I found one way to avoid all the costs, the taxes, the service times, the accidents and that annoying kid who always scratches your doors with a key: Don't buy a car.
Then I'm either paying for (and waiting for) taxis a minimum of two times a day, or making my 15 minute commute into an hour or an hour and a half commute on public transportation (depending on the exact time of day).
By not owning a car, I'd avoid certain costs and inconveniences by opting for certain other larger costs and inconveniences. If I lived somewhere where it was actually feasible to ditch the personal vehicle, I would've considered it by now.
Have you followed the news surrounding the DC Metro? The system has so much deferred maintenance that stuff randomly catches on fire. They have to shut down huge swaths of track for weeks at a time for major service. Even when all runs well, it's overcrowded, overpriced, and rife with major delays.
My wife tried to use Metro to get to work. She literally couldn't, as it wasn't reliable enough to make client meetings. So, she drove.
