This article compares the time required for one person to do all his/her traveling for a year by two different methods: walking and driving. The various numbers used are accurate for the author but will vary depending upon your income and where you live (in the author's case, this is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States). Also, these numbers are only valid for 2008.
Since the author only travels about 21 miles a week, the author's travel time is much less than average. Readers who travel a longer distance will find the time used by walking increased far more than the time used by driving. This is where bus-riding might be a good option, but that isn't covered in this article.
Using bicycles, skateboards, etc. isn't a good option. If cars were banned, riding a non-motorized skateboard (or something similar) would probably be the most time-effective option. As it is, automobile traffic renders the best form of travel impossible.
People need aerobic exercise to survive. Walking to get somewhere counts as aerobic exercise, though it's possible to get aerobic exercise faster by running. Driving, of course, is not any kind of exercise; even the snow shoveling doesn't count because it doesn't raise the heart rate high enough.
Runners may be able to get by with spending 2 hours per week exercising. For the author, running isn't too likely, so this article uses the full 260 hours of exercise.
The cost of survival includes rent, food, utilities, and any other "survival" expenses. It should not include travel expenses. Obviously, this value varies widely for different people in different areas.
Hourly wage is included for converting money into time. Money spent is representative of time spent working, so it can be included in the calculation in this manner. Since money and time can't be added directly, monetary amounts will be divided by the appropriate hourly wage to determine the amount of hours spent.
Investment income and so forth is ignored because it is relatively marginal in the author's case.
Taxes must be taken out of the hourly wage because taxes paid aren't available to spend. The author pays a combined 11.69% of Social Security + Medicare + state income tax + local income tax. Federal income tax isn't paid on the first $8,950 of annual income in 2008, but the rest of the author's income is taxed at 10%. For larger incomes, the taxes get even higher, but the author doesn't need to worry about making alot of money. :(
The annual cost of survival ($7,200) is all assumed to be in the low tax bracket. People will buy food rather than gasoline or shoes if they have to choose. That leaves the first $1,750 of travel expenses in the low tax bracket, with the rest in the high tax bracket.
The annual cost of owning a car is based on the AAA, which should provide one of the better estimates. The estimate is actually for a new car that you plan to own for 5 years (driving 15,000 miles each year), so the cost of the car itself is actually divided among 5 years. Used cars would cost less to purchase but more to maintain, so it probably works out about the same. This article uses the lowest number ($6,320), as the author would only need a small car.
Since the distance traveled in this article is far less than 15,000 miles per year, this article figures that it costs about 0.175 per mile (15,000 miles / 25 miles per gallon = 600 gallons, 600 gallons * $3.50 = $2,100) plus $4,220 per year for the cost of the car, insurance, etc. The AAA article lumps all this together.
At a speed limit of 25 mph with a few stop signs and a stop light, 5 minutes is a good estimate for a 1.75 mile trip (which is how far the author normally travels). Many drivers seem to drive about 10 mph above the speed limit, but this article assumes that the drivers are law abiding. Drivers that don't obey laws might save some time, but can expect to pay fines for traffic tickets.
In the winter, driving takes alot longer. Not only does the driving itself take longer, but starting the car early to warm it up and snow shoveling must be included as well. For 5-minute journeys, the extra labor required in winter dominates the travel time.
Maintenance Time is a guess. People who drive more will need more maintenance done. Maintenance includes both standard maintenance and repairs, but only covers time spent by the car owner, not money spent. Money spent should already be included in the AAA's estimate.
"Travel Time" for both driving and walking counts the time from when the traveler decides to leave his/her dwelling to when the traveler is actually inside their destination.
Costs of Walking may be a surprise to some people. This covers additional shoes, socks, winter clothing, and shipping costs. Although automobile drivers still buy shoes, socks, and winter clothing, they may not buy as much of it.
The reason pedestrians have extra shipping costs is because they will either have to order items on the Internet or walk to the store to buy them. Some may argue that it is cheaper to purchase items on the Internet and pay shipping than to buy them in stores, but this little fudge factor is included anyways. It would be wrong to assume that walking costs nothing.
It is possible that people who do more exercise eat more. However, the difference is probably marginal. If drivers really spent that much less on food, they wouldn't have be twice the size of pedestrians.
