The true costs of driving-- how much could you save on transportation?

Could you save money by switching from a driving commute to a transit (and/or carpool/biking/walking) commute? There are more costs to be considered than simply the price of gas, and these calculators will help you figure them out:

• For a simple approach, the American Public Transit Association has a handy calculator which lets you plug in your commute mileage and enter the precise gas prices, MPG, parking costs, and public transit costs that fit your situation. It also includes (based on the size of your car) an estimate of the increased expenses per mile you drive for maintenance and tires, an important addition that often gets left out of back-of-the-envelope calculations. Check it out here.
• This calculator is similar to APTA's, but lets you customize the value for maintenance/tires, and has a field for per-mile savings on depreciation/insurance/taxes/financing.
  
• If you want to get more detailed there's a really cool "Car-Free Diet" website (sponsored by Arlington, VA but it works fine for people anywhere.) It not only explores the cost of driving vs transit/carpool/walking/biking, but also the calories you could burn by walking or biking, and the environmental benefits as well. It's extremely customizable-- from picking the actual make, model, and year of your car, to entering up to 3 different driving routes at a time, to including your weight and age for the calorie-burning calculations! Then you can see numbers and graphs for the money saved, calories burned, and CO2 emissions reduced if you changed each trip to transit, carpooling, biking, walking, or telework (ie "What if I took transit to work twice a week and walked to the grocery store on Sundays?") It's a pretty incredible tool-- check it out here!
• And if you want to take it a step farther and really explore the externalities (costs that are borne by people other than yourself) of your driving, try this calculator called The True Cost of Driving. Not only does it add a few other factors to your personal driving costs such accounting for the average cost per mile of car accidents (health care and property damage), but it also lays out things like how much the government pays for highway maintenance, repairs, and waste clean-up per mile driven; a variety of pollution impacts per mile driven; and a bundle of other effects your driving has on society.

How much does your transprotation cost you? Have you run the numbers recently? How do you do your calculations? Is there anything these calculators are missing?

If you're thinking about switching, check out:

• Paying for transit with pre-tax money
• Free cab rides home in emergencies
• Financial incentives for new carpoolers
  

Get free cab fare home in these 50+ cities/counties with Guaranteed Ride Home programs

If you commute to work any way other than driving solo-- if you take mass transit, bike, walk, or carpool-- then you should investigate if your local transit agency or your employer offers a Guaranteed Ride Home program that'll pay for taxi rides home if your usual arrangements fall through. And if you are a solo driver who's thinking about switching over but afraid of what'll happen in emergencies, well, you should read on too!

Guaranteed Ride Home (or Emergency Ride Home) programs are designed to get commuters off the road and onto public transit or another method of transportation, by helping assuage fears about how to get home in emergency circumstances. They are often sponsored by counties, cities, or transit agencies, but may also be sponsored by individual employers. If you enroll in such a program, then the sponsor will cover the costs of you getting home if unexpected circumstances interfere with your regular plans. Each program has its own rules, but typically "emergencies" are defined as unpredictable events like illness/injury of yourself or a family member, unscheduled overtime (verified by your employer), an emergency at your home (like a flood/break-in/fire/etc), or the early departure of your carpool driver. Covered events for bikers and walkers may also include severe weather.

If you register for the program, you'll qualify for a set number of trips home per year (often two to six.) If an emergency arises, typically you call the Guaranteed Ride Home coordinator and they'll call you a cab, although in some programs you can skip that step and just call the cab yourself (either filing for reimbursement later or using some sort of voucher.) Some programs cover the tip, some don't. They may also cover the costs of a stop at your child's school or daycare on the way home.

So without further ado, here are links to more than 50 Guaranteed Ride Home programs in more than 30 states across the U.S. (If yours isn't included, try searching for one anyway, since I certainly might have missed it.) There are also many employer-sponsored Guaranteed Ride Home programs, so you can check to see if your employer sponsors one (or advocate for it if they don't!)

