The average American spends 72 minutes per weekday in transit. For most of that time, we're driving -- to and from work, school, the grocery store, the movie theater. Every year, that's more than 290 hours of drive-time radio, talking back to the GPS and wondering, for the millionth time, why people think it's OK to drive only 60 miles an hour in the left lane. And it's just plain a lot of time -- more than 12 days' worth.
It's also a lot of money. The average U.S. household spent $5,477 on gas and other auto expenses last year, according to Bundle data, an amount that accounts for about 14.5% of daily spending, not including mortgage or rent. That's more than we spent on groceries or utilities. And it's more than we spent on travel, entertainment, clothes and shoes, and hobbies -- combined.
Yet some places are harder on a car owner's wallet than others. The average Connecticut household spent $7,652 on its automobiles in 2009, the highest in the country and 40% more than the national average. (Click state links to see monthly spending for March 2010.) At the other end of the scale, West Virginians spent just $4,258, the least in the country. At the city level, the differences were more stark. In Austin, Texas, the top-spending U.S. city, residents spent $10,128 on their cars -- almost five times what the average Detroit resident spent ($2,124).
Of course, there are outliers. Wisconsinites and Vermonters, solidly in the middle of the pack for overall spending, catapult into the top 10 for overall spending on their cars, while New Yorkers and Hawaiians, big spenders in general, allocate relatively little to gas and auto expenses. (Bundle's auto expense data covers spending at dealerships, body shops, service stations, parking garages and tollbooths, among other car-related venues. Discover how Bundle's spending data is compiled here.)
You could blame the wicked winter weather for the higher costs of car ownership in those Northern states, while a good percentage of New Yorkers benefit from a stellar public transit system. But in Hawaii, it's less straightforward. Gas prices there are the highest in the country; Hawaiians are in the top 10 for commute time. Why are they spending so little? From whence this automotive aloha?
As it turns out, Hawaiians are second only to New Yorkers for the lowest percentage of workers who drive to work alone, according to the U.S. census. Put another way, a higher proportion of Hawaiians take buses, carpool, bicycle or walk to work than commuters anywhere else in the country except New York.
In fact, this trend seemed to explain the differences in spending patterns as much as or more than any other single characteristic (other than overall spending). In general, the more people drive to work alone, the greater the amount they spend on their cars. At one extreme, in Alabama, where 83% of workers get behind the wheel solo every morning, residents also devote 16.3% of their budget to gas and car maintenance costs. That's twice what residents allocate in Washington, D.C., where just 37% of residents drive to work alone. It also offers an explanation why Californians -- who rank third in overall spending and love their cars -- fall to No. 11 when it comes to car spending: 27% of residents in the state don't drive to work alone.
| Total annual spending: | $37,782 |
|---|---|
Total annual spending on "getting around": | $5,477 ($456 per month) |
Annual spending on gas: | $2,208 ($184 per month) |
Annual spending on auto expenses: | $3,269 ($272 per month) |
Obviously, there are some states where the link doesn't hold, where other factors -- like the weather, distance traveled and, obviously, the fuel efficiency of a car -- seem to have more of an effect than the driving-alone metric. In Arizona, for example, only 75% of residents drive to work alone, average for the U.S., but they spend $7,091 on gas and getting around, second only to Connecticut. They also spend $2 out of every $3 on maintenance. Chalk it up to the hot weather, which can take a heavier toll on batteries and tires, says William Jackson, the president of Sears Automotive. Arizona's high temperatures also lead to more overheating and to heavier use of air conditioning, which can overwork a vehicle.
But in trying to understand why, for example, people in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont spend so much more on their cars than residents of nearby Massachusetts, or why Wisconsinites and Minnesotans spend more than residents of Montana or Idaho, driving alone seems to offer the best explanation.
The good news is, how you get to work -- and with whom -- is something you can control, much more than we can control the price of gas, the traffic, the weather or even the length of a commute. For most people, there's very little that's truly "discretionary" about gas and car maintenance. But adding a passenger to your commute or hitting the park-and-ride is much easier and cheaper than, say, buying a more-fuel-efficient car or moving closer to work.
This isn't an environmental argument; it's a financial one and one that makes intuitive sense. Most people use their cars primarily for commuting. If you can split that cost with another person, you can spend half as much. And doing so can add up to several hundred dollars of savings a year. To which I say: "Going my way?"
| Rank | State | Average amount spend on cars in 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connecticut | $7,652 |
| 2 | Arizona | $7,091 |
| 3 | Texas | $6,588 |
| 4 | New Hampshire | $6,277 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | $6,272 |
| 6 | Vermont | $6,105 |
| 7 | Virginia | $5,945 |
| 8 | Kansas | $5,909 |
| 9 | Minnesota | $5,876 |
| 10 | Wisconsin | $5,813 |
| 11 | California | $5,797 |
| 12 | Colorado | $5,752 |
| 13 | Rhode Island | $5,709 |
| 14 | Utah | $5,708 |
| 15 | Missouri | $5,691 |
| 16 | Iowa | $5,677 |
| 17 | Illinois | $5,629 |
| 18 | New Mexico | $5,606 |
| 19 | South Dakota | $5,573 |
| 20 | Nevada | $5,555 |
| 21 | Florida | $5,544 |
| 22 | North Carolina | $5,536 |
| 23 | Maine | $5,469 |
| 24 | Maryland | $5,462 |
| 25 | Washington | $5,460 |
| 26 | Wyoming | $5,455 |
| 27 | Michigan | $5,427 |
| 28 | Arkansas | $5,837 |
| 29 | Tennessee | $5,331 |
| 30 | Indiana | $5,307 |
| 31 | Massachusetts | $5,290 |
| 32 | Ohio | $5,246 |
| 33 | Delaware | $5,233 |
| 34 | North Dakota | $5,223 |
| 35 | Louisiana | $5,143 |
| 36 | Nebraska | $4,995 |
| 37 | Hawaii | $4,937 |
| 38 | Idaho | $4,861 |
| 39 | Montana | $4,831 |
| 40 | Alaska | $4,822 |
| 41 | Alabama | $4,785 |
| 42 | New Jersey | $4,762 |
| 43 | Kentucky | $4,722 |
| 44 | South Carolina | $4,710 |
| 45 | Georgia | $4,676 |
| 46 | Pennsylvania | $4,634 |
| 47 | Oregon | $4,589 |
| 48 | New York | $4,542 |
| 49 | Mississippi | $4,529 |
$4,258 | ||
Published June 29, 2010
