Commuting - Gas Savings

What do you estimate you save in petrol by riding to work? :) I am trying to justify a commute only bike, haha!

I was filling up every four days at around $30 a pop. $210 a month. You need to factor in insurance and mileage costs, too.

Quite a lot of money, actually.

And you can't put a price on fitness.

Well I can't put a number on it because I haven't put that much thought into it however I can say this: I used to put $50/wk into my gas guzzler. Now its $30-40 max, and one week it was $15.

Plus you're hedging your bets in case gas goes to 3 dollars a gallon

I figured on filling up once a week at 40$ a pop X 52 = over $2000. I figure when I bought my $800 road bike over two years ago it would pay for itself pretty quickly (that was before a Gas pipeline break crisis and two price spikes). I figure it has paid for itself over 3 times now. It's like giving yourself a 2000$ raise in my book (and that is not counting insurance and maintenance, you could easily add another 1000 on there). I still keep the jeep around for trips and getting into the backcountry.

The federal government currently has a $0.375 / mile allowance for using a personal vehicle for temporary travel which should in include gas, maintenance, insurance, and wear and tear. It'd probably as good a place as any to start estimating savings (even though the rate is currently at the limit allowed by the IRS and may be underestimating cost due to current gas prices).

According to this I save $60 per month, but as mentioned earlier, I can't put a price on the additional stress relief from the exercise and not sitting in traffic.

I only have to put gas in my van every three weeks due to commuting on my bicycle. When I do put gas in, it's $10-15. If I were driving to work it would be around $30.00 per week for gas. I'm saving around $25.00 per week in gas alone. Factoring in vacation weeks and lazy weeks, I'm probably saving around $750.00 per year. The fact that bicycling keeps me healthy enough that I haven't taken a sick day in 6 years is another bonus (literally, I get paid for the five days I don't take plus 5 extra, plus another added bonus day every year over 5 years). Then there is the money I save on car repairs and maintenance.

Bicycle commuting makes financials "cents".

Can you get a lower insurance rate by commuting to work? And what was that about the allowance? i've never heard of that before.

My insurance company asked me how many days I drove to work and how many miles. I'd assume driving fewer days would lower insurance rates.

As for the allowance, if you're a government employee and use your personal car for business travel, they'll reimburse you $0.375 / mile for the use of your car. I know many companies use this government rate as well for employees on business travel. It just tries to capture the total cost of driving your own vehicle rather than just paying gas and neglecting the other costs. In this case, if you're trying to estimate the savings of biking to work, then this rate should help to get a ball park on the total savings beyond just gas.

Not much for me, at least not enought to justify new bike and all the accessories. I blew my gas savings from the first three months of riding on a new helmet.

I commute 90mi/wk and about 10mi per week of errands on bike =100mi/wk

At gov. rate that is $37. But since I have the car anyway, I don't get a true savings for insurance/registration.

So I gas is $2.00/gal, my vehicle gets 20mi/gal. That is 5 gal/wk saved = $10/wk

But, yes, I do save, however somewhat variable and hard to measure the in pocket savings over a yr period of car wear and tear (tires, oil change, more frequent repairs.) Its partly hard to measure as I put lots of miles on car for weekend travel, often of rough dirt roads, etc.

Al

You only save the insurance and depreciation costs of car ownership if you give up the car, otherwise it is just gas costs and some maintenance you save, which is a small part of the cost of owning a car.

If you bike instead of driving, you still affect insurance and depreciation:

1. by not driving, you avoid the risk of getting into a wreck where you are at fault and getting dropped or having your rates raised. Or you may be able to qualify for a "recreational use only" rate

2. by not driving, you defer expensive maintenance and buying a replacement car. most people never get out from under a car loan. In fact, they are "upside down" (they owe more than car is worth). commuting by bike extends the life of the car, and lets you pay it off an wait an additional few years before buying a new one. My not having to spend $25000 for an extra couple of years has real, tangible value



You only save the insurance and depreciation costs of car ownership if you give up the car, otherwise it is just gas costs and some maintenance you save, which is a small part of the cost of owning a car.

