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Your Commuting Costs By Car Vs. Train?
grepdisc writes "Newspapers in Boston are fawning over a report by the American Public Transportation Association that taking public transportation saves money over driving. How can one possibly save $12,600 per year, when the inflated estimates of 15,000 miles per year at only 23.4 miles and $2.039 per gallon costs only $1,310, and a high parking rate of $460 per month results in under $5600. Is the discrepancy made up of tolls, repairs, the cost of buying a car and ignoring train station parking fees?" Everyone's situation is different — and it's easy to have a chip on one's shoulder while estimating prices. But for those of you with the option, what kind of savings do you find (or would you expect) from taking one form of transport to work over another?
If I continue to own my car then it costs more to take public transit, but not by much. If I sell my car and take public transit I save a few grand a year, assuming I rent a car one weekend a month.
I'll say. Here in southern California, I'd have to drive my car to any form of mass transit, and I'd have to drive farther than it is to work.
And I think they're banking on things like if you are married and one of you drives and one rides the train or bus, you can cut down to one vehicle maybe:
If you can live with one less vehicle in your household, you would save an additional $5,576 in car ownership cost (full-coverage insurance, license, registration, taxes, depreciation and finance charge).
I like public transportation but in DC, the metro rail sucks. It sucks something fierce. The stops in DC are so so limited. I still end up taking taxis for most of the places I want to go ... or plan for an hour walk. I go to NYC and it's like heaven--I do not care of the condition of the train. DC rails shut down at midnight on a weeknight ... and sometimes you wait 15+ minutes for the next train. Transferring is almost out of the question. Wish it worked for me for my job but it doesn't. It barely works for me on my drinking expeditions.
My work here is dung.
For most people time is money and if it takes longer to get somewhere by car, find a place to put said car, take the car for maintenance once in a while, get it fixed for scratches and other damage magically appearing on parking lots, the cost in time alone can amount to something quite high.
...
Think about it, if you're paid $20 an hour and your car needs to be taken in for repairs, which let's say loses you a whole day of work, that's $160 right there. Money wasted just through time, then there's also the time needed for the repairs themselves and
Also don't forget to take into account the money lost through the car's devaluement over time. With trains the operator takes all of that cost, with cars the owner - you, does.
For me it is simply a question of time - time spent behind the wheel of a car is wasted time as far as I'm concerned. On transit I can sleep, read, email/browse on the blackberry, even get out a laptop. I've made it a point the last couple times I've moved to make sure I have good access to transit options.
Your average new car costs very roughly $3000 a year in depreciation. It may be less if you have a cheap japanese model, and much more if you have a American SUV. A car is very expensive compared to taking trains when you factor in depreciation and insurance.
Is the discrepancy made up of tolls, repairs, the cost of buying a car and ignoring train station parking fees?
I think you're making one rather unjustified assumption: that anyone who takes the train will still own a car.
If you live sufficiently close to the train station or can bike/take public transit to it, you can validly ignore parking fees, car maintenance, and importantly insurance.
Owning a car costs far more than just your monthly loan payment. I had an old piece of junk which cost me just $1000 a year in insurance since I did not need comprehensive. My guess is that you're looking at least at $2000-3000 a year in insurance alone for a standard newish car (banks require comprehensive for anything they have a loan out for). Add to that a monthly payment for the car of say $300-400, which gives a total of $4000-5000 a year, and you're easily at the $12,600 estimate.
It's mainly the cost of buying a car. The value of a car goes down the more you drive it. Drive it 200,000 miles and the car you might have bought new for $22K is now worth $2K. That's ten cents per mile. If you don't drive your car into the ground, and buy a new one after five years or so, then you probably lost value equivalent to 20 cents per mile. And then there's the cost of insurance. To get the big savings, you'd have to be able to do without a car, or if you're in a couple, share one car instead of having two.
