June 24, 2004 5:37 AM

Engineers are different from the rest of us
Posted by Jason Butlerat 5:37 AM

A Sun engineer calculates the total cost of commuting to his job and develops mathematical models for comparing driving to taking public transportation.

Let X be the amount I'm paid per hour. I get about 20-21 mpg on the highway, let's say 20.5. Assume a gas cost of $2.49/gallon (yeah it guzzles premium). Let Y be the fuzzy "amount of hassle/stress" caused by sitting in traffic.

for the car, my TCC = $.66X + $3 + $(64/20.5 * 2.49) + Y