CommuterPageBlog

People Radically Understimate the Cost of Commuting

...when they chose to live further away to "afford" more house says Ric Edelman, a financial planner in Fairfax in answer to a question about how much money one should borrow when buying a house in yesterday's Washington Post Real Estate Section (How Much House Can I Afford, December 13, 2008, Washington Post). From the Post article:

"Avoiding that risk (exceeding the decades old formula of all your loans - mortgage, car, credit debt - not exceeding more than 36% of your gross monthly income) may mean buying a condominium unit instead of a house or living farther from the city than you wanted to, Edelman said. The first is fine. The second is a "disastrous compromise," he said. "People radically underestimate the cost of commuting when they're fixated on buying the home of their dreams."

"There are the economic costs of the commute itself, including gasoline, maintenance and repairs associated with the extra driving and the need to replace the car more often, he said. There are also lifestyle costs, including more time away from the family and the effects on physical fitness and stress levels."

Good things to keep in mind when making housing choices.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria

Quote of the Day: The Time Tax is the Time You Spend Stuck in Traffic

"The time tax is the time you spend stuck in traffic. And when you talk to people, they're stuck in traffic, they're not home with their kids, they can't get to work. What's more valuable, your time or your money? Well they're both valuable, but for some people, time is actually at that point worth more, so you've got to cut the time tax."

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano in an interview on June 27, 2008 with Dan Goldstein at The American Prospect in answer to the following question:

Question: "Your transportation plan is built around a sales tax, and must be approved by voters at the ballot. But it seems that throughout the nation, with the exception of a few major cities, asking people to drive less and consider other modes of transportation has not worked very well. That's why we see this pandering from Senators Clinton and McCain on lifting the gas tax. Is mass transit a losing issue?"

Full Response:  "I would disagree. I would think, for example, that light rail to link Tucson to Phoenix to Flag, up the center spine of our state, particularly if there are spokes that go out into other transit, particularly in light of the ever-increasing cost of gasoline, makes a lot of sense from a commercial-traffic standpoint if not just a passenger-traffic standpoint. And again, well over half of these funds are going toward highways and roads. It's going to reduce what I call the time tax.  The time tax is the time you spend stuck in traffic. And when you talk to people, they're stuck in traffic, they're not home with their kids, they can't get to work. What's more valuable, your time or your money? Well they're both valuable, but for some people, time is actually at that point worth more, so you've got to cut the time tax."

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a Metro/biking commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Escape from the Suburban Fringe

The Brookings Institution's Christopher Leinberger has an awesome article in the March Atlantic Monthly (The Next Slum?) about what the future may hold for the outer suburbs and their McMansions. He posits that they may become tomorrow's slums.

Mr. Leinberger finds that the recent decline of some of these places is usually attributed to the subprime-mortgage crisis and its wave of foreclosures. And while true, he believes that in the future, that a structural change in the housing market, in the way that more Americans want to live and work, is what will really work against these places. Says Leinberger:

"Twenty years ago, urban housing was a bargain in most central cities. Today, it carries an enormous price premium. It is urban life, almost exclusively, that is culturally associated with excitement, freedom, and diverse daily life. It’s crucial to note that these premiums have arisen not only in central cities, but also in suburban towns that have walkable urban centers offering a mix of residential and commercial development. People are being drawn to the convenience and culture of walkable urban neighborhoods across the country—even when those neighborhoods are small. "

He says builders and developers have noticed and are responding to accommodate the demand by providing an alternative to conventional car-based lifestyles. They do so by developing infill in the cities and inner suburbs and even finding a way to bring the city to the newer suburbs. He calls these new places "lifestyle centers." Think Reston. He says demographic changes and increases in gasoline and heating costs will only hasten this change in development patterns that favor new and traditional downtowns aligned with transit. He also echos much recent data that says the turn towards more walkable living means better health. So as America moves toward these changes he paints a sad picture that awaits many of today's sprawling outer burbs:

"... much of the future decline is likely to occur on the fringes, in towns far away from the central city, not served by rail transit, and lacking any real core. In other words, some of the worst problems are likely to be seen in some of the country’s more recently developed areas—and not only those inhabited by subprime-mortgage borrowers. Many of these areas will become magnets for poverty, crime, and social dysfunction."