Let's see; I've got a 4 mile round trip, on a motorcycle that gets 35MPG, with free parking, plus $75/year insurance and $12/year registration, say $200/year for maintenance... I'm looking at $350 per year in in commuting costs.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
Muni cost $40 dollars per month pre-tax money. Car $9 per day parking + aggravation + gas + maintenance. Let me see. If I could only do math... Of course driving is better because I get to cut other drivers off, flip them the bird and bang on my steering wheel. What more could you want from life?
The problem with these sorts of studies is they lump in the fixed and variable costs for car ownership. The only way you get rid of the fixed costs (like insurance and registration) is to get rid of the car altogether, and there aren't too many areas in the US where that's a feasible option. Where I live public transportation to most of the places I go simply doesn't exist. I can take the train to work (though I'd have to ride my bike to the train station), but if I get called up for jury duty, say, without my car I'm taking a taxi for as long as the trial lasts.
So when I take public transportation I'm reducing variable costs - depreciation, gas, maintenance. But there's no way I can come out ahead this way, since I'm still paying insurance and registration on the car that's sitting at home.
If I were to commute using public transportation, I would add 45 to 60 min to each direction of the commute.
At my salary, ($41 per hour) this equates to a loss of over $20K per year.
I'll drive my car thank you very much!
In my neighborhood families own three, four, even more cars. The big savings come when you can reduce the number of cars you own.
WTF do you need three or more cars for in a 2-person household?
I suppose they assumed, in a two-earner household, that you could reduce the number of cars by one if one person was a transit rider.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
I pay about 500 USD per year for free public transport 24/7 in my city. According to this Swedish checklist, the yearly cost for purchasing and owning a 10 year old tiny car would be about 3750 USD, thus, I save 3250 USD. If I would get a new car, the savings would be around 7100 USD.
(since I don't have or need a car, I will of course have to take the purchasing price into account.)
c++;
Taking the train instead of driving would allow me to save thousands of dollars in gas, car payments, tolls, parking frees, tickets, maintenance, and etc. Maybe not five figures, but still a lot of money. There are non-financial indirect benifits to taking the train too.
On the train, I feel safer knowing an accident probably won't happen and that if it does, it probably won't kill me. I also don't have the headache of police stops and tickets. Additionally, I get to spend the commuting time reading, coding, sleeping, etc. It's much less stressful and allows me to be more productive. I know that my carbon footprint is lower and I'm doing less to support despotic oil regimes. I get exercise walking between public transport stops. Unfortunately, I live too far out in the suburbs to make commuting by train to work in the city practical. It just takes too long (frankly driving takes too long as well). I can only take public transport on the weekends and for personal travel. I'm currently looking for work in the Chicago area, and will strongly considering moving to take advantage of the city's train system.
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
and I have to commute in every day. Here's a breakdown, as I did each for two years apiece:
- Drive to local T stop: $5/day parking plus ~$60 for T pass, plus gas.
- Drive and park at work: $240/mo plus gas. I would drive about 15k/yr (work plus other driving)
- Drive 1 mi to bus stop: donation to local church to park in their lot (few hundred/yr), $64 for T/bus pass. In the 2.5 years I've been taking the bus, I've driven about 15,000 mi.
Now taking the bus takes a bit longer, but my employer is nice enough to allow me to work from home one day a week, and I often fall asleep or do work while on the bus, as opposed to getting peeved at the traffic around me.
YMMV. As for me, I'll keep taking the bus.
I take a bus to and from work. It costs $12.80 per day. The car alternative is a 35 mile drive, $10 to park and $3 in PATH train. So save whatever 70 miles in a car costs. Call that 3 gallons of gas = $6. Times 250 days a year = $1500. 17k miles on a car = ?$2000?
I don't pay for parking at the bus stop.
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
Not for everyone, but my honda gets 35 + mpg.
I put in 20 bucks a month of gas into it, and about 20 into the car, for taking the kids to school, and stormy days.
Rideable 65-80% of the year in midwest. (Depending on your tolerance for cold.)
My "commute" is only about 7 miles each way.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
I think it truly depends on where you live- and the biggest thing is time. Currently I'm jobless in Chicago- train and busses really do cut gas costs. This city is metered like NUTS and residential zones have resident only parking zones designated by a specific city sticker.
