Brits spend £48k over a lifetime – just to get to work

The average British commuter will spend over £48,000 across their working lifetime getting to work.

And over a 47-year working life, Brits will spend over a year of their lives commuting to and from work, with 68 per cent driving, 11 per cent taking the train, and eight per cent cycling. The study of 2,000 commuters in the UK also found that out of the lifetime cost of commuting, over a third is on snacks and takeaway coffees in the morning.

Andy Goodson, the sales and marketing director for motorcycle insurance specialist Lexham, who commissioned the research, said: “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.”

Brits commute on average of seven miles to work and back each day, which tallies up to an incredible 171, 080 miles over their working life – enough to circle the globe more than six times each.

Taking a car to work was voted as the most stressful way to get to work, followed by the bus, the train and Metro or Underground systems. And taking a motorbike was one of the lowest scoring in terms of stress, alongside walking and riding a bicycle.

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: 1,906
Newspapers read: 2,248
Coffees bought: 1,759
Games played on phone: 2,077
Social events planned: 1,710
Albums listened to: 3,617
Bananas eaten: 977