The real cost of driving to work

Perth is the most expensive city in Australia to travel to work by car according to new research by the Committee for Perth and the further you travel, the more you pay.

If you live five kilometres from the CBD and use your car to get to work it’s costing you $9,180 a year, but if you live in Joondalup, which is 25 kilometres from town, it’s up to $22,306 every year.

“The comparable average figures for the other Australian capital cities are $7,432 and $14,369. So we’re paying between $1,748 and almost $8,000 each year more than it’s costing other capital city commuters,” said Committee for Perth CEO, Marion Fulker.

“Part of this cost is because of Perth’s relatively high parking fees caused by a shortage of bays in the CBD. But if you’re living 25 kilometres from the CBD, you’re spending up to $1,900 a month on petrol, parking, car registration, insurance and maintenance, which isn’t much less than the average monthly mortgage repayment of $2,000.”