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Old 02-25-07, 08:27 AM
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H1449-6
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Your hourly "wage" from commuting?

If you look at the cost savings from not driving to work, you could consider that in effect a "wage" you pay yourself for bike commuting.

What's yours?

Your "wage" would be calculated as follows: if you own a car and just use it less, at the per-mile cost of avoided travel. You'd do a whole lot better, obviously, if you could get rid of your car altogether, but the calculation is the same.

a) Cost per mile = (annual vehicle ownership cost, which is either the annual sum of your car payments net of residual value at the end of the year or the depreciation on the vehicle in the case of a cash purchase + annual fuel cost + annual cost of maintenance + annual cost of insurance + annual cost of tags, ad valorum taxes, etc) / annual mileage. In my case, it's about $1,500 in depreciation + (900 gals * 2.25 per gal) + $400 + 700 + 300 = $4,925 / 9,000 miles driven = ~ $0.55/mile.

My commute is about 13 miles each way. 26 miles/day * 5 days/week * 50 weeks/year (2 for vacation) * $0.55/mile = ~ $3,550.

It takes me an hour each way, including shower, to cover that distance, which is 10 hours a week or 500 hours a year. So my "wage" per hour of commuting is about $7.

The above ignores the effects of the overall reduction in vehicle use on overall costs. Some categories would stay the same and therefore increase on a per-mile basis (e.g. tags/taxes) while others would go down (e.g. insurance, maintenance).
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