Well as it stands right now we fill-up the family school bus (mini van) once every three to four weeks. My wife is on mat leave and I, well I ride my bike. Even when my wife returns to work, she will take the tube into work after dropping of the kids at the in-laws. I will also take the tube into work as well during the winter (4-5) months. So we don't really go through a ton of feul. And we usually don't let the van get too low past the half mark anyways. You get the point. So if I drove everyday during the week I figure I'd have to fill that sucker up easily everyweek and I would most certainly empty the tank each week, at about $50-$60 bucks depending how much the oil market decides to a** **** the public on a daily basis. This doesn't even include the cost of parking downtown. We also save money on insurance because the mileage on the vehicle is limited. I also think about how much more often we would have to schedule the vehicle for regular maintenance due to the increase in wear and tear. Recently I was forced to purchase a new set of tires for the thing which have a mileage rating of 120,000 km. So I should have them for the next five years and then some. No lie.

So yeah I think I'm saving a ton of cash.

Can you get a lower insurance rate by commuting to work? And what was that about the allowance? i've never heard of that before.

If you don't drive the car to work, then it is classified as a pleasure vehicle. The insurance rate is (slightly) less.

Of course, the last time this was explained to me was a few years back, and it might vary from company to company and place to place. You would have to check with your insurance agent.


Dan

I look at it differently. In school I rode my bike or took the bus to class, since I've graduated, the wife and I have only 1 car, I bike to work, and have been for 2 years. I don't look at how much i save in gas, I look at how much a 2nd car would COST me. There were 4 times last year when having a second car would have been more convient, so annual costs of an auto (gas, loan, maintence....) divided by 4 is the cost of each trip. It'd be cheaper for me to rent a car for a day.

I'm thinkin of moving closer to my wife's job so she doesn't have to drive so far, and so that I can get a better workout commuting.

I also am counting the savings as the government reimbursement rate, although I have been using the old level of $0.34 per mile. I haven't quite gotten to the point of riding the whole trip to work but I am working on that.

I was adding $12 to $15 a week to my gas guzzler(14mpg) before I started commuting by bicycle. Now I only drive it on the weekends for shopping and spend $15 a month for gas. The savings on gas is about $42. Its not a whole lot, but every little bit helps.

I haven't really added up the fuel savings. The savings in gasoline is probably off-set by all the extra bananas and Clif bars I consume. But I did inquire how much a spot costs in the parking structure attached to our office building: $170/month = $2040/year!

Insane.

Its not so much the extra human fuel cost, but the need and greed for the cycliing accessories. Right now I want:
new gloves
new bike shorts
new cyclocomputer & heart rate mon.
new sunglasses
better front light
portable pump
more tools
etc.

Its not so much the extra human fuel cost, but the need and greed for the cycliing accessories. Right now I want:
new gloves
new bike shorts
new cyclocomputer & heart rate mon.
new sunglasses
better front light
portable pump
more tools
etc.

Right, but unless you ride ONLY to commute, you'd want those things anyway. :p

This was one of the first things I calculated when I began riding to work. I save anywhere between $3-5 (Canadian) per day. This is only the fuel cost and depends on the price of gas and which car I take I don't factor in depreciation or insurance costs as I sill own the cars.

I try to ride 3 times a week and save about $60 a month.

About a year ago I did my 13-mile commute by taking the tube and train. The total cost for a monthly travelcard was around £110 per month (and it's probably gone up by more than inflation this year) so I reckon my 2nd-hand Trek 2300 and all accessories will be paid for within the year. After that I'll be in 'profit' so to speak, not to mention the enormous health benefits ;-).
Cheers,
Andy.

