Why Americans drive big cars...

Curiously, the commute to the office in Lawrenceville is exactly the same distance as my old commute from Winchester to Ocean/Power FM. 40 miles a day.

In my lunch break today, I did some idle calculation.

Based on the current exchange rate, the cost of petrol in the UK and New Jersey and the mileage my cars got here and in England, I came to a staggering conclusion.

Even though my '86 Lincoln Town Car has an engine 150% larger than my Volvo 480 - and neatly does half as many miles per gallon - it's still a whopping 25% more expensive to drive from Winchester to Fareham and back (40 miles) than it is to drive from North Brunswick to Lawrenceville (also 40 miles.)

Of course, in England my commute took 20 minutes at 80mph. Here it takes 40 minutes at anywhere between 55mph (the speed limit) and a standstill (because of the millions of traffic lights on US Route 1.)

But with maths like that, no wonder people in America are still happy driving 'big' cars.

But it's not so much that America grants indulgence to gas-guzzlers. My commute up to New York City is also shocking. A round-trip (that's a return ticket, folks) costs $21.50 and my subway tickets on the Uptown E Train cost $4 there and back. To get to HQ in London, my return train ticket from Winchester to Waterloo was £40 and my Tube tickets were £4 each. On today's exchange rate, that works out as $96 compared to $24.50.

That's almost a quarter of the price!

No wonder we couldn't afford to live in England.

Oh, it goes without saying that the $24.50 you pay to get from New Brunswick station to the corner of 49th and 6th includes train service that runs on time and pretty much guarantees you a seat.

British Rail? If you were a dog, we'd take you out back and shoot you.