Downtown is more nuts. Two hour Parking is 3.00- all day can run between 7-20 depending on the place. So- working in downtown, it would save TONS of money.
When I lived in LA - I litterally paid $600 for 8 months of parking. It averages to about 9 dollars a day. Even if you were a patient in the hospital, if you had a car there- it was 9 dollars a day. Ouch. Public transit was the way to go.
But- when I lived in Baton Rouge Louisiana the public transportation was nil. It took hours to get anywhere, and it didn't necessarily travel through the whole city. So- you really HAD to have a car... public transportation was very inconsistent, and it took forever. Just time lost I think makes up for the expenses of a car. Parking was basically free everywhere except a few places. But, there was always some backlot to park in. A 20 minute car ride turning into a 2 hour bus trip that may or may not be on time... its risky at best.
Overall, its really the location. Big metro areas with well established transportation, it can be a wonderful thing. It does save money. But other places, it ends up being way much of a hassle, and time consuming and may not go to the locations that someone needs.
IRS is giving 55 cents/mile, so one has to assume that's a generic "operating cost" of a car (gas, depreciation, maintenance).
0.55 * 15000 + 460 * 12 = $13770
So, close enough for government work.
YMMV, of course.
That's a false assumption. Some people buy used cars, which pretty much stop depreciating after a while. You may pay a bit more in maintenance, but you'll make up that just in the cheaper insurance rates.
I'll occasionally take the train, but it just doesn't go where I need to go most of the time. Ergo I need a car, and I need insurance, so the only savings are gas + wear and tear. It would be great if we lived in Europe where mass transit was functional, but in many parts of the USA it just isn't.
Don't forget about those of us in rural areas. I carpool with a friend as often as I can, but I live 30 miles from my workplace. No one is going to be running a train from a city of 250 to a city of 10,000, so personal transportation is the only option.
Learn about Photography Basics.
This study is comparing apples and oranges.
The study assumes you are getting rid of your car to use public transit. There are so many things that are not public transit accessible that still require a car that they are not putting any replacement cost in for.
In Boston, a rental car for a weekend with insurance is ~$300. I use my car 3 weekends a month to travel outside of public transit range. Adding in the cost of getting a rental each weekend and suddenly 12.6k I'm saving is reduced by 7.8k (plus fuel costs and a lot of overhead dealing with rentals). The study is assuming depreciation of the car -- which likely means its assuming a purchase of new car. The cost conscious folks are either purchasing used cars or driving cars for far longer than a normal depreciation period.
And this doesn't even count the opportunity cost of travel time. I live in a near suburb (Arlington) and work in Cambridge. I can walk/bus to the T, and take the T to work. It takes about 1.25 hours each way. It takes me 20 minutes each way driving. I value the ~2 hours per day I save by driving pretty highly. Admittedly, if I have to drive during rush hours, my commute goes to 45-50 minutes each way and public transit becomes much more attractive.
That doesn't go on forever though. If you buy a $15,000 car, it can't depreciate $3000/year for more than 5 years (and it doesn't do that anyway). My first new car was a $20,000 Honda CR-V. After 10 years, I sold it for $6000; that's an average of only $1400 per year. If you buy a new car every year, you may see a hit of $3000/year, but you don't have to buy a new car every year either.
I live in San Francisco and walk/train/bus everyplace. (I do not have a bike) When needed I have access to car via a car sharing program. For 50$ a month I get a pass that gets me anyplace (within the city) with in a relatively timely manner. I have access to a car sharing program that regularly costs me 50$ a month or so on average. Throw in a rental car every two months for a weekend at 100$.
So it averages out to 150$ a month (gas included) to get me every place I want to go.
But really what gets me is the lifestyle benefits, I never have to worry about parking/oil changes/gas prices/insurance nor drinking and driving. I walk a lot and it keeps me looking good and in great shape. Not to mention walking is very relaxing vs driving, I read and listen to pod casts. So not only do I save a lot of money (vs a 500$ monthly car payment), I've greatly reduced my carbon impact, I have less stress in my life, and I'm in better physical shape. How can you put a price on that?
