Travelers are more than likely to fly when the destination is just under 1,000 miles away. You might be wondering "this is way to far, I would never drive 900 miles anywhere." While this might be true for you, consider that in 2023 it was reported that only 42% of Americans take a domestic flight.
Many travelers also take road trips too. We think back to many wonderful trips during our childhood traveling to beach destinations. Road trips are an excellent way to explore the country.
Flying and driving have different costs. While drive costs increase linearly with distance, airfare costs is more curved. The chart "Estimate Cost of Transportation" shows the estimated costs of one round-trip ticket per mile traveled in comparison to driving costs for the average American vehicle (22.2 miles per gallon and price of gas $3.26). We took the liberty of finding average values since estimating every cost variable and plotting that on a chart would be insane and unusable.
It is interesting how the cost of flying (one round-trip ticket) is more cost efficient around 1,300 miles compared to driving. *Driving 60 miles an hour for 1,300 is roughly 21 hours and 20 minutes one-way.
These charts should help you to realize that transportation companies, like airlines, sell time.
Enter in the distance of the destination you want to visit and the calculator will output the cost to fly (one round-trip ticket) and to drive using a gas-powered vehicle that gets roughly 22.2 mpg.
