Miles you drive daily

Beware of the "it's-only-a-small-island" illusion. It - STX - isn't small because the map you will be following is the list of innumerable places you will have to go everyday, shooting here and there and back and forth, shopping, hardware stores, jobs, post office, etc., etc. Sorry, but the further east of Christiansted you live the more inconvenient and exasperating your position becomes. Most normal shopping activity, health-care, government offices are all mid-island and west.

That's precisely why I'm asking the question, PT. I don't want to make any assumptions. I'd rather let you who live there tell me your experiences.

So how many miles do you drive in the average day or week?

Didn't live on St. Croix and sold real estate so number of miles I drove isn't relevant but the milage I got was a lot less than in the states because I wasn't driving on freeways - in St. Thomas I got 12-13 MPG. In the states I get 27-29 MPG.

Our car on STX has 2 drivers, and we put an average of 22 miles per day on it. We both work from home, so it's mostly for shopping and recreational use. It's all "city" driving on largely crappy roads, so it's more like double the miles per day for gas, wear and tear.

My wife and I put 7-8000 mi/yr on our vehicles each. My wife has a very regular route; mine varies quite a bit but they both average nearly the same.

We drive economical vehicles but we still only average 17-21 mpg due to the slow speeds required by the bumpy stx roads.

I got twice the expected life out of my first clutch, but I replace ball joints at least once a year.

There are very few direct routes from anywhere to anywhere, so a cross-island commute can take nearly an hour, even taking advantage of the highway.

Beware of estimating distances "as the crow flies." We live well east of Christiansted, but we find that the drives to Good Hope School and Country Day School take nearly the same time, despite the significant difference in proximity.

Hope this helps.

depends on if you work or not. if you dont work and only go to the store, post office, bank...things like that .
during the week i average about 15-20 minutes each way to and from work-not sure of the miles.
weekends i go to sunny isle and shop at three to four stores, that driving time is about 30 minutes each way-not sure of miles. if we go to the beach thats about 15-20 minutes each way. if we go to fredericksted that could take about 45-1 hour depending on traffic.. again-not sure of miles.
my husband travels all over the island for his work. lots and lots of miles. you could easily put over 100 miles on your car in a day or you could just put a few. depends on what you do

On island I think you have to look at it as how much time you will spend in your car. I live and work mostly in town so I'm 10 minutes away from it, sunny island is 20 ish minutes or 30 if I go thru down and not southshore. From my home to sandy point out west I'm looking at 45 minutes.

You never want to live on the opposite of the island where you work at. Even though the island is not big the traffic is slow (low mph), always traffic build up in town and center island, usually always a detour some where were they are working on the roads. Not to mention giant potholes all over the place.

So it's a small island but you will still spend time in your car.

Our car on STX has 2 drivers, and we put an average of 22 miles per day on it. We both work from home, so it's mostly for shopping and recreational use. It's all "city" driving on largely crappy roads, so it's more like double the miles per day for gas, wear and tear.

Ditto.
I thought we'd drive less, but avg about the same miles per year as when we lived in the states. On St Croix, this is especially true if you do not live in Christiansted where people tend to drive-to a lot. Many continentals live on the east end of StX and end up driving 20 to 30 minutes one-way to everything.

Thanks for the info, everyone! And thank you also for mentioning the reduced MPG you get on STX. That had not occurred to me!

Is a manual or automatic transmission better for island driving?

i have had both, and i prefer automatic.

My commute is about 20 miles and throw in some errands and go to about 30 a day with a few trips to the beach on weekends. Shopping will add miles as you will have to visit more than one store to find what you want.
I have a 4 cylinder automatic and it gets a little better than 20 and an older Jeep that gets 12-15 MPG.
I think a 4 cyl auto is the best getting around vehicle, easier to park.

I just calculated my miles per day, simply based on how many miles on my car and how long I've had it, and it came to just about 8 miles per day. I don't work outside the home, so it's all just shopping, etc. Our house is very central and well located with easy access to almost everything, so that helps a lot. My husband probably puts about 20 per day on his truck. He does all the "errands" and he isn't good about consolidating trips. Hope this helps.