Commuting short distances - cost/benefit
Discussion
My commute is 14.1 miles a day door to door - but I hate driving to work.
I work in St Albans and the traffic to get into the centre is hateful. It stresses me out and makes me angry. It is mainly B roads with lots of queuing and stop/start.
However, living in Harpenden the alternative is a nice brisk walk to the station in the morning, a 5 minute train journey and a 30 second walk from St Albans station to my office. Heavenly.
The problem is that a daily Anytime Return is £6. I can't imagine the cost of the drive amounts to anywhere near that, given I (now) drive a diesel Honda Civic. I am trying to justify it by factoring in wear and tear on the car (plus the occasional bit of mileage at lunchtime) but still can't get my head round it.
A worked out a monthly season ticket would cost on average £4.71 a journey (I work two weeks of 5 days and two weeks of 4 days).
So what to do?
The cheaper but horrible drive or the more relaxing, convenient but more expensive train?
I work in St Albans and the traffic to get into the centre is hateful. It stresses me out and makes me angry. It is mainly B roads with lots of queuing and stop/start.
However, living in Harpenden the alternative is a nice brisk walk to the station in the morning, a 5 minute train journey and a 30 second walk from St Albans station to my office. Heavenly.
The problem is that a daily Anytime Return is £6. I can't imagine the cost of the drive amounts to anywhere near that, given I (now) drive a diesel Honda Civic. I am trying to justify it by factoring in wear and tear on the car (plus the occasional bit of mileage at lunchtime) but still can't get my head round it.
A worked out a monthly season ticket would cost on average £4.71 a journey (I work two weeks of 5 days and two weeks of 4 days).
So what to do?
The cheaper but horrible drive or the more relaxing, convenient but more expensive train?
TameRacingDriver said:
A quick google suggests the pence per mile of a Civic diesel is approx 41p. So to do a 28 mile round trip would cost £11.48. Ergo the train is cheaper.
Sounds like you're only really looking at the fuel cost.
Even looking at the fuel cost, at 60mpg, or roughly 0.5 gallons a day (say 2.5 liters), at a price of £1.40 a liter that equals £3.50 a day in fuel alone, so not much cheaper anyway.Sounds like you're only really looking at the fuel cost.
TameRacingDriver said:
A quick google suggests the pence per mile of a Civic diesel is approx 41p. So to do a 28 mile round trip would cost £11.48. Ergo the train is cheaper.
Sounds like you're only really looking at the fuel cost.
Sorry, was not very clear but 14.1 miles is the round trip distance. So works out at £5.781 per trip.Sounds like you're only really looking at the fuel cost.
However, presumably this includes sunk costs such as tax, MOT, insurance etc? I would not be actually getting rid of the car.
So the only costs to factor in are fuel and wear & tear (plus depreciation as the mileage goes up but probably not as major a factor as age).
sunnygym said:
Can you really put a price on extra time spent with family or enjoying a little lay in if you get the train instead
Sadly, 17 month year old twins put pay to any lie in full-stop! But getting the train might reduce the stress if I am running a bit late - I know if I am 5 minutes late getting in the car I will be at least 15 minutes late to work! If I am running late for the train I can always hop on the bike to speed things up a bit.
Car is manual to answer an earlier question.
And yes, journey from Harpenden to St Albans is listed as 6 minutes.
I have done both types of commute.
I hate my home run commute as its rush hour hell getting out of a city centre that hates the driver. Corralled onto limited egress routes. My morning commute is easy, 15-20mins of no stress cos I am an early starter & in the office 7-7.30am. Coming home 40-90mins depending.
When I was using public transport it was great, i was able to use the 20mins tram journey to get my mind ready for the day & also to unwind a bit on the way home.
Due to moving house public transport is not an option now & the drive is getting me so much that I am looking to move jobs asap. If i had the choice, i would go for public transport.
I hate my home run commute as its rush hour hell getting out of a city centre that hates the driver. Corralled onto limited egress routes. My morning commute is easy, 15-20mins of no stress cos I am an early starter & in the office 7-7.30am. Coming home 40-90mins depending.
When I was using public transport it was great, i was able to use the 20mins tram journey to get my mind ready for the day & also to unwind a bit on the way home.
Due to moving house public transport is not an option now & the drive is getting me so much that I am looking to move jobs asap. If i had the choice, i would go for public transport.
The only benefit I can see of driving is having the car at the office, making things more flexible i.e. getting somewhere at lunchtime, getting home quickly if there is an emergency etc.
ETA - I would consider getting a motorbike if I didn't think I would kill myself (or if my wife would even entertain the idea).
ETA - I would consider getting a motorbike if I didn't think I would kill myself (or if my wife would even entertain the idea).
I have considered cycling but the shorter route (the one I drive) is pretty hairy for cycling - fairly fast narrow country B roads. The longer route is probably long enough for me to start stressing about being late again...plus the faff and time of having to get showered and changed once at work.
I used to have a 4 mile commute in heavy traffic. Driving made me angry, cycling was fun and took about the same time, and walking genuinely made me happy and took half an hour longer.
I drove in winter though, it's much warmer.
If there had been a train as an alternative I'd have got that.
I tried the bus, but it got stuck in the same traffic as the car and had to keep stopping, which combined with the irregularity of the service meant that most of the time I was better off walking instead.
I drove in winter though, it's much warmer.
If there had been a train as an alternative I'd have got that.
I tried the bus, but it got stuck in the same traffic as the car and had to keep stopping, which combined with the irregularity of the service meant that most of the time I was better off walking instead.
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