Commute Cost Comparison Calculator

This calculator prices your commute the way a fleet manager would, not just by fuel: it adds up fuel cost, tolls, and vehicle wear-and-tear for both your current and prospective commute, then reports the annual and daily difference. Fuel cost is round-trip distance divided by your vehicle's MPG, multiplied by the price per gallon and the number of workdays per year (defaulting to 250, a standard 5-day-week assumption after two weeks of vacation). Wear and tear is charged at a flat $0.22 per mile, which mirrors the depreciation-and-maintenance slice of the IRS standard mileage rate — separate from fuel — capturing the real cost of extra oil changes, tires, and depreciation that a longer daily drive adds up over a year. Tolls are simply your reported round-trip daily toll cost times the same workday count.

All three add up to an annual cost for each commute, and the difference between them is your annual savings (or added cost) from the move. Separately, the calculator estimates the dollar value of time saved: it converts the change in round-trip driving time (using a flat 30 mph average speed assumption) into hours per year, then values those hours at $25/hour. That time-value figure is not added into the annual savings total — it's reported alongside it as a separate consideration, since valuing your own commute time is subjective and the $25/hr and 30 mph figures are fixed placeholders that won't match every driver's real speed, income, or how they'd otherwise spend that time.