WORKING 9-5: Average British commuter spends £48k on travel in a lifetime

London, UNITED KINGDOM

VIJAY SHAH via SWNS digital

The average British commuter will spend around GBP £48,000 (USD $60211) of the course of a lifetime, just on travelling to their workplace, a recent survey of 2,000 commuters in the U.K. has discovered.

The figure is not surprising to many observers. Britain has some of the highest transport fares in Europe, with many tickets around ten times their European equivalent. In addition, the average Briton will also spend up to a year of their life on the commute, assuming they work for 47 years of their lifespan. The survey showed that 68 per cent drive to work, 11 per cent take the train and eight per cent get to the workplace via bicycle or motorcycle.

Interestingly, the survey also picked up the fact that a third of the £48,000 figure will be spent on snacks, refreshments and other items consumed or used during the journey, especially for those on long commutes.

The research was commissioned by the motorcycle insurance company Lexham. The firm’s head of sales and marketing, Andy Goodson, commented: “While many commuters think their journeys to and from work are barely worth considering, the amount of time we spend on them shows we should give them a bit more thought.

“With an average commute time of almost an hour a day, for many Brits this is wasted time as they’re stuck behind the wheel in traffic.

“Some of the happiest respondents in our survey were ones who were able to walk to work – giving themselves the shortest commute possible.”

The average journey on a commute is seven miles (eleven kilometres) long, which means over a working life, commuters will have clocked up 171,080 miles (275,327 km) going to and fro from the office or work site – the equivalent of circumnavigating the Earth more than six times. Those who drive to work suffered the highest stress levels, according to the Lexham research, with biking the least likely to leave people grumpy when they arrive at their desks. Sixty-two per cent of commuters told researchers that a bad journey to work would wreck the rest of their day.

Over the course of their working life, the average commuter will read 67 books, 2248 newspapers and listen to 3617 albums.

They will also send 1710 work emails, consume 977 bananas and play 2,077 gaming sessions on their phones.

Andy Goodson said: “One of the best ways to make your commute happier is to cut down how long it is.

“Motorbikes and scooters are a convenient way to bring down your commuting time, as they can beat traffic so easily.

“Nobody wants to have their day made any more stressful than it needs to be – and sitting in traffic, other commuters’ personal hygiene and constantly late trains definitely don’t help.”

A LIFETIME OF COMMUTING IN NUMBERS:

Distance travelled: 171,080 miles
Amount spent: £48,708.92
Time spent: 10,998 hours
Days late to work: 1906
Newspapers read: 2248
Coffees bought: 1759
Games played on phone: 2077
Social events planned: 1710
Albums listened to: 3617
Bananas eaten: 977