Some commuters now pay $1,600 a month just to get to work — how the cost of gas is changing the math on where you live If you’re a driver with a gas-powered vehicle, you’ve no doubt been feeling the pain at the pump lately, with gas prices jumping more than 50% since the end of…
bruary. But for those Americans with long commutes — or who drive for a living — those high prices can mean a serious cash crunch
For some, it might mean having to figure out a new way to get to work, or even reconsidering where they work and live altogether. Must Read – – Robert Kiyosaki says this 1 asset will surge 400% in a year and begs investors not to miss this ‘explosion’ – Gas prices have spiked since the Iran war began on Feb. 28, when the average price of U.S. regular gasoline sat at $2.98 a gallon (1). According to AAA, on May 7 it was $4.56 — an increase of 53% (2). “Supercommuters” feel the pinch Researchers say there might be more Americans with “super commutes” since the pandemic.
According to a 2024 study by researchers at Stanford University and INRIX that looked at the 10 largest cities in the U.S., the number of people making commutes more than 75 miles had increased 32% since the pandemic (3). And while working from home spiked at the start of the pandemic, many Americans are back in the office. Nicholas Bloom, one of the authors of the Stanford study, told the Wall Street Journal that while working from home grew in 2020, it dropped from 2021 to 2023, and flattened out from 2024 on (4).