Photo by BWKP.

The American Automobile Association wants you to keep driving a car to work, to the grocery store, to church, to everywhere. After all, if everyone stopped driving, they wouldn’t really have a purpose, now would they? That said, it’s kind of a big deal when AAA actually recommends the use of any other kind of transportation — which they did in the most recent edition of their annual guide to driving costs.

According to DDOT’s goDCgo blog, the 2011 edition of Your Driving Costs [PDF], AAA’s annual guide to how much it costs to own and operate a personal automobile, outlines the several thousands of dollars per year, on average, having a car costs. (This calculation also considers the price of a gallon of gas at $2.88 per gallon, so you can feel free to ramp those numbers up. Seriously, where is AAA getting their gas?) But even without factoring in the ludicrously low cost of gasoline used in the figures, the findings led AAA to make the following conclusion: “If you commute to work by car, figure about $58 in total vehicle expenses per 100 miles. If that seems like a lot, driving a more fuel-efficient model or using public or alternative transportation options could save you money.” (Emphasis ours, obviously.)

An even better suggestion: try moving closer to your office!