I did an analysis of my commuting by car (Jeep Cherokee) and with commuter bike. The car, including financing, registration, insurance, and minimum upkeep, cost me $2.19/mile to drive(this is estimating I only put on 3000 miles last year). The bike, including 2 tune-ups/yr, 2 tires, 2 tubes, and grease cost me $2.75/week (figuring $40 per tune up, $30/tire). :)

I remember a man at my job who was about to retire after working half of his life there. Suddenly, he had a heart-attack. He survived, but the hospital bills forced him to refinance his home, which he had already paid for. This was after it wiped out his entire savings. He had to come back and work longer. No telling how this all affected his retirement plans--financially, healthwise, and timewise (i.e., how many years he had left to enjoy.)

Another man on my job was very close to retirement. He had a stroke and died before he could retire, which I'm sure he had been looking forward to doing.

A third man retired, but died of a heart attack soon afterwards.

There are so many things beyond cash benefits to think of.

Keep it coming, fellow forumites! You're helping me with ammunition for my upcoming argument with Mrs. Caloso when I upgrade to DA-10!

The cost of food calories burned will fully offset any gas savings. I added it up and I eat pretty cheap. Insurance is what screws me though, except on my motorbike- which is about $10 a month. And my moto gets over 80mpg so it's cheaper than the bicycle per mile and about the same purchase cost(used, small [250pounds, very narrow])

Look at it this way a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread costs $2-$3 lets say $2 and it has about 3000 Calories.
Gas is $2.20 a gallon at the most expensive station in town and thats for high test, it contains around 32,000 Kcal(1 foodCalorie=1Kcal).
32k/3k=10.7 Just to break even the bread burner must be over ten times more efficiant than the gas burner on an energy per mile basis.

Vegtable oil has approx. the same Kcal as gas, but even that, the most concentrated and cheap form of food calories around, costs more than $2.20 a gallon.


[EDIT] Kcal in one gallon of gas; was 18,000 should be 32,000(18,000 is the btu in a pound of gas :o )

10 miles each way twice a day=20 miles=(generously)20 mpg=1 gallon per day, 5 gallons per week. Just to make the calculation easier, figure 45 weeks with the rest either business travel or vacation and that's 225 gallons times the current price. My actual calculation was easier. Parking was $7/day, and I figured $3 for gas, insurance etc. which was probably conservative since my van only got about 15 in the city. So I just figured $10 to drive. That comes to a savings well over $2000 per year. I still can't convince my wife that means I could buy a new $2000 bike every year or a $4000 bike every other year. :D

I'd say that parking expenses are the main saving. At about 50 miles a week, the Federal mileage savings are only about $18. However, the savings on parking are $30, for a total of $48/week.

Having spent over $5,000 in rust repair on my car, it is possible that the benefits of not using my car when the roads are salted should be figured in. I also get an insurance break, but have not figured out how much this is. Since I am still overweight, the "cost of extra food" argument does not apply. Therefore, I'd consider my savings to be about $2,000 per year.

Paul

Rainman: my figures are similar to yours & my wife is on the same wavelength. That's why I stick to Vintage lightweights to get more bang for my buck. In fact, I only purchased one road bike new & last year, I gave it to my eldest grandson. Just have to sock all the $ savings away & spend it on the grandkids I guess. Don

I saved $60 a month in insurance by giving up a car, plus hundreds on whatever my next repair would have been. Driving to work would require $80 month parking plus whatever gas is. Taking the bus would require $40-$50 for the bus pass.

I am also saving tens of thousands of dollars by avoiding (or at least postponing by a little), heart problems due to inactivity and due to rush-hour-traffic-induced high blood pressure.

Cost calculator:

http://www.bikemetro.com/calculators/cost.asp

The calculator gives me cost savings of almost $8000 a year.

I think that would cover Powerbars with room leftover for a nifty new bike.

Day One - I was breakeven
Day Two - I think I need another pair of shoes


Day XXX - That Surly Steamroller sure looks sweet. Wonder if the wife would notice it hung amidst the other 6 bikes.