AZ:
Tucson, AZ

CA:
Alameda County
Contra Costa County
Los Angeles County
Monterey County
Orange County
Riverside County
San Bernadino County
Ventura County
Sacramento
San Diego

CO:
Denver

DC:
Washington DC

DE:
Delaware

FL:
Broward County
Miami Dade County
Palm Beach County
Volusia County
Tampa Bay area

GA:
Atlanta

ID:
Boise

IL:
Madison County

IN:
Southeastern Indiana

IA:
Des Moines

KY:
Northern Kentucky
Northern Kentucky
Louisville

ME:
Maine

MD:
see DC

MI:
Southeast Michigan

MO:
Kansas City
St. Louis

MN:
Minneapolis/St Paul

MT:
Missoula

NV:
Southern Nevada

NH:
Upper Valley (New Hampshire and Vermont)

NM:
Albuquerque
Santa Fe

NY:
NYC

NC:
Charlotte
Durham County
Orange County
Wake County

OH:
Southwest Ohio
Central Ohio

OR:
Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area

PA:
Southeastern Pennsylvania

RI:Rhode Island

TN:
Anderson County
Blount County
Knox County
Loudon County
Jefferson County
Sevier County

TX:
Houston
Austin

VT:
Vermont

VA:
Frederick County
Middle Peninsula
Roanoke Valley
Charlottesville

WA:
Kitsap County

WI:
Washington County
Madison

Pay commuting, medical, and/or dependent care costs pre-tax, and save money for both you and your employer!

Do you take public transit and/or pay for parking for your commute to work? Do you have expenses for child care or care of a dependent parent? Do you have out-of-pocket medical expenses? How does saving 25% or more on those costs sound, adding up to perhaps thousands of dollars a year? Well, if you can convince your employer to take the costs out of your paycheck pre-tax, then that's exactly what you'll get... and your employer will benefit too!

Under federal tax law (and mirrored by some state and local tax laws), employers can allow their employees to pay for commuting costs through pre-tax payroll deductions. The 2008 limits are $115 a month for public transit (including vanpools) and $220 a month for parking (either near work or at a location where you board public transit to work), but no higher than your actual costs.

So if you spend $100 a month to take public transit to work, and another $5o to park at the train or bus station, you could have $150 a month ($1800 a year) deducted from your paycheck. Over the course of a year, that'd save you $450 in federal income taxes (if you're in the 25% tax bracket), $137 in FICA taxes (7.65%, if you're below the $102,000 cap), and possibly an additional amount from state and local taxes (for example, in Massachusetts at the 5.3% state income tax rate you'd save another $95.) And if you spend more in a year, you could be looking at over $1000 in savings!

Sound good, but you're wondering how to broach the issue to your employer? Well, they benefit from the setup too. Since the amount is deducted from your taxable income, they don't have to pay their 7.65% share of your FICA taxes either (saving them $137 a year based on $1800 in expenses, or up to $300 if you use the maximum benefit.) They'll also save on federal unemployment tax, and they also may save on state unemployment and workers compensation payments, depending on state law. And if your coworkers take advantage of the option too, then your employer will benefit many times over. (There'll be some administrative costs to them to implement the program, but although I don't know the details of that sort of thing, I've seen it mentioned many times that the tax benefits usually outweigh the costs for the employer. And for-profit companies can deduct the administrative costs as a business expense.)

The same principle applies for other pre-tax benefits deducted from your paycheck-- like Flexible Savings Accounts for out-of-pocket medical/dental expenses or for dependent care (child care or elder care) expenses-- so if you have significant expenses in those categories and your employer doesn't offer pre-tax deductions, you may want to pitch that to them as well. (The limit for each is $5000 of eligible expenses a year.)

Do you have transportation, medical, and/or dependent care expenses deducted from your paycheck? Have you ever tried to convince an employer to start offering such benefits, and if so, how did it go?

6/19/08: Free rides on public transit in 20+ cities/counties for Dump the Pump Day

If you've been thinking about switching to a commute on public transit but aren't sure it'll work, tomorrow is a great day to try. Not only will you be joining others across the country in celebrating public transportation, but in many areas your trip will be free! (And if you already ride public transit daily in one of these areas, well, enjoy your freebie.)

Over 100 public transit agencies are celebrating Dump the Pump Day on June 19th in one way or another-- many including raffles and free food or other giveaways-- but a few dozen places (see below) are taking it to the next level by offering completely free transit. They want to entice customers to give their system a try and see how well it could work for them. (Want to see how commuting costs compare for you between public transit, including variables like different gas prices and maintenance costs? Try this very helpful calculator.)

In just a minute I'll get to the list of the systems that I could find which are offering free transit. But first I must admit that the whole time I was researching and writing this post, I couldn't help singing to myself "Come onnnnn and take a freeeeeeeee ride..."