Yes, everyone's situation is very different, I consider myself very fortunate, but then again I brought about my current situation by actively choosing to create this lifestyle.
Now here's the problem in the calculation. Car round trip in heavy traffic is about an hour, and depending on the day the bus can take anywhere from 2:30 to 3:15 to cover the same 40 miles.
That's 390-585 hours per year to save $320.
Until the prevailing wage falls to 50 cents an hour, no thanks.
Ran the calculation for my wife as well. If she were able to take a bus instead of driving, she'd waste only 195 hours per year, but public transportation would save her -$18.
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Last time I looked, what it cost me to ride the Internet to work was £12 per month. That's way cheaper than taking the car... All right, I confess I actually go into work one week in every two. But that still costs a heck of a lot less than commuting every day, and gives me a heck of a lot more time, too.
Oh - and when you do have to go into work, push-bikes come cheaper than cars (and in urban areas are usually faster).
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Google Maps will help you calculate the cost of public transit vs. driving. After you map out your commute. Just click on the public transit button. About half way down it will show you a public transit vs. driving comparison.
With the technology we have today, there is zero reason to move your biomass to another place unless you have to actually touch something. The whole concept of "going to work" is silly, and a hold over from a bygone era. People seriously need to get behind teleworking with enthusiasm. Can't get much greener/cheaper than that!
Pessimists.net - as if life wasn't depressing enough.
As a college student in Tampa, I've found that bicycling is the best way to go. It's faster (I zoom by stopped cars on the roads during rush hour), it's cheaper (no gas, insurance, very low up-front cost), it's cleaner (the only greenhouse gases are my own breathing), and it's healthier (instead of gaining the "freshman 15," I gained the "freshman -50"). It wouldn't be ideal if you have to commute more than 20 miles, but for anything less than that, especially in town, it's perfect.
And it didn't work for me. Here's the comparison:
Driving:
35 minutes door to door
$200/mo for parking + $100/mo for gas @ $2.50/gallon = $300/mo
Have car at my disposal for errands or to go to hockey after work
Can leave whenever I'm done, and have freedom to stay after work with friends
Commuter rail:
1:05 door to door
$80/mo for parking at the commuter rail station (2 miles away) + $150/mo for the commuter rail pass = $230/mo
No car after work, which means I have to go home first to do things, wasting even more time
Have to leave at particular times: if I miss the 7:30 train, for instance, it's 90 minutes until the next one
I need a car in either case because there's no zipcar anywhere near where I live and I need a car to perform errands and to cart myself to/from hockey. So I'm not factoring the cost of the car itself into either, though there is an additional penalty on driving for added wear and tear on the car.
So commuter rail is slightly less expensive in dollars per commute, but that doesn't come anywhere close to compensating me for the wasted time and lack of convenience.
I'll drive, thank you.
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First...I live in the Atlanta outer suburbs and you are a fool if you leave any property unlocked. I live on 15 acres where I can still use firearms, and stuff disappears overnight.
Public transit does not work for those of us out here though. Drive 6 miles to a regional bus station that only drops me downtown. Take the train back uptown, catch a bus to the area where I work. My schedule is shifted to late morning - early evening, so the bus does not run past a certain street. Get off and walk a mile. Takes about 2 - 3 hours to commute and $5 in fares.
I drive it in 45 minutes. No parking, 20-21 mpg, so about $50 in gas a week currently. We have a farm, so I would still have to own a vehicle or two. I do value my time, though I would take transit if it were more convenient. I imagine reading, working with my laptop, all sorts of things. I stopped driving aggressively, so I do manage to solve programming problems in my head going down the highway. More soothing than trying to wring another minute or two out of my commute. Plus with speeding, mpg drops to 16-17. Adds up over the course of a year.
I lived in town for 18 years and was never a victim of crime. Out here, I keep the guns loaded.
