Sean K Maden
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My multivariate commute: How I strategized my way to an occupation and reliable attendance while balancing health, time, and savings

Author: Sean Maden

Date: 2/25/2025

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14927549

At some time or other over the last 10 years I have regularly commuted by walking, bicycle, motor scooter, mass transit, light rail, and car. I considered my commute and related factors for a considerable amount of time, but did not always have opportunity to every possible option. I am fortunate to live in the Portland, Oregon Metro area with its above average mass transit, green infrastructure, and bike-friendly roads. When transitioning to a new in-person job coming from a remote work fellowship, I needed to consider my new commute in terms of both my time and the money I would spend. I constructed a spreadsheet and populated key variables like cost per unit time (day, week, month) for each strategy while fixing the commute distance and work hours. I could estimate my time commuting, specific costs, and several benefits for each time interval. Equipped with this data, I felt better prepared to apply to specific opportunities outside of comfortable walking distance but nonetheless close enough to bike or bus. Further, I could consider investments like a bus pass, bicycle, accessories, and equipment with more confidence in their payoff. So far, I am happy to share these decisions have worked to my advantage. This post details how I planned my hypothetical commute, fine-tuned my actual commute, and what steps you can take to do the same.

We need to set a baseline for each commute method of driving, mass transit/bus, and bicycling (ebike). First, we assume type of car and bike, commute route, car mileage, and costs of gas (mpg) and bus fare (dollars per leg). Second, we assume standard times of 37.5 hours worked per week, 5 work days that I commute weekly, and a distance of 7.5 miles for each leg of my commute, totalling 15 miles commuted per day, 75 miles commuted weekly, and 337.5 miles commuted monthly.

Driving, the estimated cost is $2.30 daily, $11.40 weekly, and $51.20 monthly. This excludes routine car maintenance and possible repairs and recalls, which can quickly add overhead cost and are best dealt with by dedicating a monthly savings bucket to cover these costs. Busing, the cost is about double per day, but my employer discount of 50% reduces this cost to practically the same as driving. By busing, we save on possible wear, tear, and damage costs for driving our car or riding our bike. Bicycling, there is no daily cost on gas or a pass, which you could consider as an assumed savings of $51.20 monthly over alternate methods. Actually, this savings accrues fast to a huge $621 per year, or $1,215 per year compared to undiscounted bus fare. That is: a monthly subscription to three app memberships such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime, with money to spare; or one additional multi-night AirBnB vacation per year including meals and gas. Not bad at all!

We may further consider time cost as a percent of hours worked (7.5 hours daily, 5 days per week) on a given workday. Bicycling and driving each entails the lowest percent of time commuting per time working at 10 percent and 16 percent, respectively, while busing is much higher at a whopping 40 percent of time commuting over time working. This is before accounting for mistakes, missed busses, or delays and cancellations, all of which are mostly out of our control as passengers. Finally, we exercise when either busing or bicycling, but not while driving. Exercise when busing consists of 50 minutes of daily walking to/from bus stops, or 4.2 hours weekly, and 19 hours monthly. Exercise when bicycling is considerably higher at 6 hours weekly and 26 hours monthly. You may also consider the unstructured bus passenger time as an opportunity to read or do work from your phone rather than driving or bicycling. Further, the NIH recommends at least 2.5 hours or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise per week. While either busing or biking 5 days weekly gets us well above that recommendation, with busing we exceed the recommended time by 67% whereas with bicycling we exceed this by a whopping 133%; we more than double the recommended exercise duration by biking five days per week! This huge boon for health, longevity, and wellbeing means biking easily edges out busing in terms of health benefit. In my view, this benefit even outweighs the opportunity to read or phone while riding on the bus for up to about 1.5 interrupted hours, tops. It certainly wins out against 2.25 of added hours of daily bus commute time.

Wrapping up my first Fall and Winter season on the present commute route, I have some thoughts as to the cost/benefit analysis. For inclement weather such as snow and ice storms, buses ran reliably, but approaching and departing bus stops proved tricky and occasionally hazardous. What’s more, waiting longer than 30 minutes for a bus to arrive in inclement weather may entail serious exposure risk. More than once, my clothes were drenched through by the time my bus finally arrived (a good reminder to pack an umbrella). Across circumstances and commute types, it was helpful to pack extra clothes, prepack backup accessories, and dress in layers to prepare properly for bad weather. My first few seasons of work, the exercise benefit of bicycling has also been great. Coasting in early on an all-natural high from endorphins and vitamin D is simply an excellent way to start the workday. This goes doubly so for roles like mine in customer service, where demeanor and attitude are crucial.

Planning, mapping, and graphing out your work commute options in detail may seem almost excruciating, tedious, or even unnecessary at times. But this need only be as complex and nuanced as your needs. If you live across the street from your place of work, your commute planning may not need to be as involved as if you live miles away (though you could still use similar strategies to research other places of work or planning for your time off!). Ultimately, you benefit most from learning about your community, errands, and costs at a level that is to your own benefit; applying new knowledge adding reliability to your schedule can tip factors surrounding time, money, and obligations more in your own favor. While I greatly prefer bicycling to other commute options, you may prefer motorcycle or motor scooter, carpools, bike shares, light rail, and even other forms of transportation. I also occasionally drive and bus if I am feeling low-energy or the weather is particularly bad. Having a backup plan, preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best are all great strategies to get to work when you want and reduce daily overhead stress.

