The average commute in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area is estimated to cost $10,018 a year, making it the fifth-most expensive commute among the U.S. metropolitan areas examined in a ConsumerAffairs analysis. The figure is not a typical household transportation bill: it combines direct fuel costs with an estimated monetary value for time spent traveling to work.
ConsumerAffairs calculated the Seattle-area total using commute times, local wages, gas prices, driving distances and vehicle fuel economy. Its estimate assigns about $1,489 to fuel and $8,529 to commuting time, based on a listed gas price of $5.12 per gallon and a median hourly wage of $34.91. Those calculations describe an average modeled burden, not an amount every worker pays or loses.
The local scale of the time component is substantial. KIRO 7 reported that workers in the area spend about 58 minutes commuting round trip on an average day—more than 244 hours, or over 10 full days, across a year. The estimate therefore reflects both money spent operating a vehicle and the opportunity cost assigned to repeated travel.
The regional picture is more complicated than a single average
Official regional data show that commuting remains important, but represents a smaller share of overall weekday travel than it did before the pandemic. The Puget Sound Regional Council reports that commute trips accounted for 18% of all weekday trips in the central Puget Sound region in 2023, down from 21% in 2019…