Originally Posted by prathmann

Gasoline is cheap. It has an energy content of over 30,000 kcal/gallon. I find that even when I'm choosing pretty economical foods at the grocery store, it's hard to average over 1000 kcal/$, so based on the energy content gasoline would have to cost over $30/gal to be as expensive as our food. Yet another reason why it makes little sense to turn corn into car fuel.

But it's much more enjoyable to refuel my bike engine than my car engine so I'm not averse to spending a little more. And much of our bicycle spending is discretionary. Yes you can buy bike tires at over $50 each, but you can also find perfectly serviceable ones for under $10. Similarly it's easy to spend thousands of dollars on a bike, but for utility cycling one can get around just about as well on a used bike picked up at a garage sale for under $100.