Actually I've just made the calculation. Santos-São Paulo is in fact 90 miles round trip (not 70 as I said, because the road winds and turns through the mountains). 90 miles * 8 liters/100 miles * 2.9 R$/liter * 5 days = 104 R$ (US$44) per week, or about 5,100 R$ (US$2,150) per year assuming 3 weeks off work. I wonder how many people can afford that. Especially considering that people in Santos are not that rich (lots of blue collars).
If we factor in congestion and assume a gas consumption of 11 liters/100 miles due to traffic jams, then that would be 7,200 R$ (US$3,050) per year for our worker from Santos commuting to São Paulo. To that we would of course have to add the cost of buying a car in the first place (cars are very expensive in Brazil, much more than in the US), plus the various repair costs at the mechanics (and here again I believe mechanics cost much more in Brazil than in the US). Don't forget that in the US, not only the motorization rate is much higher than in Brazil, but gas is also cheap, and going to the mechanics is cheap.
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New Axa – New Brisavoine
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