives 30,000 miles is a higher risk for them than someone with an identical car, driving record and age that drives 3,000 miles. The difference in California is they are required by law to ask what your odometer reading is.

https://www.insure.com/car-insurance/mileage-and-car-insurance-rates/#:~:text=For the most part, insurance,that number of annual miles.

 

[TippyThomas]

I average about 3 to 4 thousand a year. I don't drive much at all.

 

[barkley]

We were lucky here that our electric co-op started an internet service a couple years prior to covid. It's fiber, buried in the ground so it's not affected much by weather. It was a huge improvement over the satellite provider we previously had. Before this, we had directv and satellite internet so when we had bad weather we were kind of screwed. Our house has horrible cell signal so we couldn't rely on that either. The service we have now is fantastic!

our electric co-op does just electricity. the one landline phone company that has internet is not putting any more money in our area and even if you get a landline won't sign anyone on for internet anymore-some neighbors made the mistake of canceling service when they thought their cell phones would work-signals so spotty/bad the tried within a couple weeks to recconect to no avail. we grow good solid rock here and it's just not worth the money for any provider to do fiber when it's a minimum of 10 acres between houses.

 

[hrhdhd]

I've seriously never heard of insurance even verifying or caring about mileage. Just age, type of car and driving record.

My DH has a work vehicle (insured by his company) and a personal vehicle, which is rated as a "pleasure" vehicle due to its low miles and because it's not driven on a daily commute. We pay less for it because it's not on the road very much.

ETA: They also ask for my commute miles and how many days a week I drive to work.

 

[John VN]

2018 Flex, about 4,000 miles a year. That's about 1,000 more a year than the Suburban that it replaced.
2020 Camry Hybrid, about 6,000 miles a year, which is about 1,500 miles a year LESS than the Mountaineer it replaced.
1965 Mustang, about 750 miles a year.

How many miles people drive a year can get political. Just depends where you live. I consider about 12,000 average since that is the point that my insurance starts charging a "high mileage" driver premium. I know some people consider 30,000 normal. I know some who drive 100,000 miles in a year. My mom never put more than 3,000 miles on a car when she was commuting just under 10 miles round trip to work, and 1,000 miles a year the 27 years she was retired.

Before retired, about 25,000 a year. Now retired, about 9-10,000.

Both retired with DW putting most of the 97,000 miles on her 2017 Cherokee Overland, her 2007 Taurus has 150,000 also mostly her miles put on before she got the Overland but now I use it less than 200 miles/year. My 2010 Miata has been a less than 1,000 miles/yr since I got it a couple of years ago.

I don't do much personal driving, it's mostly chauffeuring DW when we go out or when I need something that is too big/heavy for using one of my bicycles. This year so far 2,958.4 recorded miles bicycling. Managed a 51.15 mile ride yesterday.

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[leebee]

I think we are at just about 10K a year in our 2005 Honda CRV. We bought it from my mother-in-law's estate with very low mileage. Where we now live, DH and I work about a mile from our home, although we travel about 7 miles to grocery stores and such. Until last summer, DH's work was about 7 miles away, also. We use the CRV for road trips to southern Maine and Massachusetts, maybe once every other month, and if DD and I go for "A Drive" we often take the CRV as it has a CD player and we want to listen to old favorites as we cruise! We are fortunate that we live near work; I look at DD, who is a Home Health Social Worker and drives all over the place every day to see her clients. I love to drive, but it sure racks up the miles!

 

[Turn the Page]

I'm about 25,000 a year. My summer job is about 30 miles away from my house so if I'm driving directly from my door to work it isn't too bad. If I'm driving kids all over the county to various child care situations, school, and activities and such it adds up really quick. My winter job is much closer to my house but in the opposite direction from the school so I don't drive quite as much in the winter but still a lot.

DH drives around 10,000 a year. He generally drives from home to work 5 miles away and back.

 

[goofyernmost]

As far as my personal vehicle before I retired it averaged about 20K on my personal vehicle. However, I was a city bus driver during that time as well and I would guess that was probably close to 100K per year. Now in retirement I still manage about 8.6K over the last 5 years. Of all the things I dread about aging it is the day that I have to turn over my car keys because I can no longer trust myself to drive safely. My desire to drive far outweighs my fear of dying.

 

[ronandannette]

IDK precisely, but my car is a mileage-limited lease so I don’t put more than 15K a year on it. We almost always take DH’s for long road trips of 1K or more distance.

 

[dez1978]

Both retired with DW putting most of the 97,000 miles on her 2017 Cherokee Overland, her 2007 Taurus has 150,000 also mostly her miles put on before she got the Overland but now I use it less than 200 miles/year. My 2010 Miata has been a less than 1,000 miles/yr since I got it a couple of years ago.

I don't do much personal driving, it's mostly chauffeuring DW when we go out or when I need something that is too big/heavy for using one of my bicycles. This year so far 2,958.4 recorded miles bicycling. Managed a 51.15 mile ride yesterday.

