Calculating the Fuel Costs of Commuting to Work
from: http://www.inventhp.com => (Invent Horsepower - with efficient design)
promoting efficient use of energy
  
n1 =  Weeks you work in a year.
n2 =    days you work in a week.
n3 =  miles it takes to get to work and back home ( the round trip distance )  
n4 =      % of the time you drive for your car pool ( Not in a car pool - enter 100 ).
n5 =      % Increase in fuel consumption due to poor driving habits.*
n6 =      % Increase in fuel consumption due to heavy traffic - forcing stop & go traffic.**
n7 =      % Increase in fuel consumption due to poor Vehicle maintenance.***
n8 =   mpg rating of your car ( use city rating if that best describes your commute ).
n9 =      % ethanol in the fuel you buy.
n10 =  $ / gallon ( enter the price you have been paying or expect to pay for fuel ).
          
    Dollars spent for commuting, annually!
 
Below is the equation used to make the above calculation:
 
n1* n2*n3*n4*.01*(1+n5*.01)*(1+n6*.01)*(1+n7*.01)*n10 = Dollars spent for the commute to work annually!
             (n9*.00653+(100-n9)*.01)*n8
 
* n5 - Is a function of : speeding, quick accelerations, and hard breaking. And think of how preventing accidents would  prevent the needed trips by police cars and  ambulances and possibly trips to the hospital.. (might be in the range of 5-30%)
 
** n6 -  This variable seems to be out of your control. But perhaps it could be reduced by either changing your route or by when you choose to leave. Any start and stop driving causes the engine to continually accelerate the vehicle and its contents (power=mass*acceleration*velocity), so look for things in the car that don't need to be there. For every 50 lbs of  things you find to take out of the car a 1 % increase in MPG should be realized. (might be in the range of 5-20%)
 
*** n7 - Is a function of: Tire Pressure, Clean Air Filter, fresh spark plugs,  worn engines,  the grade of oil used, and a clean car -  to name a few. (might be in the range of 5-25%)
 
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An online Newsweek article: "Driving Down Real Estate / Will higher commuting costs kill the suburbs?" by Daniel McGinn - posted June 30, 2008 links to this page. 

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