The price of petrol and time
The petrol price has risen from 80p a litre at the start of 2005 to around 114p today. That's an increase of 42% in three and a half years. If the average driver does 12,000 miles a year, and his car does 35 mpg, that's an increase in his petrol bill from £1,234 to £1,758 (this doesn't allow for any decline in driving due to the higher price).Now one simple way to cut fuel consumption is to slow down - from 40mph onwards every 20mph subtracts about 6-10mpg from your fuel consumption. So for a 60 mile journey on a motorway, doing it at 60 mph rather than 80 mph (I'm going to ignore the issues of the law and traffic) and assuming fuel consumption falls TO 35 mpg FROM 27 mpg will typically mean a petrol saving of £2.8 - what would cost £11.9 at 80 mph costs £9.1 at 60 mph in a typical car.
However it also takes longer - one hour rather than 45 mins. It's difficult to exactly know how people value their time in this situation, but essentially if you value your time at more than £11.2 an hour you are still better off driving quickly.
Of course there are a lot of other factors to consider.
Labels: economics
posted by Matthew @ 5/22/2008 03:13:00 PM
Comments: 5