If you are just getting started with building your own commute plan from scratch, it is easy and straightforward to follow this plan. First, start a new spreadsheet and list out everything you know about your current or future job, where it is located, how many hours you work, and when those hours are scheduled daily and weekly. Next, estimate cost for driving, busing, biking, and any other possibility you like for your geographic area. Account for both distance and duration of travel. Once you have a rough idea of the time and monetary cost per commute type and what your preferred commute strategies will be, you can start to itemize and consider cost of upkeep for each commute type. I have included my own work commute template for you to fill out according to your own commute (find it here).

Use your planning and data to stay ahead of costs and investments associated with commuting. Getting into bicycling can carry some steep overhead costs and risks in the short term. Further, busing costs about the same as driving when subsidized, but it accrues no cost of upkeep whereas cars need routine oil changes, wheel rotations, and other maintenance over time. Also reconsider the comparison of different commute strategies and factor in those dollars saved when preferring one strategy over the other. Dollars saved on car maintenance by riding the bus could be put into a savings bucket towards a new bike or a trade for a car with lower mileage, for example. Also be aware that different commute routes could add crucial errand stops on certain days while adding negligible commute time. Finally, it is important to dive in, start commuting, take some quick daily notes, and run a few simple analyses on a regular basis. This type of self-reflection is crucial to understanding what works and what can be optimized with a small amount of effort.

I managed to avoid a lot of risk and pain by (1) consistently preparing my work and commute wardrobe the night before and always having an alarm set for early the next day, and (2) constantly reviewing my commute route, considering alternate routes, and exploring my area on my days off. The importance of weather was further a function of day of the week, since my shift never falls on a normal Monday through Friday schedule I am often negotiating unusual pedestrian and car traffic on the weekends when reporting in for work. Over time, I discovered simpler bus routes and more bike-friendly traffic lights and routes through constant experimentation and always planning to arrive at least 20 minutes before the start of my shift. This occasionally means leaving as soon as 2 hours in advance of shift start. But the converse is I can enjoy fresh air, run a quick errand, and read or get something done on my phone. In general, time savings opens up more opportunities to think, explore, and save even more.

Now that fundamental factors of distance, transport, cost, weather, and health have been addressed, let us conclude with some final considerations for using technology and resources to your advantage to build a great commute plan quickly and better prepare yourself across contingency circumstances. First, free versions of apps such as Maps, Google Maps, Ride with GPS, and Strava can be very handy to find, track, and store routes and traffic data. You do not always need the latest traffic data to be prepared for your commute, so be sure to take screen captures of bus schedules, bike and car routes, and other info before setting out and potentially losing network access for a while. That said, it is a good idea to prepare as much as possible the day or evening before your trip. Keep devices, ebikes, and accessories plugged in and charging overnight, and consider investing in a charged power bank that you keep charged and on hand as back up. Next, consider your wardrobe carefully, and account for factors like availability of lockers, changing rooms and similar facilities at your place of work or on the way. As already stated, try to prepare your clothes and start packing layers the night before, to minimize your tasks just before departure. For my bike commute, I charge my ebike and helmet light overnight. Further, I set aside several layers and pack an additional layer the night before. In the morning, I wear a base layer and weatherproof shell layer; at work, just before my shift, I swap out my weatherproof shell for work clothes; after my shift, I typically just throw on my weatherproof shell before setting out. Packing an extra reusable bag is always handy for last minute shopping and other purposes, and small items like a tissue package, backup sunglasses, and change of socks take up little space but add a lot of reassurance and bandwidth to overcome unexpected circumstances. Finally, search in proximity of your planned commute route for places like libraries, cafes, and transit centers, where you could occasionally as time allows. You may want to invest in a library card, cafe gift card, or transit pass, and consider packing a book, magazine, or pad and pencil to keep yourself occupied. Under extenuating circumstances like extreme weather, transit centers may add some additional commute time but ultimately make the difference between a missed shift and an on-time arrival. In each case, it is likely you should do a little research and practice travel on your weekend or outside of your normal workday, to ensure you are comfortable adding stops to the route when it counts on a workday. I distilled all of the above advice into a handout with 10 helpful tips that you can access here.

In preparing and planning for your work commute, consideration of contingencies like weather and sickness will pay off in the long run as you can mitigate your risk, incorporate regular exercise and safety measures, and consistently arrive at work on-time or even early. Unlike remote work that features no commute cost over lodging and a network connection, working on-site may require substantial consideration of commute options and schedules whose importance is amplified the further you reside from your place of work. I distilled the advice in this post down to 10 easy steps, which you can find here along with my template for calculating commute strategy costs. Once you have broken ground by successfully commuting for a few weeks and proving the concept of your new commute strategy, further factoring for time and monetary savings on preferred commute strategies, route variations for extenuating circumstances, and smart material investments will jump start you on the road to success.







Cite this article

Maden, Sean. My multivariate commute: How I strategized my way to an occupation and reliable attendance while balancing health, time, and savings. Self-published, 2025. 10.5281/zenodo.14927549





Appendix

A1. Example

Multivariate commute cost/benefit example.

A2. Tips

Ten tips for strategic commute planning.

A3. Repository

Zenodo repository for this article.





Further reading