How much gas is your time worth?

From CNN.com:

In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with...

Engineers at Consumer Reports magazine tested this theory by driving a Toyota Camry sedan and a Mercury Mountaineer SUV at various set cruising speeds on a stretch of flat highway. Driving the Camry at 75 mph instead of 65 dropped fuel economy from 35 mpg to 30. For the Mountaineer, fuel economy dropped from 21 to 18.

Over the course of a 400-mile road trip, the Camry driver would spend about $6.19 more on gas at the higher speed and Mountaineer driver would spend an extra $10.32.

So my inner economist asks:  Is it worth it to drive 10 mph slower to save $6.19-$10.32? 

 

According to my calculations that 400 mile trip takes an extra 49 minutes.  So another way to ask the same question is:  are you willing to pay $6.19-$10.32 to save 49 minutes of travel time? 

Or yet another way, is your time worth more or less than $7.57-$12.64/hour?

Comments

[John Whitehead]

Should you change your slogan to: Drive Less, Drive Fast?

[odograph]

I take the amount of time-filling, bad, television broadcast in this country as simple proof that people could slow down.

[another john whitehead]

other factors to include (for some grad student somewhere):

- decreased (or increased?) likelihood of getting into an accident
- probability and cost of getting a speeding ticket

and the most important of all....

- reduced stress level by cruising along in the slow lane: priceless.

[David Zetland]

The study (via CU, no less) provides important information to consumers. Many know little more than "city" and "highway" mileage.

People DO use those little gauges that describe real time consumption, so this information is useful.

Much better to *know* you are trading $10 for faster speeds than to assume it's a free lunch (or costing you $25).

[Cervus]

My Corolla gets near-top EPA mileage at 70-75 mph. And my Honda Reflex gets 65mpg at freeway speeds.

So, no, I don't see any real need to slow down. The only thing I've noticed lately is that since the EPA mandated more ethanol in gas, my mileage has gone down a little.

[DJ]

You're absolutely right about the relationship between gas prices and wages: it costs more to use less.

It's interesting to note that in much of the world, the ratio between gas and labor prices is much different. For example, in Sri Lanka (where I've spent a great deal of time), gas costs about $4 per gallon, and the typical wage is $2 per day. That means a gallon of gas costs about 2 days pay.

Can you imagine that ratio here in the U.S.? Gas would run somewhere around $150 per gallon! THAT would change our driving habits.

@odo: the trouble with the television theory of highway speed is that the people watching large amounts of bad TV are clearly not the ones whose time is of any value whatsoever.

[another john whitehead]

Cervus: you may not be getting the most from your Corolla.

at 65mph, my Ford Focus just edges higher than the EPA mileage. At 60 mph, I can beat the EPA by 4mpg. (39.5 best recorded, in Michigan's upper peninsula)

For safety, I don't recommend going 10 under the speed limit, but I've found five under to be no problem.