No incumbents, not no where, not no how.
Vote them out every term.
Whenever, I read these studies, they want to factor in depreciation. Unless you are running a business, DEPRECIATION IS NOT A COST! You bought the vehicle and your money has already been spent. It's gone! You CANNOT expense it a second time. Once the car is bought and paid for, your expenses are gas, maintenance and insurance. The one thing these studies rarely ask is: What is your time worth to you?
Most of the costs to drive are hidden. Gas is cheap, even at three bux/gallon. You have to consider:
1) Purchase of the car! Or did you ever stop to think about the 400
or more/month you pay? And even when you aren't paying this, you are probably paying more on:
2) Cost of repairs. Tires, brakes, transmissions...
3) Insurance and accidents. Neither are cheap, one partially covers the cost of the other.
4) Police action. I'm a good driver, with zero serios accidents in 20 years of driving, and two fender benders. I still get a ticket every other year or so, and always have.
Etc. The IRS gives a standard deduction of about 0.50 / mile, and that's about right. It's what my company reimburses for travel on trips. It only costs about 1.5 times as much to fly a private plane!
Cars are much more expensive than we give them credit for!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Cost of fuel
Cost of parking
Cost of maintenance
Cost of getting to station (and back)
Cost of fare (round trip)
Cost of rental/transport to destination (and back)
Cost of wasted time
Cost of being a damned loser without a car
Trains are for freight and densely packed urban areas where traffic and parking is a huge issue.
This is why you'll see such huge support by the neo-urbanites.
If you want to add in:
Cost of car
Cost of registration
Cost of insurance
You need to also add in:
Cost of not being able to get out in case of emergency
Cost of having to hire movers anytime you buy a piece of furniture
Etc.
I live about 22 miles outside of Cambridge, where I have often worked. So that is 44 miles/day@ $.5 per mile (U.S. government reimbursement). Your actual costs will vary; but the government rate isn't far from reality. Parking is about $20/day in Cambridge; sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the lot.
$5500 - Mileage
$5000 - Parking
Round numbers for automobile commute: $10,500
Note that there are hidden costs of road maintenance, etc.
Additionally, it is my time; on the commuter rail, at least I get (at least) an hour of my time back.
$2400/year - Commuter rail ticket (also covers unlimited subway use)
$1500/year - Mileage to train station.
Commuter rail commute is therefore about $3900, before any tax breaks (or lower auto insurance rate, due to less mileage and lower theft rates).
Savings for me (excluding tax break and insurance break) was about $6-7K/year.
I dislike commuting, but at least public transit gives me the chance to read, emulate vax or make awkward conversation while I do it. I use the WMATA, D.C.-area system. It costs me $140 to ride both ways every work day for a month. If I park in the garage every day, that adds $90. If I tax the bus to the train every day (convenient), that adds $50. At the moment I have a free ride every day. Parking at work would cost me the same $140 a month, and the total cost of that with gas would be around $200. The savings are negligable, until you factor in extra repairs due to more road miles. This would increase the mileage I put on our car by a factor of two.
White River Junction, VT to Stamford, CT:
Amtrak: $59
gas for car: $19
QED
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
There are other reasons, but I think I've made my point. Even when we factor in the costs of owning our car (insurance, registration, etc), it is cheaper to drive to work. Even if we didn't drive to work, we'd need a car anyway. And even if it wasn't cheaper to drive, it would be worth the additional cost to save my sanity. The drive is pleasant and quick, the car is warm in winter and cool in summer, I get to listen to whatever music I like, and I'm guaranteed a seat every morning.
