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Short commutes rule. That said, the MMM article makes two false assumptions (IMO).
1) Driving costs $0.51/mile. It doesn't. Especially to an eco-modder. My car gets relatively poor mileage compared to many on this forum (~32 MPG), and its cost of ownership is well under $0.15/mile. If I paid for maintenance, this would surely increase, but would not even be close to $0.51/mile. Using that figure raises many other questions like: Why are you driving a brand new luxury SUV back and forth to work on your long commute?
2) That your time has monetary value outside of work. Yes, time is money, but not always. If you work salary, working 6 days a week doesn't pay any more that working 5 days a week. If person A makes $100K and works 5 days a week, but person B makes $120K and has a long commute, effectively working 6 days a week... who makes more money? Person B, even though their hourly rate may work out to the same.
I definitely support short commutes, but I also find some irony in the support of such an article on this forum. If your time is truly worth money like the article says, why would you hypermile? Driving slowly on the highway/coasting to stop signs will certainly cost you far more in time than you will save in fuel. If you could double my gas mileage on the way to work, but it only took you 25% longer to get there, I would still be losing money on the deal.
I recently took a trip across the U.S. (helped my sister drive/move home from CA). While driving her Jetta, which did not return good mileage, I was thinking about slowing down to get better mileage. While driving at 50mph vs. 70mph would return much better mileage, it would extend the trip by over 15 hours. This would mean an extra day of driving at a minimum, an extra night in a hotel, 6 extra meals (3 each), and an additional $250 in lost wages/vacation from work. The cost of that extra day would've been more than the gas cost for the entire trip driving at 70mph.
Food for thought.
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