Everyday Math – PLS on the Parkway

My wife and I are currently taking an on-site PLS course entitled Purposeful Learning Through Multiple Intelligences. If you’re not familiar with the how the on-site courses work, they meet from five until nine on Friday, eight until five on Saturday, and eight until five on Sunday. Needless to say, you get a lot done in a weekend but the days can be exhausting. We found a site not too far from our house; it was only a driving distance of about fifteen or twenty miles. This was no problem. The problem was The Parkway. Now, if you know anything about Pittsburgh, you know that we don’t have what you might call logical roadway systems. The Parkway is I-376 which runs through the middle of Pittsburgh and out to the Penna Turnpike. The road itself is not bad, but it’s construction season here in the ‘Burgh (construction season usually runs from about the beginning of February to the end of January), and when our PennDot crews work on The Parkway they will shut anywhere from one to all lanes. This would not be a problem except that just about everyone uses this road to get around. Needless to say, traffic is a NIGHTMARE! Anyways, back to the story. We were less than thrilled to have to drive this route three times over the weekend, so we thought it may be a good idea to look into staying in a hotel. After all, the class was being held at the Holiday Inn. My job was to figure out if this option would be cost-effective when factoring in gas, food, and the cost of the hotel room.

Option 1: Stay at the Hotel, Avoid the Headaches of Traffic

I started by looking up the cost of the room on holidayinn.com.  The lowest rate they had was $124 per night.  I wasn’t off to a great start.  For two nights that would come to $248 (124 x 2 = 248).  But I thought maybe once I factored in the price of gas, it would even out.  I assumed that the price of gas would at least stay around the same price it was when I did this calculation, $3.65 per gallon (a risky assumption to make these days).  My wife’s Ford Focus gets about twenty-five miles per gallon for a trip like this where there is both city and highway driving.  The distance from our house to the hotel was 22 miles.  This would mean that if we stayed at the hotel we would be making this trip twice (once there and once back) and would travel a total of 44 miles for the weekend (22 x 2 = 44).  This would use up 1.76 gallons in the Focus (44 miles / 25 miles per gallon = 1.76 gallons).  At $3.65 per gallon, our total for gas if we stayed at the hotel would be $6.42 (1.76 x 3.65 = 6.42), and our grand total so far for the hotel weekend would be $254.42 (we’ll round that up to $255).  Next, I had to factor in meals.  I budgeted about $50 each day ($10 for breakfast and $20 each for lunch and dinner) for both of us.  This would amount to $120 for food for the weekend since we would only be eating dinner on Friday (50 x 2 + 20 = 100 + 20 = 120).  Our grand total for the entire weekend if we stayed in the hotel was $345 (120 + 255 = 345).  Ouch!

Option 2: Make the Drive, Stay at Home

Next I wouldn’t to see what we would spend if we did not stay in the hotel.  Obviously we would spend more money on gas, but we could save money on lodging and food (not to mention we would be able to sleep in our own bed).  I assumed the same values for gas mileage and price, except now we would be making the 22 mile trip six times (there and back each day).  We would travel 132 miles (22 x 6 = 132, three times more than what we would in the other options) and would use 5.3 gallons of gas (132 / 25 = 5.3).  This would give us a gas price of $19.27 (I rounded that to $20).  That’s not too bad if you can stand the traffic.  Next I calculated our food expenses.  Since we could eat breakfast and dinner at home, we would only be spending $20 for lunch on Saturday and Sunday.  This gives a total of $40 spent on food for the weekend (20 x 2 = 40).  That brought our grand total for not staying at the hotel to $60 (20 + 40 = 60), a difference of $305 from the other option (365 – 60 = 305).  Needless to say, we decided to brave the traffic and make the drive.  I’m glad I did the math, though.  I may have been tempted to take the easy way out otherwise.