Originally Posted by
acidfast7
I spend €21.32/month on a Frankfurt-wide public transit ticket (map attached).
That is less than what I spend on food to power my bike (€2/day x 20 days = €40/month).
In addition, everyone pays the same insurance premium (roughly 8% of gross salary) regardless of what physical condition I'm in, so I don't get lower premiums by riding my bike.
In fact, even if someone gave me all my gear for free, I'd still lose money every time I commuted by bike (and a few minutes of time.)
So you pay close to half of what I would have to in order to take a better public transit system (we have no trains, only buses). Your situations are different than the ones faced here, so can you see how the bike can be a cheaper option than taking the bus, and commuting by bike can help saving for the goal of having a year of salary as backup?
Related - If I take the bus to work from my house, it's an estimated 1 hour and 40 minutes. If I bike, It's 45 minutes + shower + changed , so an hour. It's a 10 mile commute by bike. So I've wasted another 1.3 hours a day so 6.5 to 7 hours extra a week is spent sitting on a bus. What's your time worth?