CA:

• Foothill Transit (LA suburbs): Free day with coupon and survey http://www.foothilltransit.org
• Omnitrans (San Bernardino County): Free day with coupon http://www.omnitrans.org/06-19-08-dump-pump.pdf
• Orange County: Free all day pass, any day June 16-20 with coupon http://www.octa.net/images/dtp_freepassd.jpg
• Riverside County: Free 7 day bus passes to first 100 requests. http://www.riversidetransit.com/p...mpPump.htm
• North San Diego County Transit District is offering free day passes (good any day) at Starbucks and markets in Carlsbad, Escondido, Oceanside, and Vista: http://www.gonctd.com/pdf_info/du...ump_08.pdf
• San Francisco Bay Area: All transit agencies free all day http://www.sparetheair.org/ EXCEPT BART, CalTrain, ACE, ferries (free until 12 noon only) http://www.bart.gov/news/barttv/?...=27&id=388

Florida:

• Orlando, FL: Lynx free with coupon http://www.golynx.com/?id=1156230
• Gainesville, FL: http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=210843&c=10

Indiana:

• Lafayette, IN: http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080613/NEWS/806130322

Kansas:

• Lawrence, KS: http://www.lawrencetransit.org/

Kentucky:

• Lexington, KY: http://www.kentucky.com/779/story/435291.html

Maryland:

• Frederick County, MD: http://www.co.frederick.md.us/doc...20FY08.PDF

Massachusetts:

• Plymouth, MA: Free rides http://www.wickedlocal.com/plymou...e-for-free
• New Bedford, Fairhaven, Dartmouth MA...http://www.srtabus.com/
• Free rides are also being offered by the systems in Attleboro, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Franklin.

Michigan:

• Blue Water Area: http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080603/NEWS05/80603007/1002/NEWS01

Missouri:

• St. Louis Metro (bus and light rail): Free day with coupon http://metrostlouis.org/GettingSt...hepump.asp

Ohio:

• Akron, OH: http://www.ohio.com/news/19755454.html

Oklahoma:

• Norman, OK: http://www.normantranscript.com/opinion/local_story_167003203

Pennsylvania:

• Indiana County, PA: http://online.indianagazette.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29592&Itemid=52
• Lebanon County, PA: http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article.asp?aID=66714
• Monroe County, PA: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080616/NEWS/806160315
• York County, PA: http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article.asp?aID=66714
• (also Chester County, PA: 35 cent fares http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story...id=6199563)
  

Texas:

• Austin, TX: Free 7-day passes for first 1000 http://www.iridecapmetro.org/Dump_the_pump.aspx
• Fort Worth, TX: http://www.the-t.com/newsrelease/...ump08.html

Washington State:

• Ben Franklin Transit: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/901/story/214765.html

Have any to add to the list?

Travel by bus: save hundreds of dollars, the environment, and your sanity!

I am posting this while riding a bus.

No, not writing it while on a bus and posting it later-- there is wi-fi on this bus, so I am hitting "Publish Post" in the middle of the Jersey Turnpike somewhere in the vicinity of Newark. (And with my laptop plugged into the power outlet on the seat in front of me, too.) It is pretty darn cool, and just reinforces for me all the benefits of traveling by bus rather than driving whenever possible...

• Cheaper. I haven't run the numbers for all common bus routes, but DC to NYC (which I do a couple times a year to visit relatives) is about 450 miles round-trip. On gas alone that's around $50, not to mention about $40 worth of tolls, so $90ish out of pocket-- and if you use the IRS mileage rate to factor in wear-and-tear on the car, the real cost is over $250. Even the priciest round-trip tickets for this route are about $50 per person, and the BoltBus (which I'm riding now) and MegaBus (starting soon; I took this between Chicago and Milwaukee a few times) have tickets starting at $1 (!) depending on how early you buy. So taking the bus can save you over $200 if you're driving alone, and is still a good deal even for a packed car of people. The math may work out differently for your trip, but I'd bet that for a lot of routes you'll find similar results.
  
• More relaxing. I hate driving. It stresses me out and makes me nervous. I don't enjoy it emotionally or physically-- both the driving position and the stress leaves me sore and tense by the end of a multi-hour drive. So taking a bus is a no-brainer for me whenever feasible. But even if you're less anti-driving than me, it's still hard to beat kicking back on a bus and being chauffered to your destination. You have the ability to read, do work, take a nap, eat and drink, or nearly anything else your heart desires (car passengers can already do that, of course, but it's a bonus for the would-be driver.)
  
• Better for the environment. Fifteen gallons of gas for the DC-NYC roundtrip, versus 45 or so for the bus split among forty or fifty passengers.
  
• And now... better features! Okay, this is brand-new and not available everywhere, but I certainly can't get wi-fi access while driving up in the car!
  

Obviously there are some downsides to taking the bus. It can be challenging and/or time-consuming to get from the bus stop to your final destination, especially if you have a lot of luggage to haul. And nobody likes a bus bathroom. (Although rest-stop bathrooms aren't much better!) But if you can work it out, the bus is a really great alternative.