Originally Posted by
chefisaac
So my wife has a hard time believing that we will be saving money by me commuting. She is an accountant type person... you know the type. Yikes.
Anyway, I plan to start commuting next Monday and have invested to turn my mtn bike to a commuter. Regardless of what I spent, I want to find out how much I will save by commuting by bike.
So.... I currently drive a toyota tacoma 4 wheel v6 and get about 18 miles to the gallon (avergae between city and highway) and gas is around $3.25 give or take. I drive 22 miles round trip so I know gas will cost me .18 cents a mile which is $3.96 for gas.
But figuring out the other stuff.... tires, wear nad tear, ect. I have no clue.
She gets the health benefits but wants hard facts on savings.
Any ideas?
If you're saving basically $4/day on gas that's $20/week or very roughly $1000/year on gas alone.
Assuming you're going to be cycling the same distance as you previously drove (and of course it may be more or less, if you can take shortcuts or if you have to take longer routes to stay off the interstate etc) you'll be doing about 100 miles per week. At that rate I'd reckon you'll be changing your chain and cassette roughly twice per year and, depending on your weight and riding style, a rear bike tyre every 12 months and front tyre every 24 months (if you're heavy and skid a lot then maybe more often).
If you didn't go for an expensive bike you can probably fund your bike purchase, basic clothing and a year's worth of maintenance out of the fuel savings alone in your first year. From there on in the fuel savings will cover your bike maintenance many times over. Of course if you end up with a bike built from top-end components they are a lot more expensive but I'd imagine the lower-end will still work just fine. My bikes use Shimano Deore cassettes which are way cheaper than the top-end stuff and seem to last very well.
If you keep the car you'll still have to pay for insurance, figure in depreciation, servicing and any annual inspections where you live. If it's on credit you'll still have to pay the interest. If you keep the car you may find your insurance premium reduces if you're not using it to commute any more - you'll be doing 5000 miles less each year and not driving in the rush hour.
If commuting by bike means you can lose the car your savings will jump further - no more depreciation, no more insurance, no more servicing etc.
Being Mr Cheerful, if things do turn nasty in the Middle East and Iran starts playing silly games with Suez or Hormuz the price of gas will jump, which not only means you save even more money but also potentially means you're the guy who still turns up for work while everyone else is stuck because they can't get gas for their cars.