Well I save on average around $40 a month on my 22 mile daily commute vs. gas costs at 20 mpg. Thats the low end. There are also real cost savings in regular maintenance and reduced depriciation on the car. Much less on insurance since it still sits in my driveway. The federal allowance would put that number at $142/ month. I'll guesstimate my true out of pocket savings at $55.

I didn't renew the $45 a month health club membership so thats a real savings. Aside from the overall medical benifits, I used to take high blood pressure meds but now I'm never over about 120/80 and several hours after riding it's usually more like 105/70. So thats another $15 per month.

So actual out of pocket savings of $115 per month less maybe $10 for tubes/tires/chains/lube bike costs. So I'll go for a net savings of $1,260 a year.

The ability to run down my teenaged boys on a soccer field, ski slope or anyplace else and leave them gasping for air ... priceless :D

I save $4.00 on gas and parking outright, each day I ride my bike. If I biked everyday, that would be an $88.00 savings every month and $1,056.00 every year. That doesn't include the $2,400 we spent on a new transmission two years ago and $800 on a water pump the year before that...

I figure not making car payments of over $300/month is enough to justify a hot new bike every 8 to 12 weeks, but I spent $50 on my beautiful Motobecane Grand Touring bike, so who needs a new bike?

:D

At the current gas prices ($1.89 is the cheapest that I can find, close to me, for super unleaded), I save about $3.50 per day ... of course, that's just fuel. The car that I currently own is the first really nice one I've ever had, and really wasn't cheap. I want it to stay nice as long as possibly possible, and if I can save 150 miles a week or so, I'm doing it. Plus I get to screw over those scumbag oil companies. ;-)

Cost calculator:

http://www.bikemetro.com/calculators/cost.asp

Wow. I have issues with this things numbers. I have a 16.5 mile commute (one way), gas costs me $1.89 per gallon, get 26 mpg, no tolls, no parking, and take the route 22 days a month. It's telling me I'm saving $16.92 per day.

The cost of food calories burned will fully offset any gas savings. I added it up and I eat pretty cheap. Insurance is what screws me though, except on my motorbike- which is about $10 a month. And my moto gets over 80mpg so it's cheaper than the bicycle per mile and about the same purchase cost(used, small [250pounds, very narrow])

Look at it this way a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread costs $2-$3 lets say $2 and it has about 3000 Calories.
Gas is $2.20 a gallon at the most expensive station in town and thats for high test, it contains around 18,000 Kcal(1 foodCalorie=1Kcal).
18k/3k=6 Just to break even the bread burner must be six times more efficiant than the gas burner on an energy per mile basis.

Vegtable oil has approx. the same Kcal as gas, but even that, the most concentrated and cheap form of food calories around, costs more than $2.20 a gallon.


I burn about 900 calories going 20 miles. I burn a gallon of gas going the same distance in my jeep with no other passengers.
1 commute = 2 gallons of gas ($4) or 3/5 of a loaf of bread(1800 calories ($1.20)

I figure that saves me $2.80 a day. $14 a week and $728 for the year.

Still the price of a decent bike I figure.

Wow. I have issues with this things numbers. I have a 16.5 mile commute (one way), gas costs me $1.89 per gallon, get 26 mpg, no tolls, no parking, and take the route 22 days a month. It's telling me I'm saving $16.92 per day.

You're right...the numbers do seem exaggerated. They include vehicle maintenance and insurance in the total cost (38 cents per mile, based on values from AAA). So, if you own a car in addition to commuting with a bike (like me) and have to pay for insurance and maintenance (albeit lower), the savings are significantly less.

I burn about 900 calories going 20 miles. I burn a gallon of gas going the same distance in my jeep with no other passengers.
1 commute = 2 gallons of gas ($4) or 3/5 of a loaf of bread(1800 calories ($1.20)

I figure that saves me $2.80 a day. $14 a week and $728 for the year.

Still the price of a decent bike I figure.

