Online calculator shows how much time and money you spend commuting
How do you compare to the EU average of 37.5 minutes per day?
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Your support makes all the difference.An online tool has been devised to help workers calculate how much of their life they spend commuting.
Developed by automotive company Ford, the website takes simple data about individuals' daily commute
Having established how much is being spent in time and money, it also shows users what else they could get for the same amount of cash.
It can also show, for instance, how a commute of 220 minutes every day in both directions - as a worker might take to commute into London from outside the city - would involve spending around 4.5 years of their life in total journeying to work.
In terms of costs, the site suggests the money that will be spent on the same commute over the course of a career would be enough to buy a 167-square metre house on the tropical island of Bali.
According to the website, the length of the average EU commute is 37.5 minutes per day.
The average commute in the UK is 54 minutes, according to the BBC.
The tool also highlights that a journey using multiple forms of transport is more likely to be stressful.
However, for someone whose commute is 60 minutes per day by bicycle, the prospects are slightly improved to ‘OK-ish,’ despite the lower costs involved.
A 30-year-old cyclist - who has been making the same journey for 10 years - and who spends 30 minutes per day commuting will already have already spent 40 days (960 hours) of their life travelling to and from work. They can expect to spend another 205 days doing the same if they travel the same way until they retire.
This commute, despite being cheaper and healthier than using a motorised vehicle, is considered "average" by the website.
Research has found that commuting for over 20 minutes leaves workers more susceptible to chronic stress (also known as 'burnout') and could make people more cynical.
In addition, the Office for National Statistics has found that "commuters have lower life satisfaction, a lower sense that their daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness and higher anxiety on average than non-commuters".
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