Sometimes I get job recruiters asking if I'm interested in job opportunities in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, or Foster City.  To put things in perspective, I live in Corte Madera, located in Marin County, which is north of San Francisco.  So I have to commute about 13 miles to get to Market Street in San Francisco.      

http://www.commutesolutions.com/howmuch.html

Insert how many miles you commute, how many days per month you work, how many MPG your car gets, how much you usually pay for gas, the estimated cost of depreciation of your car, the estimated cost of car repairs/maintenance, your monthly car payment, your monthly car insurance payment, and your monthly parking cost.  Then you will get the monthly cost of your commute.  

According to the calculator, commuting costs me 315 dollars per month.  That's with commuting 32 miles per day roundtrip, getting 20 miles per gallon (abouts) paying almost 4 dollars per gallon for gas.   If I got a job in Foster City (72 miles per day roundtrip) it would cost me 690 dollars to commute, not to mention at least double the amount of time spent on the road.   That doesn't seem like a good deal.