Utility Cycling - ride a bike .... save your car

I know I am preaching to the choir here but.

I did a quick lunch time errand to the bank...on my bike (I commuted today and normally plan so errands are on the way in or home).

the errand was 2.6 miles.

What really struck me was how bad that little errand would have been to do in my car. 1.3 miles each way is barely enough time to warm the engine. This is typical for most 'errands".

So another great benefit to utiliyt cycling is decreasing what are some of the most harmful miles that you can put on your car.

Another point to make for those who ask why bother with utiliyt rides


PS :I am no way car free or even really car lite., but I get lighter and lighter. I like my car, it is paid for and goes around corners well, it's a 97 with only 60,000 miles on it and I want to get to 200,000 this will help

I am not sure if any miles put on a car are "harmful" but I got your point. I am in the same boat as you. I ride and consider myself to be car-light as I drive only when necessary. When I can't ride, I get around on a motor scooter. I have a 7 year scooter with over 12k miles and my car is 6 years old with 30k miles. It is easier to stay out of the car.

It is the short trips that are hell on the car engines and create the most pollution. I WILL NOT move my vehicle for any trip under about 15 miles and we pool trips to town (19 miles one way) we typically do one trip a month into town for heavy shopping, the rest of the time the cars sit. The area we live in is not particularly cyclist friendly. Narrow, high speed, over used, two lane roads. Fortunately the grocery store I use the most, when home, is only 1.5 miles by road and less than a mile through the woods on my MTB:D

Aaron:)

I've been thinking the same way recently - the more i ride a bike, the less miles I put on the car, and the longer (in years) it'll last before needing repairs and (eventually) to be replaced. My car leaves the driveway once a week or less, tho my wife is not yet converted and drives daily (work van tho ' so no maintainence on that one either).

I ride a scooter most of the time too! But I've bought a yuba coz I can't carry a child on the scooter, much less child and dog and beach gear. Planning on riding it pretty much as much as poss, the more miles i do on that the more i save in gasoline (thinking about keeping a log so i can see how much i am saving - hope gas prices go up again!).

pedal

I'm headed in the same direction, but check back with me in the winter and see how I'm doing. We have snow and slush here, and it's pretty hilly. The weather, darkness, and hills might discourage me.

I can't create a minimum distance limit for my car, since I can accomplish most errands within three miles. But what I can do -- and do -- is to bunch up my car errands together so I don't drive on a cold engine. And if my wife has just come home in her car and it's time for me to drive an errand, I borrow her car, because it's warm.

For a while, I car-pooled with a woman on our way to weekly choir rehearsals. She lives three miles from me, and rehearsal is 24 miles away. Her house is on the way to rehearsal, but I refused to drive to her house when it was her turn to drive, because that would have me driving three miles with a cold car. So when it was her turn, she came and picked me up and added a bit of distance to the trip. She agreed to this.

I'm trying to decide how I carry my cargo. I don't have a trailer or any bags or baskets yet. I might build a trailer. Not sure yet. I saw plans for building a cargo trailer out of bamboo. I have bamboo growing on my property, and it grows like a weed, so I have a good supply of it, for free.

yeah. i use my car only in poor weather. feel i am stretching out the lifetime of the car that way.
in fine weather no point in using a car unless you are in a rush and i am not usually.

The same thing has occurred to me. The car preserving effect is enhanced now that cars don't rust out along the bottom edge the way they used to.

The only thing left to worry about is the actual structure of the car; (what used to be) the frame, suspension parts, floor of the body, stuff like that. But it might be at least a handfull of years before we have to start inspecting that stuff.

I think my bike is destroying my car, not saving it. My car sits in a tree-filled parking lot and gets nasty sap and grime on it. No one else's car is as bad as mine because everyone else parks at their job during day, away from the sappy trees.

Once my buddy and I hopped in my car to go see a movie, and it didn't turn over at all. He said, "When did you drive it last?" and I said, "I don't know? Six weeks ago?" Had to get a new battery. Missed the movie.

Last weekend it was hot as hell, and as I'm ready to head over to a friend's house to watch some movies, my wife says, "Oh, there's a 20lb bag of dog food being held for us at the grocery store, can you pick it up on the way back?" I've done it before, but my back wheel is not in great shape, and I realized that the beer I was carrying would not fit in the pannier like I had planned, so I hopped in the car. First time in a couple of weeks, I think. It smelled like a damp basement. As I'm driving, I notice little, white blotches on the steering wheel, all the way around except where they've been rubbed off by my hands: mold. I start looking for something to wipe down the steering wheel. I don't see anything, so I reach behind the passenger seat to feel around for the rag I use to wipe off the oil dipstick -- and put my hand right into a spider web.
I left the windows cracked open for the next few dry days to air the car out, although that may have just let in more spiders. ;-)

The fact that I don't touch my car for weeks does not actually seem to be a positive as far as preserving my car goes. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop, though.

Of course in really cold weather it takes longer to warm up the engine and so the period in which you are putting excessive wear on it gets longer.
The classic example is the little old lady who only drives to church on Sunday. Her car invariably needs a new exhaust system every couple of years.
I generally try to never move my car unless I am going to drive it for at least an hour. My last car lasted me 9 years (from 270000km to 300000km) and was still going strong when it was demolished by a drunk. I bought it as a 10 year old car in 1996.
I have already ordered the studded tires for my cargo bike...

I ended up selling one of my cars!

I kept the mini van, because I travel with the family to Seattle frequently, but commuting to work and errands -- all on the bike now. (Wet weather on the way, time to prepare my wet and cold weather clothes.)

ha, good to see a load of people on the same page as i am (i find this reassuring). Hopefully my car will move even less now i have my mundo. It's all assembled now (as of yesterday) so when i've had a chance to run around on it for a couple of weeks I will post a review.

swoosh

Good points squirtdad!