If you live there now, escape while you still have time.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

America's Most Expensive Commutes - D.C. Didn't Make the Top 10!

In an article in Forbes Magazine yesterday (America's Most Expensive Commutes, August 8, 2007; Matt Woolsey) we find that the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP) has ranked America's biggest cities by the proportion that transportation expenses takes out of annual household costs. If you live in one of the top ten cities, transportation will eat up one fifth (1/5) of total household costs. The STPP study, which draws on Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2003, takes into account gas, tolls, car payments and maintenance as well as public transit fares.

It was nice to see that this was one transportation list that the D.C. area didn't make.

       The Top Ten Most Expensive Commutes

              City                 % Transp.  Annual Delay
                                        Costs     Per Traveler

1. Houston,, TX          20.9%      63 hours
2. Cleveland, OH        20.5%      10 hours
3. Detroit, MI             20.5%      57 hours
4. Tampa, FL             20.4%      46 hours
5. Kansas City, MO     20.2%      17 hours
6. Cincinnati, OH       20.0%      30 hours
7. Dallas, TX              19.7%      60 hours
8. Phoenix, AZ           19.6%      49 hours
9. Miami, FL               19.6%      51 hours
10. Denver, CO            19.2%      51 hours

Part of the reason why D.C. didn't make the list, is that we have such high housing costs. Explains Forbes:

"Transit costs are high because Houston has few policies hindering sprawl, which in turn allows for cheaper housing. In San Francisco, which is much more dense and has more prohibitive zoning laws than Houston (pictured here), residents rank 22nd in commute costs but fifth in the combination of housing and transportation. Houston's combined rank is 14."

The study also found that cities with extensive train systems had lower overall transportation costs. Says Forbes:

"Besides saving commuters money on parking, tolls and gas, rail systems are often seen as a way to manage sprawl as train stations create central and desirable points for living and working."

So the area's high real estate prices and our Metrorail system have kept us off of the list. It's about time we got some good news.

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

U.S. News Exlores America's War On Traffic

In case you missed it, U.S. News & World Report devoted an issue to commuting last week with the lead being "Why We're Losing the War on Traffic."

Lead Story: Road Warriors - Tie-ups. Backups. Gridlock. The American commute has never been so painful. Is there any solution?

Companion Stories:

- A New Idea Across the Pond
- Seeking the Roads Less Traveled
- Q&A: New York Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff
- Q&A: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villargaigosa
- The Worst Counties: Mean Travel Time to Work
- Tables: Severely Congested Roads and the Cost to Eliminate Them
- Photo Gallery: Traffic and Public Transportation in Los Angeles

Among the nation's worst 50 counties for mean travel time to work in minutes, coming in at #5 Prince William County at 40.5 minutes, #6 Prince George's County at 35.7 minutes, at #22 is Fairfax at 31.2 minutes and at a surprising #41 the District of Columbia at 29.5 minutes. Another interesting note is that it seems Los Angeles is undergoing a public transit boom. And thanks to this and a huge investment in traffic management infrastructure, L.A. is one of the only places in the country where drivers spend less time in traffic today than they did a decade ago. Could Los Angeles and California be the hotbed of gridlock solutions for the rest of us to try?

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.

Extreme Commutes and Your Health

From our good friends at the fabulous Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space blog comes a post (Even Commuters Have Got Soul, April 17, 2007) that provides these links to two good stories about commuting behavior:

"The New Yorker has a long piece about commuting behavior, "There and Back Again: The soul of the commuter," and the Washington Post reports similarly, in "Your Car + Your Commute = A Visit to Your Doctor," subtitled "Worried About the Toll Your Workday Drive Is Taking on Your Car? The Wear on Your Body Might Be Even Worse."

Enjoy!

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Chris Hamilton is the Commuter Services Chief for Arlington County, manager of CommuterPageBlog and a biking/Metro commuter from Rosemont in Alexandria.