Not to mention lower insurance costs. I save several hundred dollars a year because I don’t use my car for commuting.
My train ticket from western Suffolk county to Manhattan (about 35 miles by train) costs $181.00/month (there are additional discounts for buying a Metrocard (subway pass) with the ticket, but I won’t get into that). Assuming 20 commuting days/month (some months have more, but we’ll subtract a few for vacation, sick days, etc; days that you pay for but don’t use), that comes to about $9.00/day. Personally, I think that commuting into Manhattan by car is insane, not to mention selfish (unless you’re carpooling). It’s certainly more expensive; just parking in Manhattan during the day costs about the same as a train ticket (the monthly parking spots cost about the same as a monthly ticket; that doesn’t even consider gas, depreciation and the stress of sitting in standstill traffic). And it usually takes longer…