Commuting - How much $ do you save riding

I'm just curious how much money everyone figures they save monthly by riding their bike as oppose to driving to work????

Thanks

Save money?!! You've got to be kidding!:rolleyes: I am always spending money on something cycling related, spares or upgrades to the bike(s) or cycle clothing.

Originally posted by Falchoon
Save money?!! You've got to be kidding!:rolleyes: I am always spending money on something cycling related, spares or upgrades to the bike(s) or cycle clothing.

I'm the same. I don't spend the £20 or so I save by not taking the bus or train every week (it would be much more if I had to pay to park the car), but I find I'm in "upgrade mode " at the moment, having just had my usual tourer/commuting bike re enamelled at a cost of £170

CAR annual costs:
Ad Valorem: $65
Gas @ $20/wk: $1,100
Insurance: $600/year
Oil/filter changes: $150
Various maintenance: $250
This total: $2,165

Bike annual cost:
Tires: $25-30
Tune-up: $60
Tubes (5/yr): $20
Maint. supplies (grease, cleaner, oil): $15
This total: $125

According to this calculation, I save $2,040. Actually, I still pay for and use the car but a week of bike commuting will save me $20-30 in gas or more.

Annual cycling costs are about £100
Alt public transport costs would be £350.

Not owning a car saves £1000
Renting (with company discount) or using trains costs up to £500

I save a min of £750 on tranport.

Not having to pay gym/swimming costs to keep fit saves another £200 (using my company discount)

Weekly cost of driving:

Parking -- $6 X 5 = $30
Mileage -- $0.36 X 11 miles X 5 = $20 (US Government rate)
Total -- $50
At 50 weeks per year -- $2,000

Cost of cycling -- about $100 for flats, $60 for tune-ups.

Result...about $1,800.

Intangibles

This is the only way I would ever get any exercise, so there are health benefits.

My car is free for my wife to use when hers is in the shop.

I enjoy rush hour.

Paul

Originally posted by PaulH
I enjoy rush hour.

Right on!

For me the option would be public transportation so the difference in price tags is not that big. But you just gotta love it when you zoom past a traffic jam. With any luck you'll have a couple of kids pointing at you from a stopped car and yelling, "Dad, do something, we passed that guy earlier!"

:D

--J

None
It costs me money to ride, I keep building new and better bikes, the cost is way out of hand, it's less expensive to drive my truck.

I long ago decided that I didn't save any significant money by bike commuting--unless I got rid of the car. Fuel being so heavily subsidized in the US, the real costs are in car ownership, not in driving it! Interest, taxes, insurance, tags, all are required to own a car, whether it gets driven to work or not. In fact, one can make a financial argument that to better amortise the costs of car ownership, you are better off to drive it more (please don't flame me for that!). So, I guess I save maybe $20/week in gas/tires, etc. by cycle commuting.

Lately though, I have been seriously considering going carfree! Well, sorta anyway. Since my wife also has a car, and since she doesn't work (stay at home mom), being a one car family could be quite practical for us. The way I look at it, this could be an easy way to be kinda carfree--although it really more like half carfree since I'd still essentially have half a car. Maybe I should start a new thread to discuss this option.

Dave

Having not owned a car in a number of years, I no longer think of cycle commuting as a way to save money. But, one thing that it has saved me is a lot of headaches.

Weekly savings is only like $30 - $40, as I don't have the option of not owning a car. I can probably tack on an extra $200 a week in savings, though, as I don't need a therapist to help me relax from the rigors of the week, thanks to my trusty (and needing-to-be-reassembled) Bianchi. :D

Originally posted by hayneda
In fact, one can make a financial argument that to better amortise the costs of car ownership, you are better off to drive it more (please don't flame me for that!).

That's probably true in most cases unless you have a collector car or something that you want to keep for more than 5 years.

I don't save much money from cycling because I own 3 cars and still drive alot. I guess it saves me about $15 to $20 per week for gas, about $40 per month in insurance discounts, and $12 a month that I stopped spending on mass transit. The real benefits are the exercise and enjoyment I get from riding every day, the removal of car commuting induced stress, keeping the miles down on my vehicles, protecting 2 of my vehicles since they don't have to sit outside in the elements all day for 5 days a week, and being able to be lazy with car maintenance/repairs because they don't have to be finished up every Sunday night.

when i used our car for work it sat there for 8--12 hrs doing nothing, now when i bike to work its on the move all day on some kind of "must be done" activity by my family, even if i wanted to go back to driving to work i dont think they,d let me, but they still poke fun at me on my bike:mad: it used to cost $20 a f/night in gas now its $60 !!! let alone the wear & tear!! but they,r happy. if they,r happy im happy:D anything for i quite life. so the short answer is no i dont save any $$ bikeing to work!!!

