The numbers speak

The multiple costs of commuting

1. Each year, congestion created from commuting to and from work causes 3.7 billion hours of lost productivity, costing employers 92 million work weeks, and the nation $63.1 billion in wasted time and fuel.
Source: Urban Mobility Study, 2005

2. Americans spend an average of 47 hours per year sitting in rush-hour traffic. A typical commuter who switches from driving alone to using commuter alternatives saves more than $800 a year in transportation expenses.
Source: Connie Ruth in "Commuter Benefits: Employers Get the Green Light." (Employee Benefits Digest, Jan. 2003. Report in Vol. 40).

3. The United States burns 400 million gallons of gasoline every day.  Imagine a football field including both end zones.  If you placed 1 gallon gas cans side by side and covered the entire field, you could fit approximately 200,000 cans.  Now stack them 2,000 cans high. Can you imagine what would happen if you lit a match to that? That is really burning fuel!
Source: Mark Evanoff, The AlterNetWays Company, 2007

4. 19% of the average U.S. household budget is devoted to transportation.
Source: Progress, February 2003, newsletter of the Surface Transportation Policy Project

5. There was a 50% increase in cars and trucks on the road between 1970 and 1990.
Source: Holtz Kay, Jane, Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America and How We Can Take it Back (New York: Crown), 1997. Page 16.

6. In 1990, the average motorist paid $5,170 to drive a car 15,000 miles.
Source: U.S. Department of Transportation data, cited in Motavalli, Jim, Breaking Gridlock: Moving Toward Transportation That Works (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books), 2001. Page 9.

7. Average annual time spent by Americans in their cars: 1,600 hours.
Source: American Automobile Association, quoted in Nadis, Steve and MacKenzie, James J., Car Trouble (Boston: Beacon Press), 1993. Page 9.

8. Estimated annual cost of auto pollution in the US:  $54,000,000 to $232,400,000,000.
Source: Alvord, Katie, Divorce Your Car! (Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers), 2000. Page 108.