I was mostly talking about my motorcycle, my car is just used for hauling stuff larger than 4 sacks of groceries. It gets 80mpg in the city thats $1.00 or 1/2gallon of gas for 40 miles and maintainece costs are no more than that on my bicycle I can also work an extra hour or more a day for an increase in cash flow.
I burn about 1100 cal per 20miles but I like to ride hard on a 30lb bike and live in a hilly area, yes I could drop this to 900 just by cruising a little easier but I won't.

I used bread simply because its somewhat healthy and one of the cheaper foods on a calories per dollar basis. I do not want to eat 2/3 of a loaf of bread everyday however and most other foods(healthy stuff, like fruit) cost much more per calorie.
I need to mention the energy needed to cook (if you cook much of you food) which, unless its electricity from a dam, is most likely fossil fuel or nuclear energy and any which way it costs money.

Yes money can be saved by riding a bicycle vs a car but its not the huge amounts your all talking yourselves into as a justification of your bike riding.

The act of cycling is much more valuable to me than driving a cage and plenty of justification in its self, but that is not a monetary value.

As a bit of a side note. You all spend way to much on cars. I've had mine since highschool and put over a hundred Kmiles on it and it's initial cost plus maintainence is less than $2,000 US dollars thats oil, spark plugs and wires, tires, a CB radio, burned out bulbs, an alternater, three 10-over speeding tickets, lightly rear ending others twice and getting lightly rear ended twice. Insurance is another $8,500 for 5 years of young male insurance. I've had my motorcycle for two months longer and its cost plus maintainece is only 1,500, most of that was the purchase price and kit, as its only needed 18 quarts of oil in its 40,000 mile life, one chain since I've had it (its a good one good for another 70K on this bike), one set of tires, a brake lever and brake pads. No insurance as its not likely to be my fault and theft is unlikly on this model around here.

The cost of food calories burned will fully offset any gas savings. I added it up and I eat pretty cheap. Insurance is what screws me though, except on my motorbike- which is about $10 a month. And my moto gets over 80mpg so it's cheaper than the bicycle per mile and about the same purchase cost(used, small [250pounds, very narrow])

Look at it this way a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread costs $2-$3 lets say $2 and it has about 3000 Calories.
Gas is $2.20 a gallon at the most expensive station in town and thats for high test, it contains around 18,000 Kcal(1 foodCalorie=1Kcal).
18k/3k=6 Just to break even the bread burner must be six times more efficiant than the gas burner on an energy per mile basis.

Vegtable oil has approx. the same Kcal as gas, but even that, the most concentrated and cheap form of food calories around, costs more than $2.20 a gallon.

Your paradigm doesn't work in my case. I save money eating when I bike in to work...the reason being, when I do something as physical as biking the distance that I have to go to work, my body craves good food, so I make myself something healthy and carry it into work. But if my body isn't craving it, I don't eat it. I'm a slacker in that regard...so when I drive in, I end up eating fast food and take out all day. Way less expensive (in so many ways) for me to eat healthy, which I'm much more likely to do when I bike it.

I couldn't tell anyone the current price of fuel in Australia. After seven years not owning a motor vehicle, petrol stations have become almost irrelevant to me. I do fear for the price of goods and other services, so I eventually will have to pay the oil barons their ransom.

As to food consumption, I would rather stuff a heap of tasty calories down my throat and enjoy the experience instead of gushing smelly petrol/diesel into the fuel tank of a car.

Incidentally, if you are going to calculate fuel savings as a "salary raise", remember to add the tax component to your calculation to achieve a true value of your labour. So $2000 a year cash savings may in effect be the equivalent of $2,500 in your labour.

Anyway, I translate my savings into a two-months overseas trip last year, paying off child support, buying new bikes, and travelling within my own State and country.

The real savings are in not owning a car for me. Where I live I'd be paying $70 -$80 per month in insurance alone, forget gas, maintenance, and actually buying the car. It's a whole lot easier to go completely carless being single in a city, though, than famlied or in the 'burbs.

