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Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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Posted by marys1000 (My Page) on Sat, Jul 5, 08 at 17:51
| Ok - this may be a totally stupid question but I read an article about how these drivers that drive slow, start slow and stop slow were causing traffic problems and some say not really saving on gas though others claim they have upped their mileage significantly. Which got me thinking, because I keep ending up looking at houses that are either close mileage wise but take just as long in commute time as houses farther away.
If you were looking at buying a home, how do you figure which would cost you more in gas
a house that was say, 10 miles away but 25 minutes on a variety of back roads
or
a house that was 25 miles away but also 25 minutes
How is this figured? Or is it even dumb to wonder? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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| The farther the car has to go, the more gas it needs... but you also need to figure in idling time, which no one can do but you on any given day. |
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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| Well, that's basically the difference between "city miles" and "highway miles" in your car's mpg estimate. So, no it's not dumb to wonder. Obviously they're both estimates, and the "city miles" especially can probably vary a lot depending on specific traffic conditions, but it seems like a good starting point. My car, for example, gets about 29 highway and 21 city, so 25 miles at 29mpg would be .86 gallons, while 10 miles at 20 mpg would be 0.5 gallons. ymmv (both literally and figuratively) |
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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Thanks Quirk! Seems like trying to stay closer is still the better deal gas wise. Of course what I'm looking for is both harder to find and more expensive closer in. I suppose I could buy a lot of gas with 20,000 but not wasting gas is a factor too.
Actually time is or at least is also supposed to be a huge factor for me but the way the roads are around here it seems like everything is at least 25 minutes. I feel like I live in the Bermuda Triangle or something. |
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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| Those driving more conservatively are causing "problems" because other drivers aren't driving conservatively. There's really little sense in racing to a stop light only to slam on the brakes. As Quirk pointed out it's just a simple calculation based on mileage. The most accurate answer will come from using the actual MPG of your car. |
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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| I know there's a difference in gas mileage when I drive conservatively. Well, my old car that I sold. I don't know about the new car. |
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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| I"m not sure where you're located, but I would count yourself lucky with a 25 minute commute. I have a 25 minute commute to work, about 10 miles on highways, most everyone i know is closer to the 40-1hr. If I worked in the city, it would be 1hr 15 probably door to door, which is fairly normal for my close town which is a total of 25 miles from the city. I guess what I'm saying, is 25 minutes isn't a big deal. However, if you think of it like this, the extra 20 miles a day will cost you about 1 gallon or 4 dollars a day, which works out to about 1K per year in commuting costs. |
RE: Commuting, gas mileage- actual miles vs. time taken ????
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| chrisk - You do have choices. My job/career would be totally different if I moved to one of the big cities. I made the choice a long time ago to stay in the smallest city/town I could and still have the same type of job, although not the best, most upwardly mobile, interesting job. In a smaller pond its harder to move up the chain. I could have gone to the big city, moved up the chain, had far more interesting work in my field, and retired to a small town with more retirement (I'm not retired yet but you get what I'm saying) but elected not to do that and traffic/commutes was one of the top 2 reasons. And I've had to move around some. I do not live in my home state like I wish I did. My new location 25 minutes is by far the longest commute I've ever had to contemplate. You can move, live in fly over country, or suck up the commute. |
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