Vocations · Professional Development · Job offers

The part of the
paycheck that
goes to the drive.

Type the trip, the car and what parking costs. The calculator shows what the commute takes out of a year in dollars and in hours, and sets it against the bus or train if there is one.

Cost my commuteWhat you get

The commute calculator

The worked example is made up: an 18-mile drive five days a week with $6 parking, against a $110 monthly bus pass. Nothing you type leaves this browser.

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What you get

Vocations · Professional DevelopmentFree

What you finish with
What your commute costs by car a workday and a year (fuel, other driving costs, parking and tolls), the miles and the hours, and the same for a transit pass. It prints as a one-page summary and downloads as a spreadsheet, useful when you compare two job offers or two apartments.
Who it is for
Students weighing a first job or internship, adults comparing job offers or places to live, families, and teachers of career and personal finance classes.
Format
Browser calculator for a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a summary; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); export and import a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Professional Development space in Caveat Vocations.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Type the one-way miles and minutes, and how many days and weeks you make the trip.
  2. Type your car’s miles per gallon and the fuel price; add wear per mile and daily parking or tolls if you have them.
  3. Add a monthly transit pass and its travel time if there is one.
  4. Read the yearly cost and hours, and the car-versus-transit table.
  5. Print the summary or download the spreadsheet to compare offers.

Cost my commute

How the cost is worked out

Miles first, then everything that scales with them.

The worked example, one year1 · Miles8,64018 × 2 × 5 × 482 · Gallons298÷ 29 miles per gallon3 · Fuel$1,013× $3.40 a gallon4 · Wear$864× $0.10 a mile5 · Parking$1,440$6 × 240 daysTotal$3,317$13.82 a workdayOne year of the exampleMiles8,64018 × 2 × 240Fuel$1,013÷ 29 × $3.40Wear$864× $0.10 a mileParking$1,440$6 × 240 daysTotal a year$3,317$13.82 a workday
The example’s 18-mile commute, five days a week for 48 weeks, is 8,640 miles a year and costs $3,317 by car.

The arithmetic

Miles a year are the one-way miles times two, times workdays a week, times weeks a year. Fuel is miles divided by miles per gallon, times the price. Other driving costs are miles times your cost per mile. Parking and tolls are the daily amount times workdays. Hours are the one-way minutes times two times workdays, divided by 60. The transit pass counts for twelve months.

What is left out, and why it matters

Insurance, registration and the car payment usually stay the same whether you commute or not, so they are left out unless you add them to the per-mile figure. Time matters too: the example’s 64 minutes a day add up to 256 hours a year. Commuting between home and a regular workplace is a personal cost under federal tax rules, but many employers offer pre-tax transit and parking benefits.

Sources

  1. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 463, Travel, Gift, and Car Expenses: commuting between home and a regular workplace is a personal expense.
  2. Internal Revenue Service, Publication 15-B, Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits: qualified transportation benefits (transit passes and parking) and the monthly limit set each year.
  3. U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, fueleconomy.gov: a car’s rated miles per gallon and fuel cost estimates.
  4. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update (eia.gov): weekly average fuel prices by region.

The worked example is made up, including the fuel price and wear cost. This page does arithmetic on your own figures. Your figures stay in this browser. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.