If the state government here wants us to be greener (I can only assume that they don't), here's some advice: upgrade your public transport. We pay enough for it.
from where I work. I have a car and a motorcycle. During bad weather I use the car (sporty car so still not great in snow despite being FWD) but when I can I use the motorcycle. I just recently moved here in February but I was only 10 minutes (7 miles) away before with the same job. I'd ride a bike to work if I could but I'd have to traverse a 2 lane US Route that converts to 4 lanes half way to work. It would be too dangerous and that is assuming I'd be allowed to have the bicycle on the road because there is no shoulder. If I lived in Florida instead of WV it would be easier to enjoy the motorcycle nearly all year round but alas that isn't possible in the nice winters here in WV. My 17.7 gallon tank in my car lasts about 3 weeks which includes about 40 miles of travel on weekends; more than 3 weeks if I use the motorcycle a lot to get to work. Because I still take trips I can't get rid of the car and the motorcycle is a toy (and paid off).
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Or you could be reading a book, or napping, or using a laptop on the train/bus, while "missing" time spent on the sofa watching TV and drinking beer.
If you have important family stuff to do, the best way to resolve a commuting time problem is to find a job closer to home. Of the various things about raising children, finding a job closer to home (or moving home closer to work) is not one of the harder ones.
Public: TTC, $2.75 each way. I can get a monthly pass for $105. Assume worst: $2.75 each way, 7 days a week.
Car: 2002 Honda Civic, bought used, $10,000, to be paid over 5 years ($2120 yr) or $5.80 day.
Car insurance: We're old, so we only pay about $500 year, about $1.36 a day.
Car Maintenance averages $800 year (tires, brakes, etc. etc.) about $2.19 a day
distance: 6 miles each way.
Gas mileage on car: in city, 24 mpg.
Gas price: $0.85 per liter, roughly = $3.25 gallon, so Cost in gas to drive downtown each day: ~$1.66
Parking downtown = $8 day. (She has a good lot)
So, per day: Car loan: $5.80
Insurance: $1.36
Maintain: $2.19
Cost Gas: $1.66
Parking: $8.00
---------------------
total per day: 19.01 per day.
x 365 = $6938.65 total cost per year for commuting.
total cost per year for TTC: 365 x (2 x 2.75)= $2007.50
Difference? Almost $5000.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
And there in lies the problem. Somehow, we are entitled to 6 lane freeways and highways but urban, suburburban and interstate rail is, wooo, scary socialist stuff that "loses money". Do that for six decades and you get a serious problem. Like Dallas
-- Butlerian Jihad NOW!
Even if public transport was "only" 25% cheaper than a car, I'd still prefer it. Why? Because of the value of my time. Until we have fully automated self-driving cars, I can't read, nap, work, or simply daydream in a car. I have to actively drive it, and I'm pretty damn sure at least 50% of the other drivers are trying to read, nap, work, or daydream behind the wheel.
The problem here isn't that these newspapers are fawning over this report. The problem is that the point of the report has been mangled by incompetent journalists. The original report is about replacing your car with public transportation, not just your work commute. That's why they end up using 15000 miles (which is absurdly high for an average commute but much more reasonable for a total year of family driving).
I do find the parking rate high but, then again, my commute is the reverse (from the city into the suburbs) and my company has free parking. Even if it would be more reasonable to assume for a lower parking cost, $2.039 is absurdly low for gas (here in the Chicago area, things are up to around $2.50 from a previous low of about $2.19 at the cheapest gas stations).
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
I agree totally.
For me, at say 15k miles/yr, I burn 937 gallons of fuel because of the stop and go traffic. There is public transportation a few miles from home, but there's no parking there. There is also no public transportation to my work. If I walked, I would walk a few miles to the bus, ride it for an hour, and then walk a few more miles to work. In the time I'd spend walking, I'd already be at work and have quite a bit of productive time done.
Parking depends on where you work. Parking at home is free. Parking at work is free. So my parking expenses are $0.
The savings equation is flawed by localization.
For a while, I carpooled, so we cut the total fuel consumption for two people in half (only one of two possible cars on the road). Now, there are no coworkers that live close to me, or even travel near my house. Carpooling could tend to be a pain. If one had to work late, that left both of us at work. But, it was tolerable.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
The personal cost of public transportation cannot be compared directly to private transportation costs. Political decisions, along with federal, state and local tax subsidies determine the cost of public transportation. For some people public transportation is free (e.g. NYC school children). For those who can't use public transportation but are taxed for it, the cost per mile is infinite.