It's a whole lot easier to go completely carless being single in a city, though, than famlied or in the 'burbs.
Yes, it's called making lifestyle choices, from where you live to having children and how much having a family influences transport options.

It bugs me to hear people who choose to live in a particular suburb relatively remote from their workplace and then complain how it's costing them a whole $12 a week more to fuel up their cars. And how they can't afford to do this or that because their mortgage is killing them, and that $12 a week is the difference between make and break. Let alone the time it takes to get to work because of all the traffic. And how they need something to calm their nerves. And how their credit cards getting to be maxxed out, and now the only way they can afford the fuel bill is by putting on the card.

I just smile to myself and go back to planning my next trip away (which pretty well has already been paid for).

I couldn't tell anyone the current price of fuel in Australia. After seven years not owning a motor vehicle, petrol stations have become almost irrelevant to me.

I'm exactly the same myself. I could go on and on about Gas savings, not only in dollar terms, but also in terms of my overall health and well-being. However, they say a picture paints a thousand words, so, if you click on the link below, you'll see exactly what I'm referring to.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=58163&highlight=moments

I haven't saved anything, and have to ride until November just to break even (considering total outlay for bicycle, extras, repairs - which have turned out numerous, and in fact just this morning my rear wheel started rubbing against the frame which suggests more axel woes) - and this is with the petrol price having increased the way it has this past year. I also have to eat extra, and human fuel is more costly than motor fuel. Subsequent years should work out cheaper, even assuming petrol won't increase much (though it will).

Your paradigm doesn't work in my case. I save money eating when I bike in to work...the reason being, when I do something as physical as biking the distance that I have to go to work, my body craves good food, so I make myself something healthy and carry it into work. But if my body isn't craving it, I don't eat it. I'm a slacker in that regard...so when I drive in, I end up eating fast food and take out all day. Way less expensive (in so many ways) for me to eat healthy, which I'm much more likely to do when I bike it.
Unless your loosing weight you are consuming those extra 50 calories per mile, wether or not it is good food. Around here fast food is about the cheapest food you can get, including cooking it your self. I do not eat fast food(other than been burritos, the only healthy fast food).

I used to be a low paid cook at a somewhat classy brewpub just because a beni. was free food(pasta, designer pizza, bread, a whole salad menu, french fries, beer[end of shift]) all I had to do was make it or claim a 'confused' order, which wasn't hard as everything was set up. I also knew what was in everything as 95% of it was made from scratch and yes I commuted every day :D.

My Chevy S-10 costs $3,896 per year to operate. That includes repair, maintinance, insurance, registration. That was before gas prices went up. So, it's even more now. If I got rid of my truck I could save over to $4,000 per year! In other words, gas savings alone are just a drop in the bucket.

I currently spend $30 per week in gas alone. $30 x 52 weeks = $1,560 per year. I also want to live car free, but I have to go out of town on the weekends so that isn't an option for me right now.

Gas savings are only one part of the issue.

Currently, the Canadian Automotive Association puts car ownership at $0,45/km (Canadian dollars) for the average driver who drives 20 - 25000 km/year.
Part of it is fixed costs; the other part is per km cost.

If one looks at gas alone, I drive 10-12 km with 1 L of gas, which sells at $0,85-$1,00 per litre. It means $0,07-$0,09/km in gas alone. Other almost direct costs such as tire wear, oil changes and the like typically accound for another $0,10/km, or a little bit more than the price of gas. So a person who still keeps his/her car at home would save $0,16-$0,20/km (or $0,20-$0,30 U.S. per mile).

Other savings might come in lesser insurance premiums, but you have to tell your insurance agent that you rarely drive to work. You also keep your car longer... unless you lust for a new car. Real, significant savings occur when you have one less car in the driveway.

Yes money can be saved by riding a bicycle vs a car but its not the huge amounts your all talking yourselves into as a justification of your bike riding.

I sort of agree with this, (and the assertion that food costs more or less balance out gas costs) but I think one major factor makes cycling cost-effective:

medical costs.