Originally Posted by desconhecido

I can't speak for what everyone experiences, but I can say that your experience is not mine. Having a car available does not cause me to make extraneous trips or to waste driving miles. I rarely circle blocks looking for parking (maybe once per month at the most -- that's maybe 50 miles per year). When I go out for something it's much more likely to be six or eight sheets of plywood or ten sacks of concrete mix than it is to be five or six pounds of groceries. Even if you were correct with your assertions, it's not fair to attribute the savings to bicycle riding as opposed to just exercising good discipline. You don't need a bicycle to eliminate trips to the store for single cans of beer or a pack of gum or a bag of pinto beans. You can realize all those savings just by being a frugal driver.

I'm not saying you can't save money by riding a bike and I'm not saying that those costs can't be significant. I am saying that I don't believe that the average person will eliminate more than one car mile per bicycle mile (my guess is that the savings is less than one car mile per bike mile) and that "we all" don't experience what you claim that "we all experience." If you present actual evidence to the contrary, I might be convinced that I am wrong. If it's good evidence, I probably will be.