My commute includes a monthly Bus pass but I calculate with fuel and wear and tear if drove it is somewhere around $3500 a year driving as compared to around $1200 for bike. This does not take into account the savings I have made by being in better shape therfore lower medical costs. If I were to gauge it on what my dad and brother pay for meds I am saving around another $600 a year :D

:beer:

Originally posted by mrfix
I keep building new and better bikes, the cost is way out of hand...

Ya know what, look @ it this way, compared to other hobbies, or sports, bikes are really cheap! Know anyone who owns a boat, or plays golf? How about folks who are into cars?

Now THOSE are expensive hobbies. My rule, is I can justify any required toys for any sport as long as there is no motor or insurance involved.

:beer:

I was spending $10 per day on parking and gas, not to mention all the fixed costs of owning a second car. That comes to well over $2000 per year. After 2 years I have saved at leat $4000 and sold the second car. I have spent quite a bit on cycling stuff, but much of that was elective. The total comes nowhere close to the money spent on commuting by car.

I'm like you "hayneda". My wife is also a Stay at home Mom, or Work at home Mom, I should say. We currently have 2 cars and every seldom are we using both of them at the same time.

I'm not commuting yet, but have been considering buying a nice bike for commuting (a recumbent) and getting rid of one of the cars. I'm going to have about a 13 mile one way commute, most of which is out of town riding.

Thanks for the info,
Dustin

Originally posted by hayneda
...Fuel being so heavily subsidized in the US, the real costs are in car ownership, not in driving it!....
I've heard this subsidization claim several times on this board. I wonder what, exactly, is subsidized and how the petroleum industry's "subsidization", to the extent is exists, differs markedly from other industries' subsidization.

Yikes! I just calculated what my car costs and I'm sick about it!

Annual Figures
Car payment $3,996
Licensing 30
Gas 1,200
Insurance 900
Oil, filter etc. 60
______
$6,186

I would love to spend even half of that yearly on a bike.!!!!!!!

I've got to go now and drive myself to the doctors office to get
some antidepressants. I guess I'll have to add another $285 to that figure. :D

My conservative guess is that I save $1,500 per year. And based on the goverment's figures for my car's emissions, I figure I eliminate over 2 tons of air pollution per year. Not bad.

Geeze, this topic came up about a year or two ago.

Somewhere is an article on the internet that talks about the savings when bicycle commuting. It was around $6,000 per year after all things are considered.

I will look it up and post the url.

Originally posted by Andy Dreisch

I've heard this subsidization claim several times on this board. I wonder what, exactly, is subsidized and how the petroleum industry's "subsidization", to the extent is exists, differs markedly from other industries' subsidization.



A very powerful military force to "protect the American way of life".

Maybe I missed it but I think you guys are leaving out 10% a year depeciation.
Many times I've heard the oxymoron "depreciating asset" in reference to automobile ownership, heh......

I honestly don't think I save anything by bike commuting, I'm just too into tools, gadgets, gizmos, better lighting, etc. The cost of car insurance doesn't change for me. The only real savings is reducing the number of of oil changes from 5 a year to 2 and going from 56 tanks of gas a year to 12. At our local prices that is about a $585 saving. Again that I spend $85/year on batteries for my light systems; $80 in degreaser & chain lube; $90 on tires and tubes, $200 in special shoes, shorts, jerseys, jackets, gore-tex socks, etc.; $30 a year in cab rides when the weather or mechanical woes strand me at work; $20 in brake pads; $25 on panniers which adds up to $530 and I need to have a wheel re-tensioned and trued. It's a good thing I didn't start commuting as an economy move. It's a way to get to work that I love, that's all I ask of it. I just try not to make it more expensive than car commuting.

Just the gas and parking is $1680 a year, so I can leave the car in front of the house all week and still save that much. Taking the train is about the same.

I've been trying for quite some time to convince my wife that we don't need two cars. Still trying. Losing the second car -- the one that's paid for -- would save us at least another $2-3000 a year in insurance, maintenance, licensing, etc., but she (not a cyclist) is willing to take that hit in exchange for the security of there always being a functioning car in front of the house.

Oh, well.

RichC

Originally posted by dmitsch
I'm just curious how much money everyone figures they save monthly by riding their bike as oppose to driving to work????

Thanks
I've been using alternative means of transportation to work for too long to consider going back, now!

:eek:

Originally posted by Rich Clark
...she (not a cyclist) is willing to take that hit in exchange for the security of there always being a functioning car in front of the house.
Rich, doesn't that show to go ya, cars are prone to break down...

:(

I just spent over $800US for new tires and brakes on my car. Could have bought a whole new (nice) bike for that :(

Tim

Ken Kifer wrote a very good article about the cost savings of bicycle commuting vs. automobile use/ownership. He calculated in great detail a savings of about $7,000 per year in 1997. This is a well thought-out and researched article with a lot of support info.

See http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/commute/quadrupl.htm

Dave Glowacz of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin wrote a similar article in which he estimated that the cost savings was around $3,300 to $6,500 per year.

