Houston Ranks Highest on List of America's Most Expensive Commutes

SEE ALSO: Individual State by State Commute Costs

Washington DC August 10, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STTP) has released a study on the nation's top ten most expensive commutes, calculating transit costs such as gas and tolls, public transit fare, and money spent on car payments and maintenance.

The city of Houston is atop the list, reports Forbes. There, the average commuter spends 20.9 percent of his annual household costs on getting to work.

"In Houston, the cost of transportation is the No. 1 household expense, above shelter," says Robert Puentes, a metropolitan policy fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. But that's not the whole story. While the percent of household income Houstonians spend on transportation may be the highest in the country, when combined with the amount residents spend on housing expenses, Houston's aggregate cost ranks them 14th, with the composite cost equaling 52 percent of household income.

According to the study, Transit costs are high because Houston has few policies hindering sprawl, which in turn allows for cheaper housing. Worst hit by the composite ranking were the residents of Tampa and Miami where housing and transportation costs were the most out of sync with the average household's income levels.

Tampa residents spent 57.7 percent, while Miami denizens spent 57.5 percent of their take home pay on the two.