The Ride Home

Originally posted by geepamoogle
Excellent point, which means I would either have to revisit one of my two answers.

So let me attempt, then, to relook at your problem in the exact same manner, if indeed I can.

I will therefore suppose only two friends, one who lives 1 mile out (2 miles round trip), another 1.5 miles out (3 miles round trip), and 1.5 miles apart (so that it's 4 mil y unfair, as shown by its inconsistency.

I will have to revisit this when I have more time.

To use my previous logic:

Total money spent = $4

1x+1.5x=$4

x=$1.6

1st friend is charged $1.60
2nd friend is charged $2.40.

Edit: no matter who goes home first. (unless they want to pay you more for dropping them off first)

Originally posted by geepamoogle
Excellent point, which means I would either have to revisit one of my two answers.

So let me attempt, then, to relook at your problem in the exact same manner, if indeed I can.

I will therefore suppose only two friends, one who lives 1 mile out (2 miles round trip), another 1.5 miles out (3 miles round trip), and 1.5 miles apart (so that it's 4 mil ...[text shortened]... y unfair, as shown by its inconsistency.

I will have to revisit this when I have more time.

That's why I disagree with the

(cost) * (miles driven) / (# of people)

approach. it doesn't depend on how far you're driving for each of them, but rather who's in the car when you do it.

What if the 7 mile path to the third friend's house wasn't directly away from you, but instead took a curved path, so when you get there, it's only 5 miles back to your house? Then what do you charge each of them using the (cost) / (# of people) approach?

Your method would seem to be free of complications where the same portion does more than one thing.

It did occur to me as I was typing my last post that it really isn't fair for the last to pay the miles of the first simply because they happen to be in the car, but then the method would default to what it was before, each paying for the mileage between my house and theirs, and the distance between theirs split fairly, most probably in the same proportion.

Excellent reasoning forked knight.

Of course, with the informal nature of many friendships, many would simply split it evenly without regard to distance, $2.40 each, for instance.

Nonetheless, it really is an interesting quandary, especially when people live in different directions.

The cabbie method is, of course, to charge each person for each mile, and pocket the profit for shared miles. ($7/$5/$3 for my poser, $3/$2 for the followup..)

Originally posted by forkedknight
That's why I disagree with the

(cost) * (miles driven) / (# of people)

approach. it doesn't depend on how far you're driving for each of them, but rather who's in the car when you do it.

Point made. If it does work, it only works when everything is in a straight line.