POLL: How Much Does Your Commute Cost?

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I was just doing some thinking about how much it costs me to get to work every week, with the rising gas prices and all. I have a 42 mile drive to work each way, so in a typical 5 day work week, that's a total of 420 miles spent on the road. My car gets approximately 30 miles to a gallon on the highway, so that's about 14 gallons of gas, as nearly all of the 42 miles are highway (maybe 3-4 miles non-highway). Looking out the window at the closest gas station, I notice that gas prices are $1.87 per gallon, so I'm spending approximately $26 per week on gas. I checked the daily exchange rate, and that works out to nearly exactly 20 Euros.

Basically what I concluded is that I'm really not spending THAT much on gas. Given a 40 hour work week, I only work for a little over 1 hour to pay for my gas for the week, and that's not all that bad. I had assumed that gas was eating up 5%-7% of my salary, when really, it's more like 3%. In fact, the thing I find most troubling is that I put about 21,000 miles per year on my car just going back and forth to work.

So what about you? Keep in mind I'm asking for all expenses, so if you have to pay tolls, that counts. If you don't drive, but use public transportation or some form of mass transit, that counts. And we'll do it for a week, not a single day, as some people work more days or fewer days than the standard 5 day work week.

Feel free to provide comments in addition to voting.

EDIT: Also, if you feel like it, estimate what percentage of your total salary pays your commute costs. Like I said, for me it's about 3%.

[ July 19, 2004, 19:31: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 24 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: How Much Does Your Commute Cost? (24 votes.)

How Much Does Your Commute Cost (Weekly)? (Choose 1)
* Nothing - I walk, ride a bike, etc. - 33% (8)
* Less than 5 Euros (about $7 U.S.) - 8% (2)
* 5 - 10 Euros (about $7 - $13 U.S.) - 33% (8)
* 10 - 20 Euros (about $13 - $26 U.S.) - 4% (1)
* 20 - 40 Euros (about $26 - $52 U.S.) - 17% (4)
* More than 40 Euros (about $52 U.S.) - 4% (1)

 

My memory of this may be faulty, but when I commuted to London for my work experience last summer it cost me about £120 for two weeks. Rarely even got a seat on the damn train.

That's a 50 minute train journey followed by 20 minutes on the underground. I hated it.

 

Oh my that's a lot Alavin! You either make a great salary, or your spending a considerable amount of it on commuting costs!

 

$60 per week, roughly. It was about $50 per week a year ago, but since they've increased the tollway fees and gas prices have been rather salty.

 

I'm not actually out of school yet - that was just my Work Experience. Fortunately, the company I was working for (very) kindly paid my travel costs.

 

Up here in Ottawa, a monthly bus pass costs $63 (about $48 US). It boils down to roughly $11 US for 3.5 hours of commute per week.

 

My monthly train pass is $163. Parking is free, for now, but likely to go up to $1 per day. I drive about 3 miles each way to the station and my car gets about 18.5 mpg on the average; when I filled up over the weekend, gas was $2.20/gal.

You do the math. Considering impact on insurance rates and downtown parking prices, it's a bargain. If I didn't have to pick up my son immediately after work, I'd be cycling to the train.

 

When I am in school I pay around 100€ a month for a trainpass. Only six months to go!

 

I can see my work address from my apartment. It costs me nothing, only 30 seconds walk.

 

My fuel costs are around $15.30 Canadian /week for my commute which would be around 9.4 Euros at current exchange rates. This amounts to less than 1% of my salary.

I am currently driving a VW Jetta diesel so I pay less per litre and get greater fuel economy compared to gasoline. If I were to go back to a normal car the weekly cost would nearly double.

Of course that completely ignores any share of insurance, maintenance, license fees etc. Also, my employer pays my parking which would otherwise be another $6/Canadian per day.

 

I always like to move within walking distance of where I work. If that isnt possible, a (very) short bus-ride.

 

About $5 American for a return although I bus in and ferry out.

 

Nothing I ride my bike to work, takes about 10min and I used to bike to school.

 

I spend NZ$30 per week for a half hour bus ride each way. That's about US$20. I find that this is much cheaper than if I drove each day plus it means I can read a book while I travel.

 

Just started working, so I haven't figured it out yet. But I guess I can beat most of you, cause gasoline in Norway costs about 5,30 USD/gallon (1,4 USD/litre). Diesel costs about 1,2-1,3 USD/litre. And we're one of the biggest oil nations in the world .

 

About $/e 8 monthly.

 

I live about 7km from work and when I worked it out, it costs me about $5 or 3 EURO a week. Even a minimum wage it is only about 35min of work.

Cool. I make enough money in transportation during my lunch break.

 

Unless my paper run counts, I don't work so I probably don't count, but I walk everywhere anyway. As for my paper run, the paper's get dropped off at my house so I'm basically at work when I wake up.

 

I spend about $10 a week getting to and from work, since I only live about 5 miles away from my workplace.

 

That with the reduced costs is exactly why I take public transport too. Why spend an hour a day concentrating on something that isn't going to assist you, getting angry at the traffic and risking damage done to your car when you could relax and read a book?