Location, Location, Location. New Online Gas Maps Paint Money Saving Picture
Record-high gasoline prices are inspiring more Americans to celebrate Independence Day close to home. But those who live where they can walk, bike or take public transit to their local fireworks displays and other amenities are benefiting from another sort of independence - from gasoline.
New research from CNT shows that people who live close to transit, jobs, schools and retail - typically in cities and inner ring suburbs - spend up to $2,100 less annually on gasoline than residents of outer ring suburbs, where homes and amenities are generally more spread out and require more driving.
The research, which compares average household gasoline expenses based on the average number of vehicle miles traveled per household, examines 52 U.S. metropolitan areas across the country - encompassing 60 million households. It also looks at percentage of household income spent on transportation, number of vehicles per household, transit ridership and other variables on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.
The gas-cost findings are a newly released addition to the Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, an interactive mapping web tool at http://htaindex.cnt.org.
Read the entire press release.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Maps are fine and good and I have drilled down (and up) thru several web pages connected with the study that examined 52 U.S. metropolitan areas across the country related to gas and transportation costs. I don’t find the information very well presented. I would like to see a simple list rating these metro areas from low costs to high costs. Perhaps the maps would be interesting after I can get a perspective from this type of list but without it, the maps as provided cause me to feel like I am on a micro-zoom level without having seen the larger picture.