Dahon.Steve

Wow! You pay only $800.00 dollars for insurance in Jacksonville, Florida? You're driving a 2010 Toyota Tacoma? LOL!

One of the reasons why I had to become car free was that insurance for my 20 year old station wagon increased to $600.00 dollars a year in New Jersey. However, this was more than 15 years ago that I became carfree so I can imagine I would be paying more insurance today than Chrism for a much older vehicle.

I can just imagine how much insurance a 2010 Toyota Tacoma wold cost to insure in New Jersey.

I-Like-To-Bike

Sure you are car free, at least in the sense that everybody is car free, when they or someone else in the household isn't driving the car that is used for taking care of household transportation needs best serviced with their own readily available motor vehicle.

You do not need to apologize or feel guilty because you keep a car and are not car-free; or if you or your wife uses it to pick up the groceries: if you or your family member(s) need one, you need one.

The real money you are saving is not so much from not driving, but rather that you got rid of the expenses of owning an extra car.

Ekdog

Nor do you know if you would have maimed or killed yourself or another person, but if you don't grow up and put an end to such childish, irresponsible behavior, there's a good chance you will.

jgadamski

You do not need to apologize or feel guilty because you keep a car and are not car-free; or if you or your wife uses it to pick up the groceries: if you or your family member(s) need one, you need one.

glad you cleared that up for me. I will sleep better tonight.

prathmann

Also not car-free and ironically my main use of the car is to go to bike rides that are farther away.
'97 Camry -
Depreciation ~$150
Gas $320
Insurance $250
Registration/Mtce./Inspection $175

So I'm paying almost $900/year for the convenience of keeping it around for occasional use.

I-Like-To-Bike

Now maybe you won't need to post as if you feel you need to make excuses for owning a car and/or you were blaming your wife for your less than car free status.

I-Like-To-Bike

I recently got rid of a second car, a 2000 Honda Civic because I got tired of looking at. I put less than 1000 miles on it in the last 2 years I owned it mostly getting pizza. My costs were even less than yours.

Depreciation - next to nothing. I bought it when it was 9 years old for $3500
Gas - approx. $100/year
Insurance - approx. $250/year
Registration - $50 year
Inspection - $0
Maintenance - None for the last 2 years, not even an oil change
Ran like a top when I sold it with 155,000 miles on it.
Unfortunately the insurance on the remaining car went up $100/year because I no longer get the multi-car discount.

JoeyBike

Not having car expenses allows me to work less and play more. I don't put any more money "aside" being car free. But I do get to take 6 months to a year off of work at a whim. Or work-a-month and take-a-month-off all year. Or go out to play on nice weather days and work on crummy days.

Now if I could just convince the wife to get rid of the stupid house...

BTW...I keep car insurance called "Non-owned vehicular insurance" for the rare occasion I rent a car these days. I also keep a current Operators License. Every now and then I get stuck driving a vehicle for work or helping friends shuttle cars around and those things come in handy. And the occasional adventure behind the wheel reminds me why I got rid of my car in the first place (1989). I HATE catching the same red light more than once and I hate getting trapped in gridlock.

wipekitty

I sold my '95 Olds (just turned 100,000 miles) back in March.

Back when I was driving more than twice a month, I spent about $450/year on gas, $280 on insurance, and $80 on licensing. It was the random repairs - $200 here, $300 there, that convinced me to sell it (that, and I was only driving about twice a month). It was a good car, and I'm glad that somebody can get a few more years out of it.

Unfortunately, we lost the multi-policy discount on our homeowner's insurance, so the overall insurance costs have actually gone *up* $100 a year by not owning a car! (I'm looking into other ways to get it back, like life insurance). Still, it's an extra $700-$1000 a year that I can justify blowing on bike stuff, and I can justify it to my partner by saying "we don't have a car anymore, so I need XYZ for my bikes..."

Ekdog

He might be satisfied if you agreed to divorce your wife, but I wouldn't count on it.

Zedoo

I save my mental health.

gerv 

The number crunchers won't be able to put a price on this but it is a great savings!!

cerewa

I recently got an old cheap car. It required a few hundred dollars for repairs & inspection to become usable but I didn't pay anything for the car itself.

I don't know precisely what car commuting is going to cost but it has ended up replacing a fairly expensive bike/train commute. Car commute costs (rough guess with repairs and so on accounted for) $80 per month more. The government oughta charge me for the damage this car does to the environment, but I don't know how much that would end up being.

gerv 

Guessing your major expense will be repairs. Do you think it will be reliable enough?

CliffordK

Hmmm...
I think I'm spending more money by not driving

All my cars are paid for, and I do all my own auto (and bike) maintenance.

I parked my car mid September (2½ months ago), and for now have let the insurance lapse (forcing me to ride my bike). I already didn't drive a lot.
Car payments: 0
Car maintenance, a couple hundred a year.
Registration: $80 for 2 years
Insurance: $500 for 6 months.
Gas: Perhaps $100 a month.

Non Driving Expenses:
Built a new Cargo Bike ($300-$400 worth of parts and supplies?) Plus the trailer (maybe an additional $200 to $300 in parts and supplies).
Couple of pairs of "summer" cycling shoes: $100.
Pair of "winter" cycling shoes: $150
2 New Origin8 Elimin8er tires for Colnago, $45 (mostly wore out this summer).
New rear wheel for my Colnago (hub, spokes, rim, cassette) $200
Collecting parts for my next bike build (or two)... Too much to list.