Holidays are ignored. The effect of holidays varies from person-to-person. The author doesn't go on vacation, but does have a few holidays off each year.
Leap days are ignored, but would be negligible in any case.
Only cost is addressed. Environmental and other factors aren't dealt with by this article.
Pedestrians must either live near a grocery store or have their groceries delivered. That begs the question of how pedestrians carry groceries home. The answer is: backpacks. Obviously, a pedestrian can't carry enough food to feed a family of 5 for a week in one trip. Food for one person is much less of a problem. If there are multiple pedestrians in one household, either multiple trips will be made, each pedestrian will carry his/her own food, or the food will simply have to be delivered.
Some may argue that drivers don't need to do 260 hours a year of walking for exercise. This is true. They will then have to pay for medical care to try to undo some of the damage, and they will still die sooner. This article simply assumes that people need exercise.
This article is more about people living alone in an apartment than about families or houseowners. Other situations would produce different results. For instance, someone living in an apartment probably has access to a laundry room, thus having no reason to need to transport a washer and dryer. Someone living in a house may need to transport a washer and dryer, but all their variables will be different anyways.
Travel time in the winter varies considerable. The values used are wild guesses based upon the average Pennsylvania winter. Practically all of the extra time is from when it snows. If it doesn't snow much one winter, the time will be less.
| Expense | Driving | Walking |
|---|---|---|
| Car | $4,220 | $0 |
| Cost of Miles traveled | $191.10 | $0 |
| Costs of Walking | $0 | $125 |
| Total | $4,028.90 | $125 |
Converting these dollar amounts to times based on hourly wage (after taxes) results in:
| Time (Hours) | Driving | Walking |
|---|---|---|
| After Low Taxes (first $1,750) | 255.7 | 18.26 |
| After High Taxes (after $1,750) | 332.98 | 0 |
| Total | 588.68 | 18.26 |
All times are rounded to 2 decimal places.
Converting money into time like this may seem like a strange thing to do, but the fact is that money is representative of time spent working. For the proletariat, "time is money."
Adding up the total time results in:
| Time (Hours) | Driving | Walking |
|---|---|---|
| Expenses (In Hours) | 588.68 | 18.26 |
| Travel Time (Summer) | 39 | 234 |
| Travel Time (Winter) | 26 | 91 |
| Additional Exercise | 260 | 0 |
| Maintenance Time | 8 | 0 |
| Total | 921.68 | 343.26 |
Here are some formulas for those who want to do their own computations:
To include the expenses in the next pair of formulas, the expenses must be converted to time. This depends upon the tax situation and cost of survival, so no formulas are include for it.
The Maximum(...) means to use whichever is larger of Summer Walking Travel Time + Winter Walking Travel Time and Exercise Requirement.
These formulas only produce an estimate and won't be 100% accurate for everyone.
Walking saves the author 578.42 hours per year. That's alot of time.
This result may be slightly atypical. For readers that make twice as much money as the author does and travel farther, the variables and results would be greatly altered.
Without the exercise requirement, walking would only save 318.42 hours per year. If the exercise requirement is kept but the expenses are ignored (for someone who gets infinite money for no work), then driving would take 333 hours/year and walking would take 325 hours/year. For driving to beat walking over such a small distance, both the exercise requirement and the expenses would have to be ignored (in which case driving would be better by far).
On the other hand, if the author moved closer to work, reducing the travel time to only the 260 hours/year required for exercise, walking would only take 278.26 hours/year.
Assuming that riding the bus were an option, it would probably have a highest time cost of the three options. occasionally riding the bus is useful for pedestrians and won't take up too much time so long as it's only occasionally.
This data is most valuable in situations where you're choosing something like whether to walk to a job nearby for one wage or to buy a car and drive to a job farther away for a higher wage. Just do the computations for both and compare.
Most people seem to ignore expenses and exercise requirements already because they don't bother to think about any of this. If they stopped to actually do the calculations, they might find that they're better off walking than driving. People who travel large distances don't have walking as an option, but people who travel shorter distances will usually be better off walking.
Copyright (C) 2008 Steven Fletcher. All rights reserved.
