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. Also, these numbers are only valid for 2009. I wrote a similar article for 2008, though alot of my variables have changed since then.
In general, the new article is much more clear and doesn't ramble on about related information.
Since the author only travels about 12 miles per week, the results in this article might be unusual. Readers who travel a longer distance will find the time used by walking increased far more than the time used by driving. In general, it's not just a choice between walking and driving; rather, it's a choice between walking and living in a certain area or driving and living wherever you want.
Other forms of travel aren't covered by this article. Buses and cabs might be used to supplement walking, and bikes/scooters/skateboards might be an alternative to walking or driving for some people.
* This might be changed for this year due to a law passed by Congress to help with the recession. Even if it is different, it's probably not different by much.
These variables are drastically changed from last year because the author has moved since then and is getting paid more. Other variables were altered to make them more accurate.
People need aerobic exercise to survive, or, at least, to remain healthy. 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, though shoveling snow in the winter might count for something.
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 5 hours per week 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. This article uses two separate values for different apartments in the same building.
The distance traveled is basically the distance to go to work 5 times per week and the grocery store 1 time per week. There are other trips that have to be made, but there are also weeks where a trip can be skipped. 12 miles per week is probably a good average.
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.
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 $9,350 of annual income in 2009, 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 author's relatively high local and state taxes are a result of living in Pennsylvania.
The annual cost of survival is always assumed to be in the low tax bracket. People will buy food rather than gasoline or shoes if they have to choose.
Investment income is ignored because it's not significant source of income for the author. People who do have significant investment income may want to take that into account.
The annual cost of owning a car is based on the AAA's estimate [1], which should provide one of the better estimates. Since the entire article is used this time, this year's comparison is using slightly more accurate numbers than last year's.
The costs are even higher for larger cars. This article assumes a small sedan. A motorcycle would be a cheaper alternative, but it's not explored by this article.
The relatively short distance the author is traveling suggests that driving around would only take about 2 minutes per mile (varying a little bit depending upon stop lights). In the winter, waiting for the car to warm up would dominate the travel time (which I guesstimate at 7 minutes but aren't sure about at all).
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. It may be 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.
Walking may not be a possibility for some people. Pedestrians must live near a grocery store or have their groceries delivered. Carrying groceries isn't difficult for healthy people with backpacks, but it would be impossible for one person to carry enough groceries for an entire family without making a gazillion trips.
Similarly, people who travel long distances don't have the option to be pedestrians.
Pedestrians will have higher calorie requirements than drivers, but this article doesn't include an additional fudge factor for extra food for pedestrians. The average American consumes 2,775 calories per day [2] and drives a car. The author consumers approximately 2,400 calories per day and is a pedestrian. Hence, higher calorie requirements don't necessarily mean than pedestrians eat more than drivers.
| Expense | Driving | Walking |
|---|---|---|
| Base Cost | $4,350 | $125 |
| Cost of Miles traveled | $81.62 | $0 |
| Total | $4,431.62 | $125 |
These numbers should be converted to dollar amounts, but taxes must be taken into account. For driving, which apartment is lived in must be taken into account because it affects how much federal income tax is paid. For walking, the expenditures are small enough that it doesn't matter. Here are the amounts when taxes are taken into account:
| Driving (Cheap Apartment) | Driving (Expensive Apartment) | Walking (Either Apartment) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Max Low Tax Income After CoS | $2,150 | $350 | $350-$2,150 |
| Low Tax Income Spent | $2,150 | $350 | $125 |
| High Tax Income Spent | $2,281.62 | $4,081.62 | $0 |
"CoS" is "Cost of Survival". This must be taken into account because of the two separate tax brackets. The "Cheap Apartment" is the 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate, and the "Expensive Apartment" is the 1 bedroom apartment without a roommate.
Converting these dollar amounts to times based on hourly wage (after taxes) results in:
| Hours | Driving (Cheap Apartment) | Driving (Expensive Apartment) | Walking (Either Apartment) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Used By Low Tax Spending * | 278.14 | 45.28 | 16.17 |
| Used By High Tax Spending ** | 333.08 | 595.86 | 0 |
| Total Hours Used By Spending | 611.22 | 641.14 | 16.17 |
* Hourly wage after 11.69% tax is $7.73.
** Hourly wage after 21.69% tax is $6.85.
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." When you spend money that you earned by working for an hourly wage, that money is equivalent (in a way) to the number of hours you worked to obtain it.
Adding up the total time results in:
| Hours | Driving (Cheap Apartment) | Driving (Expensive Apartment) | Walking (Either Apartment) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expenses (In Hours) | 611.22 | 641.14 | 16.17 |
| Total Travel Time | 52 | 52 | 214.5 |
| Maintenance Time | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| Total (w/o exercise) | 671.22 | 701.14 | 230.67 |
With exercise in addition to driving, it gets even worse:
| Hours | Driving (Cheap Apartment) | Driving (Expensive Apartment) | Walking (Either Apartment) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total (w/o exercise) | 671.22 | 701.14 | 230.67 |
| Total (w/ 195 hours walking) | 866.22 | 896.14 | 230.67 |
| Total (w/ 65 hours running) | 736.22 | 766.14 | 230.67 |
The totals are listed for 3 different exercise types: none, walking, and running. Pedestrians never need any extra exercise (in the current scenario anyways) because they get enough already.
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.
Optionally, add whatever time is left for the exercise requirement. If you don't care about exercise, don't add it.
These formulas only produce an estimate and won't be 100% accurate for everyone. Also, there's still a certain amount of work required to perform the computations that isn't detailed here. It would be possible to write a computer program that produces a pretty good estimate, but it doesn't seem like it would be worthwhile.
The author's chosen to live in the more expensive apartment (to avoid having a roommate) and to be a pedestrian. Walking instead of driving saves the author 665.47 hours per year. That's alot of time.
For comparison:
| Activity (for 1 Year) | Hours Spent |
|---|---|
| Hours Spent on Cheap Cost of Survival | 931.44 |
| Hours Spent on Expensive Cost of Survival | 1,164.29 |
| Working 40 Hours/Week | 2,085.71 |
| Sleeping 8 Hours/Night | 2,920 |
Notice the working 40 hours/week would just barely be enough to cover the expensive cost of survival (for a 1 bedroom apartment without a roommate) and pay for a car. For the working poor, owning a car is like throwing away a third of your life.
The result didn't change that much between 2008 and 2009. Despite living in a different place and making more money, the driving still takes much longer than walking. Both driving and walking are faster than they used to be simply because the author lives closer to work. (The distance traveled in the 2008 article was actually a bit more than happened in real life too.)
Still, this result may be atypical. For people who can make alot more money by driving somewhere else to get work, driving might make alot of sense. For the working poor, it probably isn't worth owning a car just to get a 10% pay increase by working somewhere farther away. Even ignoring the environment effects of driving and the health benefits of walking, it takes longer to drive than to walk.
Basically, these calculations indicate that it's stupid to own a car if you're never going to go anywhere.
Copyright (C) 2009 Steven Fletcher. All rights reserved.
