Many people believe it to be more convenient and cost effective to drive their own vehicle to work rather than carpool or take mass transportation. However, when making this decision, it is important to take transportation expenses into consideration. After calculating the gas cost to drive to work, you can compare it to the costs of other forms of transportation to determine if the convenience is worth the expense. You may find that you can save $50 or more each week by carpooling or taking the bus.
Record how much you pay per gallon of gasoline.
Determine your automobile’s gas mileage. If you do not already know this figure, you can calculate it using the information from How to Figure Out Your Car’s Gas Mileage (see Resources).
Calculate how much it costs to drive your car one mile. To do this, take the price you pay per gallon of gasoline and divide it by the number of miles that you get per gallon of gas. For example, if gas costs $4.20 per gallon and your car gets 20 miles per gallon, then it would cost you 4.20 divided by 20 = $0.21 to drive one mile.
Multiply the amount it costs to drive one mile in your vehicle by the distance, in miles, from your home to your place of employment. Continuing with the example in Step 3, if you live 25 miles from work, then it would cost you $0.21 x 25 = $5.25 to drive to work.
Multiple the amount it costs to drive to work by two in order to find the gas cost for a full day’s commute. This will include the drive to work and the drive home. In our example, this amount would be $5.25 x 2 = $10.50.
