How much do you really save by commuting?

I’ve always avoided commuting. In my current situation, I could save hundreds per month or so on rent by living about an hour away from work. I pay the extra hundreds to live ten minutes away – and I believe I save money this way. Here’s my logic.

My car gets about 20 miles to the gallon in town (that’s actually good, considering how much stop-and-start is involved). The MPG doesn’t improve by using freeways, which are even more congested than regular streets. And Los Angeles has insane traffic issues which cause such weirdness as a north-south 3 mile route (in the right part of town) taking about 10-15 minutes to drive, while a 3-mile east-west route to the same place could take 20-25 minutes.

So, with my current work route, I get about 20 miles to the gallon. As you know, the cost of gas has varied wildly for the past couple of years, but Californians always pay at least as much as any other state. On average, I’m going to guesstimate that gas has cost me on average about $3.35/gallon for the past 5 years. My car has only cost me about $314/year on average for maintenance – and that’s factoring in the $500 insurance deductible when someone broke into it. In total, I drive about 2,500 miles per year.

Each mile costs me:

$0.17 for gas
$0.13 for maintenance
TOTAL: $0.30 per mile

My current commute is a round-trip of 6 miles. When you take away my paid holidays, vacation time, and an average of how much sick time I actually use, I’m driving 1,360 miles a year for my job, at a cost of about $408: 6 (miles a day) x 5 (days a week) x 46 (weeks I actually drive to work).

If I move further out and my round-trip commute becomes 13 miles, my commute – in theory – costs $2,950 and my rent decreases by about $250 month. The deduction in rent is $3,000/year. But we’re not factoring in two very important things: that 13 miles, on a really conservative estimate, takes at least 60 minutes in the morning and probably more like 80 in the afternoon because of our legendary homicide inducing traffic congestion. I’m now spending 11.66 hours a week on my ass in a car, frustrated and not infrequently flinching when some fool nearly hits me, compared with 2.08 hours with my current commute – all to save $50. (And now you can see why I said the MPG wasn’t going to change in any L.A. rush hour scenario: 26 miles takes 140 minutes – an average of 5.38 mph, factoring in time spent not moving – and 6 miles takes 25 minutes – 4.16 mph. That’s pretty much a wash.)

That’s 9.58 hours every week I’m saving myself, at a cost of $50/year. That’s one of the best shopping bargains in my life! Seriously, that’s more than an extra work day every week!

Now, there are other completely valid reasons not to live near work. Sometimes it’s not where the good schools are for your kids, or there are people you want to be close to in another part of town. Or work’s in a nasty part of town. All these things are worthy of your consideration, and only you can decide what monetary value to attach to them. The purpose of this post is just to illustrate how savings on housing costs can be a false economy when you really break down what your commute costs you.

And yes, I did look into the possibility of public transportation saving me money on the commute, and this would still involve driving a good ways to the train station, taking a train that drops me off nowhere particularly near work, and then taking at least two buses. A local newscaster recently tried to demonstrate that you really could get around L.A. on public transportation at rush hour, and the experiment was a dismal failure.

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