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I'd have to put my bicycle in my car and drive about 10 miles to get somewhere it would be safe to ride it lol. I'm in the country and our roads don't generally have shoulders to ride on and even the paved roads are pretty hilly and curvy, so I would not want to ride on them out of fear that someone, even driving the speed limit, would come around a corner and not see me in time to react.

I'm about 25,000 a year. My summer job is about 30 miles away from my house so if I'm driving directly from my door to work it isn't too bad. If I'm driving kids all over the county to various child care situations, school, and activities and such it adds up really quick. My winter job is much closer to my house but in the opposite direction from the school so I don't drive quite as much in the winter but still a lot.

DH drives around 10,000 a year. He generally drives from home to work 5 miles away and back.

These dang kids really do rack up the miles don't they? Mine ride the bus to school, but it's all the driving to take them to/pick them up from practices and all over the state for games or tournaments. And currently, they are playing flag football in a town about 45 mins away, and of course they couldn't have practices on the same nights, so I am driving back and forth 4 nights a week there. Another downside of living in the country. The town that we are technically a part of (20K ish residents) doesn't have a ton of parks and rec stuff. Like they have flag football, but it's only in the fall and only through 3rd grade because most kids start tackle in 3rd here. The only rec sports right now are kickball and baseball and my kids don't really care for either of them. So in order to keep them active and give them something to do besides fortnite, we drive.

 

[ford family]

We are in the UK and average about 3,000 miles a year.
We are retired and spend three or four months each year abroad.
For a lot of local journeys we use public transport (bus) which is quick and reliable and free to pensioners.

ford family

 

[Turn the Page]

These dang kids really do rack up the miles don't they? Mine ride the bus to school, but it's all the driving to take them to/pick them up from practices and all over the state for games or tournaments. And currently, they are playing flag football in a town about 45 mins away, and of course they couldn't have practices on the same nights, so I am driving back and forth 4 nights a week there. Another downside of living in the country. The town that we are technically a part of (20K ish residents) doesn't have a ton of parks and rec stuff. Like they have flag football, but it's only in the fall and only through 3rd grade because most kids start tackle in 3rd here. The only rec sports right now are kickball and baseball and my kids don't really care for either of them. So in order to keep them active and give them something to do besides fortnite, we drdrive.

We live just beyond the border of our school district so they could ride the bus but I would have to get them up earlier and still load them in the car to drive them to a bus stop that is actually in the opposite direction of their school which just seemed.....stupid. So I drive them. Although, fighting the traffice and school pick up and drop off is about to drive me 'round the bend and may have me reconsidering that stance soon.

 

[dez1978]

We are in the UK and average about 3,000 miles a year.
We are retired and spend three or four months each year abroad.
For a lot of local journeys we use public transport (bus) which is quick and reliable and free to pensioners.

ford family

Now that makes sense to me. We have states that are bigger than the UK lol. I was watching a tiktok of a guy from the UK who has been in the US for a few months and he makes videos about the things he finds crazy in the US. One of them was about how large the US is and that he could drive from the farthest ends of the UK in less time than it takes to drive across a couple states here. Another one was about how people from the UK travel to other countries so much more frequently than we do and then he realized how long it takes just for us to get to another state.

 

[tvguy]

These dang kids really do rack up the miles don't they? Mine ride the bus to school, but it's all the driving to take them to/pick them up from practices and all over the state for games or tournaments. And currently, they are playing flag football in a town about 45 mins away, and of course they couldn't have practices on the same nights, so I am driving back and forth 4 nights a week there. Another downside of living in the country.

They went to open enrollment in the public schools here about 25 years ago, and bus service went away then. Few students go to their neighborhood school, so coming up with bus routes was impossible. Only Special Needs students get bus service, since it is required under Federal law. So driving is the only option, whether it be a parent, a car pool or the child driving themselves. My kids started driving themselves the day after they got their licenses.

 

[tvguy]

Now that makes sense to me. We have states that are bigger than the UK lol. I was watching a tiktok of a guy from the UK who has been in the US for a few months and he makes videos about the things he finds crazy in the US. One of them was about how large the US is and that he could drive from the farthest ends of the UK in less time than it takes to drive across a couple states here. Another one was about how people from the UK travel to other countries so much more frequently than we do and then he realized how long it takes just for us to get to another state.

800 miles from the north border of California to the south border.

 

[Turn the Page]

Now that makes sense to me. We have states that are bigger than the UK lol. I was watching a tiktok of a guy from the UK who has been in the US for a few months and he makes videos about the things he finds crazy in the US. One of them was about how large the US is and that he could drive from the farthest ends of the UK in less time than it takes to drive across a couple states here. Another one was about how people from the UK travel to other countries so much more frequently than we do and then he realized how long it takes just for us to get to another state.

We were on a Mediterranean cruise a few years back and made friends with a lovely Scottish couple. At one point the man was talking about how they vacationed in Wales once and it was lovely but how long it took to get there from their home in the Borderlands. I was curious and asked how far it was and he said "well, if she had booked a hotel right over the border it would have been like 3 hours but she book a hotel all the way at the other end of Wales and it took 5 hours to get there!!!!!"

It takes us 5 hours to get to our major hub airport.