Granted some of these "upgrades" are long overdue, and should last me years in the future, except for the tires that will need periodically replaced. However, cycling isn't necessarily cheap, especially with capital expenditures.

bluebike1000

I probably save around

$30-50 per month on fuel.
$500-700 per year insurance
$200 parking pass per year.

And the total cost of the car. My car was paid for, but it was an older model.
A basic bicycle repair does not even compare to a car repair. My last car upgrade was purchasing and installing tires to the tune of $500.

This does not include any of the fringe benefits health wise.

Omiak

According to AAA the average cost of owning a car is roughly $9000 a year (not including: parking, gym membership, most of the taxes you pay to subsidize road construction and maintenance, whatever the 37% off all accidental deaths in america and the reduced life expectancy of you and everyone around you is worth, whatever all the noise pollution, air pollution, ozone depletion, loss of public space and general increase of stress levels cost society as a whole etc.)

Six jours

"Average" is not a synonym for "necessary".

gerv 

You use a Colnago for transportation?

Roody

Don't be too hard on yourself. It's probably more accurate to blame the poorly designed infrastructure wherever you live. Or possibly lack of transit.

Roody

My household would lose a lot of money if we didn't have a car. One person works only a few miles from home, but her workplace has no transit service whatsoever, and riding a bike on the highways there would be difficult and scarey for almost anybody.

She works in a small area that employs thousands of people in several large factories. It's a damn shame that there is no access to these jobs, other than by car. I blame that on bad government more than anything else.

[HR][/HR]

Originally Posted by shipwreck
I save quite a bit by riding a bicycle to the post office every day. If I drove I would be paying over 100 dollars more a month on gas.

However, similar to some others here, I could not have my business without a vehicle, in my case a van used to carry materials and finished products around. There is absolutely no way I could do what I do and incidentally love for a living without it. Not because I have to show up to work looking nice or the like, but because it would cost more to pay for shipping freight to get items I need, and to ship my larger work back out than I pay for the vehicle per year, including the occasional break down and repair of my older, no payment, cheap insurance rig.




IMO, a van that is used to deliver things for a business is not a "car". It is a commercial vehicle. So if you use the vehicle mainly for business purposes, you are still carfree.

[HR][/HR]

Originally Posted by chrism32205
Let's see.. since I'm not car free but enjoy reading this section of the forum..

Annual Figures Shown Below for a 2010 Toyota Tacoma:

Payments $3400 (Not paid for yet)
Gas $ 765 (Drive about 3500 miles annually) at $3.50 /gallon at 16mpg
Insurance $800
Registration & Maintenance Costs $300
Total: $ 5,265 or $438.75 per month.



If you don't drive much, you might be shocked even more by the costs per mile!

CliffordK

YEAH????
Isn't that what a bicycle is for?

I must admit that a month ago I was at a bike shop using an old kid's trailer as a cargo trailer, pulling it behind my Colnago, and the shop owner was laughing at me.

Anyway, years ago I ended up with two bikes. My Colnago, and a beater bike that I no longer remember the brand, but 27" tires, steel rims, tire powered generator, cotters, etc. Weighed a ton. And I was commuting 10+ miles a day.

The old beater was a miserable bike, especially when the wheel generator was kicked in (although it did make a good bright light).

So, I had a choice. Ride the Colnago all the time and leave the beater parked, or ride the beater all the time and leave the Colnago parked.

I just decided that I liked riding my Colnago.

I've gotten over three decades of enjoyable riding the Colnago when otherwise it would only have been taken out for the infrequent weekend ride.

Had I not ridden the Colnago, it might be a bit shinier today, but nonetheless, it still would be obsolete.

It has taken a beating over the years, and in a sense I feel bad about it. But, I certainly don't regret the decision.

Roody

Interesting...you should start a thread about this. I bet there are other people who use atypical bikes for transportation cycling.

CliffordK

Perhaps I'll start a "show us your commuter" thread.

However, I don't believe there is any typical commuter bike. But it really also depends on the person and the commute. Brands like Surly date back to 1998, long after I had been pounding the pavement with my Colnago. But I wouldn't have bought one as a commuter either.

I don't see a lot of Colnagos chained up in front of stores, but I do see the occasional classic Raleigh or Peugeot, along with a lot of bikes that just don't seem appropriate for more than a mile or so hop.

Back in the mid 70's, Dad would frequently ride his bike 20+ miles each way for a commute. I was pretty young then, but I did the ride a few times, but usually rode to town and caught a car ride back home. By the time I bought the Colnago in 82, we had moved to about 10 miles from town. But it was still far enough that it wouldn't have been fun to do on the typical city bike of the era.

As far as being "car free", it has only been recently, since I built the cargo bike that I've been able to do 100% of my routine shopping and errands without a car, as well as putting in a bit of extra effort to look for non-car methods of getting around. I still own my car, but am not currently paying insurance or gas.

Artkansas 

I had my ex do the math about 13 years ago. I don't know what the answer was but she immediately stopped pressuring me to commute by car.