Compare rideshare and owning a car.
Owning a car is almost entirely a fixed cost, which is the key to this comparison. Payment or depreciation, insurance and parking accrue whether you drive or not, so a car sitting on the street still costs 590 dollars a month in this example before a mile is driven. Rideshare is purely variable. The break-even is total monthly ownership cost divided by the average fare — here about 48 rides a month, or roughly 11 a week. Anyone taking fewer than that is paying for capacity they are not using. What the arithmetic omits is optionality: spontaneous trips, luggage, and the journeys you simply would not make without a car.
Rideshare vs Own Car Cost
Rideshare = trips x average fare; ownership = payment + insurance + fuel and maintenance + parking; break-even rides = ownership cost / average fare
Divide your total monthly ownership cost by your average fare. For most urban households the answer is 40-60 rides, which is a lot — which is why car-free living works in dense cities.
Yes, if you own outright. Use the annual value lost divided by twelve; ignoring it makes an owned car look almost free, which is the most common error in this comparison.