Commute Question (Casper, Laramie, Rock Springs: insurance, deductible, maintenance)

[noogie0042]

Is it possible to take the long commute from Rock Springs or Casper to Rawlins, WY? I know it is over 100 miles but just trying to get a feel for the area.

[Brian_M]

Sometimes it's possible, but it's those other times when the roads are closed down, or NOT but the maximum safe speed is 30mph, that you're going to be hating that kind of decision. Would you want to spend 3~4 hours on the road, one way, just to commute? 500 miles a week, 28,000 miles a year, current ave. gas price in Casper is $2.70, assume 30mpg return ~ $2500 in fuel (though that's being optimistic). That's not including maintenance items (including windshields, you'll probably need one every-other-year, that is if you don't destroy it every year), down-time when you eventually hit an animal and the insurance deductible, etc....

It can be done, but it's not something the vast majority of people would choose. Makes *MUCH* more sense to live in Rawlins and commute to Casper/Laramie on the weekends.

[sunsprit]

A few observations:

1) Rocks to Rawlins is 107 miles EACH WAY ... that's 214 +/- miles commuting round trip. For a 5 day workweek, that's 1035 miles, or 53,820 miles yearly. At 30 mpg, that's 1794 gallons ... we're rapidly approaching $3.00 per gallon gas (currently $2.79) ... figure on $5,300 per year in fuel cost right now.

2) When the roads are in slick/poor conditions, you won't get that proverbial 30 mpg from your vehicle. It's reasonable to assume a 20-30% loss of fuel economy in those conditions.

3) OP, check out some of the other threads about commutes in Wyoming. One recent thread had a typical driving experience in the low visibility driving conditions youtube video posted on it ... or you can google "winter driving in Wyoming" youtube videos to see normal driving conditions during winter months (not unusual for the area, Nov-April), and get an idea how difficult/dangerous these roads can be. Having to be someplace on a daily schedule in these conditions can be quite a challenge ... and that's before the WHP closes the roads ....

4) FWIW, I've been on I-80 when it's taken over 3 hours to make the Rocks to Rawlins stretch of driving in the winter months ... and there wasn't even a snowstorm in progress, it was just a typical winter day of severe winds blowing snow across the road creating reduced visibility and depositing moisture on the road which became black ice. Even at that, many truckers were blowing past me, still driving at 40-60 mph ... and the swirl of snow from them blowing around made my visibility zero during the time it took for them to pass me and to get some distance ahead.

If you are going to work in Rawlins ... you'd do best to live in Rawlins. It's possible to do the commute you propose, but IMO ... it would be a less than wise choice to do so for much of the year, let alone the time and expense it would take for the balance of the year.

[Brian_M]

Originally Posted by sunsprit

1) Rocks to Rawlins is 107 miles EACH WAY

Ahh yes, lol... might help to calculate the 2nd half of that potential commute.

[ElkHunter]

Log onto WYDOT and in the upper left corner it says 511 Notify. Sign up for road reports for that stretch of road and watch the reports for a week or so. That will give you an excellent idea of closures, high winds, reduced visibility, black ice, etc.

Then, after the hundreds of reports in a week, you can unsubscribe.

They will email or txt, or both every report for a selected stretch of road.

[a2ndchancetostartagain]

Can Also call wyo roads and they will tell you whats open and whats not.