Have you figured out lately how many hours you have to work to
fill your gas tank?
Have you figured out lately how many hours you have to work to fill your gas tank?
If your tank holds 30 gallons, with gas at a minimum of $3 a gallon, it could easily cost $100 each time you fill up. How long do you have to work, after withholding, insurance, and other deductions, to take home $100?
But wait, it gets worse. As you know, it costs more than gasoline to run a car. According to AAA, it costs around 56.1 cents per mile to operate a vehicle, once maintenance, oil, tires and depreciation are figured in. And that was BEFORE the recent spike in gas prices.
If you go to the Web site of San Benito County Rideshare, you can use this figure to calculate how much your commute is costing you. You enter your round-trip commute mileage, and the site tells you how much it’s costing, per day, per month and per year to drive back and forth alone.
It’s costing me over $550 a month; close to $6,000 a year. Good grief. There goes my trip to Paris.
Happily, the shocking truth is not the only thing available on the Rideshare Web site.
It is, in fact, Rideshare Week, and it’s not too late to register on the site for a chance to win cool prizes. All you have to do is make a commitment to pursue an alternative commute method just one day this week. The alternative could be carpooling, vanpooling, taking public transportation, riding your bike, walking, or telecommuting from home.
The coolest prize is a trip around the world. I have no idea what the odds are, but the upside is pretty appealing for the minor cost of trying to figure out another way to get to work. Other prizes include a stay at Asilomar, a bicycle, and other goodies.
When I used to commute to the Peninsula, I got a lot of exposure to most of the alternatives – just about all of them in fact.
For a while, I took the train from Gilroy to Palo Alto, then rode my bike from the train station to my office.
The train was great. I could read, write in my journal, work on office projects, or play solitaire on my laptop, although I have to admit that most of these activities usually ended in a nap. Much better to be napping when somebody else is driving.
In the four years I used the train, it was probably only late about a dozen times. Much less nerve-racking than sitting in traffic day after day.
I also had a commute buddy whose schedule occasionally coincided with mine so that we could carpool. The loose definition of “carpool” being two or more people in a car, we could ride in the diamond lane, zipping past all the solitary sad sacks jammed up in regular traffic. Yes, we gloated. I highly recommend it.
So check out ways to vary your commute, save some money (and some heartburn) and maybe win a prize!
