Prolific commenter Vernon Guy passes along a Forbes article by Matt Woolsey that reports Houston is tops when it comes to commuting costs:
It’s often said that the trip to work can kill you. But if you live in Houston, what really takes a beating is your wallet.
There, the average commuter spends 20.9% of his annual household costs on getting to work.
He’s not alone. Cleveland, Detroit, Tampa, Fla., Kansas City, Mo., and Cincinnati also landed on our list of the country’s biggest cities where transportation eats up a fifth or more of household costs. The study, by nonprofit research firm Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP), draws on 2003 Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the most recent available. The study looked at annual transit costs such as gas, tolls and public-transit fare, as well as money spent on car payments and maintenance.
Robert Puentes, a metropolitan policy fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., says, “In Houston, the cost of transportation is the No. 1 household expense, above shelter.”
But that’s in part because Houstonians spend a lower than average proportion of their take-home pay on housing.
And that’s the trade-off.
The percentage of household income Houstonians spend on transportation may be the highest in the country, but when combined with the amount residents spend on housing expenses, Houston’s aggregate cost ranks them 14th, with the composite cost equaling 52% of household income.
Transit costs are high because Houston has few policies hindering sprawl, which in turn allows for cheaper housing. In San Francisco, which is much denser and has more prohibitive zoning laws than Houston, residents rank 22nd in commute costs but fifth in the combination of housing and transportation.
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