In 2002 federal transit subsidies were over $7.3 billion dollars. This works out to a subsidy of about 12 cents a mile for every passenger. In NYC, Washington DC, Chicago and Boston the amounts are much higher. On the other hand, the net federal subsidy to highway passenger transportation was negative as a result of gas taxes and tolls.
Working from home has its advantages.
The only major downside is there is no "decompression" on the way home. I leave the "office" and ten seconds later I'm getting kids and bills thrown at me.
On other hand, I built this so I could "stop off" at the bar on the "way home".
My travel to work (it's not called "commuting", because then you're not paid for it), consists of taking Amtrak from a town 20 minutes drive from my house, 2.5 hours into Penn Station in NYC, working 5+ hours, and then back on the train 2.5 hours back home.
I spend (out of pocket) about $16k/year on this travel alone... which I can *NOT* expense. I can't expense my WWAN card that I use on the train while I work (I'm typing this while heading back home right now on that very train), I can't expense my DSL at home for the days when I DO telecommute, and I can't even expense my cellphone, which I use for calls while in-transit.
Driving my personal vehicle would certainly be more expensive, take longer and ratchet up my stress levels to very high levels, so I take the train... and I suck it up. I live 143 miles from my work, each way.
If I didn't accept this job, and this travel and this distance, I'd be living out of a cardboard box in a public park. Literally.
I recently bought a motorbike and stopped using the train so can present a single data point on how much costs increase.
I paid $110/month for a train ticket. However I'd often have to work late and then use a combination of busses and taxis (or very long walks) to get home. As a result I ended up spending around an extra $20/month even though I had a monthly train pass. Total cost then was around $1500/year.
I now pay approx $10/week for petrol and approx $120/quarter for servicing (yes, that means servicing is costing the same as petrol). That's roughly $1000/year. There's about $200 extra in insurance too, and interest on the purchase price is also around $200/year. So in total I'm now spending about $1400/year, a saving of $1500.
Curiously, the bike has saved me a lot less time than I anticipated. The trip takes around 50 minutes by train (including walking) and around 40 mintues by motorbike (including putting gear on/away).
However it's greatly simplified things, I can work late or get delayed on my way out the door without incident. The train's occasional break-downs/delays don't affect me now either - my bike is much more reliable.
Winter on the bike hasn't been the most pleasant, especially heading home in the dark when it's raining and cold and it started making me wish I was in a nice air-conditioned car. So I worked out the approximate cost of 'upgrading'.
It was a lot - I would have to pay roughly five times as much in repayments, roughly three times as much in fuel, and I'd have to start paying for parking. I estimated the total cost at roughly $6k extra (though a far cry from the article's $20k).
There's non financial issues to take into account too... Trains are safter than cars, which are safer than bikes. Trains allow you to read during your commute. Trains and cars keep you dry and warm. That's one data point, YMMV
Try dating a girl and telling her you don't have a car to come pick her up with and see how far you get. Not far. I live in downtown Denver Colorado, and don't really need my car for my day to day living, I can walk and take the light rail pretty much every where I want to go, except to pick up a cute girl who lives in suburbia.
A car is a capital good, not an asset - you buy it because of what it enables, not what it will be worth in the future. The metric to use is cost to maintain and replacement cost amortized over the replacement period. For instance, if I had a $25k car that I expected to last 10 years, I'd want to save $2500/yr to replace it when it goes. If it lasts 20 years, then 1250/yr or less, which is ~100/mo.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Sometimes having a car it's just a habit, because you could live well without it or by just renting it during week ends. Of course not every place is the same and not everyone live in the same condition, there are a lot of people for who having a car is a need because there isn't a public transportation system, work is too far from home etc. etc. but there are a lot of people too who are just too damn lazy or too damn stubborn to get rid of their car while in fact they could ease a lot their life by just using public transportation. Do not forget also that for many people having a car is a status symbol.