This Is How Much Gas You Waste If You Live in a City With Traffic Jams
Concern about gas prices is always high, but now it has reached a climax. It’s one of the big talking points these days (even when people don’t know what they’re talking about ) and we’re all looking for ways to save money at the gas station .
Your driving habits play a big role in how much gas your car consumes, and therefore how much money you spend on it, but your “habits” may not be entirely to blame. Your city can also take on some of the responsibility. Let’s check the data from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute and INRIX to see which regions passengers consume excess fuel due to traffic jams.
The biggest gas guzzlers among very large cities
We take a look at the top five cities in each size category according to the 2021 Urban Mobility Report . First, “very large”. Here are the areas that spent the most gasoline in 2020 and how many gallons were lost on average per passenger.
- New York: 23 gallons
- Houston: 21 gallons
- Boston: 20 gallons
- San Francisco: 17 gallons
- Chicago: 16 gallons
This is data for 2020, when travel was significantly reduced due to the pandemic and gas prices were significantly lower than they are now. We can assume that now gas consumption has increased again, as cars are used to get people to work, school and vacations more than during the lockdown. Let’s use average gas prices since 2020 and the available numbers from the report to determine where this waste is being converted into cash, but with the understanding that now that fares and gasoline prices have risen, these numbers are even lower than we are. we can assume that fuel waste costs the average passenger in 2022.
For example, the average gas price in New York City in 2020 was $2.18 , which means the average commuter is wasting about $50 a year. Even if New Yorkers were only using 23 gallons of gasoline this year (it wasn’t; it’s certainly higher), with an average price per gallon this year of about $4 and assuming it lasts until December, every passenger commuter area looks at almost $100 in scraps, at least .
The largest gas sinks among large areas
The top five in terms of “large areas” in 2020 included:
- Austin, TX: 15 gallons
- Cleveland: 15 gallons
- Oklahoma City: 15 gallons
- Sacramento, California: 15 gallons
- San Antonio: 15 gallons
The list includes two Texas cities, Austin and San Antonio, which each averaged 15 gallons of fuel per passenger in 2020. spend.
Largest gas sinks among medium-sized areas
Moving on, we find the five worst gas sinks in “medium-sized” regions in 2020:
- Bridgeport/Stamford, CT: 16 gallons
- Albany/Schenectady, New York: 15 gallons
- Buffalo, New York: 14 gallons
- El Paso, Texas: 14 gallons.
- Fresno, California: 14 gallons
We’ve already done the calculations for Texas and New York, so let’s look at the average gas price in California since 2020 to determine how much Fresno residents were wasting on average this year. The median price in California that year was about $3.13 per gallon , meaning drivers in Fresno were wasting about $43.89.
And small areas are also not insured.
Finally, we have a breakdown of what the typical commuter in the “small average” area wasted on gas in 2020. Here are the five worst cities:
- Corpus Christi, TX: 14 gallons.
- Stockton, California: 14 gallons
- Poughkeepsie, New York: 13 gallons
- Boulder, Colorado: 12 gallons
- Madison, Wisconsin: 12 gallons
This time, we’ll look at the numbers for Wisconsin to see how much money has mostly evaporated from Madison drivers’ tanks in 2020. The average price per gallon in that state at the time was $1.27, meaning these passengers lost about $15.24. .
Worried about these findings, especially knowing they’re definitely worse now? Here are seven ways to save money on gas .