See http://www.bfw.org/bfw/savetime.htm

The most fun accounting to be had is to work out how many extra hours of work you have to do to pay for the car that you drive to work in, then add that to your car commuting time, and work out your average speed.

Last time I can remember checking, the A.A. estimated that here in the U.k. the smallest cheapest car bought from new, with the average 10,000 miles per year running ,cost at least 53p per mile

That is with Deppresiation, servicing,taxes,insurance, fuel etc.

Working on that sort of statistic, I reckon, since going carless 26 months ago I have saved just under £5000

But that is counter-balanced with the cost of a new bike and all the equipment to go with it..

So I reckon i`m about 2/12 grand in. Think i can afford a few more of these :beer: now.

Commuting by bicycle allows to increase the quality of life, as a person with the normal weight (as opposite to overweight) is more attractive, feels himself/herself better, has got a better disposition.

It is not only about money. The best things in life are free.

I'm with the "bikes cost at least as much" crowd here. I only have a 3-mile round trip commute, so gas cost would be negligible. The car I would use if I still had it would use about a gallon of gas a week for the commute and was completely paid for (the car was a freebie hand-me-down). Parking is $30 per month, so I'm really saving <$100/month counting insurance cost. So that's conservatively $1200 per year, but I spend at least that much on my bikes. But since I don't have my own car, that's just a displaced cost rather than an additional one. If I didn't tinker so much with my bikes the costs would be significantly lower.

I've actually been trying to financially justify my case for going carfree (15 months now) lately, and I really can't. An old beater car doesn't cost too much to run since I'm a capable mechanic. The distances I travel are generally less than 5 miles at a stretch, so gas, tires and other consumables would be minimal. I spend more time in transporting myself by bike and mass transit than I would if I drove (the commute excluded, what with engine warm-up time and the fact that I'd have to park a block away). The only reason I've been able to come up with is that carfree is just a whole lot more fun! Every day in the city without the insulating convenience of a car can be, and usually is, another day of adventure and interest. And with that $1200 I can build myself and my wife at least one upgraded bike every year just to keep things from getting boring. Try doing that with cars and the costs get out of hand really quickly. Like Alexey says, the best things in life are free (or at least really cheap).

I'd like to add that I'm carfree more as a result of circumstance rather than free choice: the damn thing broke down at a financially strapped point in my life, and since I was 75% car"lite" anyway I just decided to let it go rather than hassle with replacing an oil pump. I'd much rather wrench on bikes than cars any day.

For me going carfree means also that I at least tried to do something to leave the environment for next generations in liveable condition.

I hate to say it, but I don't save any money.

Currently, we still need a car. My job requires some driving some time (could be done with a rental...), family is out of town (intercity busses are downright expensive), and we have two children. Another factor is that my wife uses crutches; our regular transit is not exactly accessible (she can deal with it, but it's hard), and our adapted transit isn't worth anything decent.

The current car is still fairly new (1997). When it dies, I'll probably look into the newer schemes like carsharing that now exist in town. The only question is how easily accessible these cars are.


Regarding current costs.
I do have to pay for the car anyway, and in spite of the relatively expensive gas prices (by N. A. standards -- 0,75 $/L, or 2,60 $ U.S. / gal. U.S.), the most important costs are fixed costs... and the lack of maintenance costs.
We only have limited on-street parking near the office, so it sometimes take more time to find the car than it does to commute the whole 3 km by bike. Taking the bus is usually faster than taking my own car... except waiting for it at -10 C is a bit cold...
Besides, one of the great advantages of commuting by bike is that I load my bike with raingear, lunch, whatever stuff I need for the office... and I don't have to carry it in my arms for a long distance. So biking is actually good for my back!

But the main advantage of commuting by bike is that I save time over all other methods. Besides, it's fun. Need I say more?

Regards,

Since I don't have a car anymore, my transportation costs would skyrocket using one for work. These are estimated costs per year with a one time purchase for a new auto.

New (Chrysler 300M) $31,190
Insurance $2,700
Parking (Midtown Manhattan) $5,400
Gas $1,040
Tickets 300
Tolls, Tunnel & Bridges $1,100
Repairs and maintence $350
Garage $1,000
break-ins $500
Misc $250

Total costs $43,830.00


Total Bicycle Costs Per Year

2 new sets of tires $40.00
Rear Blinky & Front Light $60.00
Rechargable Batteries $15.00

Ferry Ticket 960.00

Total Costs $1,075.00

=============
Total Savings $42,755.00

I save the environment, but that´s all I save. I spend more money on my bike so I end up whith no saved money. But the reason I ride is it makes me feel good and gives me a cleaner conscience.

Anders
Sweden

Originally posted by Andy Dreisch

I've heard this subsidization claim several times on this board. I wonder what, exactly, is subsidized and how the petroleum industry's "subsidization", to the extent is exists, differs markedly from other industries' subsidization.



Originally posted by Paige




A very powerful military force to "protect the American way of life".



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2336539.stm

That's what I'm talkin' about.