I am very fortunate to have pretty short commute to work, a little less than 3 miles each way. I basically live and work in the suburbs, although I am just a few miles outside of the city limits. This allows me to get to work and back in about 10 minutes each way, sometimes less depending on the traffic. But with all of the talk about “gas guzzlers”, and trucks and SUV’s being part of the “oil crisis” problem in this country, I got to thinking about whether these big vehicles with relatively poor gas mileage are the biggest part of the problem, or does the length of a person’s commute have something to do with it? In a lot of cities, it is pretty common to have a round trip commute of 50-60 miles (25 to 30 miles each way).
So how does lower fuel efficiency compare to the distance we drive?
If I drive 6 miles a day at 20 mpg and someone else drives 60 miles at 40mpg, what is the fuel and cost comparison? Using my commute as an example, compared to a longer commute.
6 miles/20MPG = 0.3 gallons x $4/gal = $1.20
60 miles/40 MPG = 1.5 gallons x $4/gal = $6.00
So someone who lives 30 miles away burns 5 x as much gas as I would, even if their car gets twice as many miles per gallon.
So should someone who chooses to drive a gas guzzler but only uses 1/3 of a gallon a day be blamed and vilified as part of the problem, when someone else in their fuel efficient car uses 5 times as much gas a day?
It is definitely something to think about. Life is about choices. One person may choose to live in the suburbs, someone else may choose to live in the city. You have certain reasons that you might hold as important for doing so, such as cost of living, better schools, etc. Someone else may like to live close to work so they don’t spend 2 hours a day driving. Sometimes it is about money, sometimes not. But I definitely think that the suburbanization of America is probably at least as responsible for our addiction to gas an oil in this country, and our subsequent problems.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Sean 08.01.08 at 8:26 am
True, gallons are gallons. What makes this tricky (for me) is when a job is in the suburbs, but even living in the suburbs, the commute is almost as long as city-to-burbs.
Double 08.01.08 at 11:57 pm
Using your analysis it would also be better to have a vehicle with good gas mileage for short and long trips to work. Since the oil crisis in the 70’s fuel efficiency should always have been a priority, instead we have using oil like drunken sailors.
RC 08.02.08 at 7:38 am
Sean- that is true too. I am lucky my employer is so close by- I certainly did not plan it that way, but I have tried to stay close since i started working.
RC 08.02.08 at 7:42 am
Double-
Good point. I did not mean to imply that fuel efficiency should be neglected- Only that the suburbanization of the U.S., and the subsequent distances some of us drive to work has a lot to do with our consumption as well. You are right -fuel efficiency dropped off the map from the 80’s to the early 2000’s, and we are paying for it now as a country.