Originally Posted by
mcours2006
I thought this might be an interesting survey.
My car commute about 60 minutes round-trip. My bike commute is 100 minutes, if I take the most direct route. So I've bought an 100 minutes of cycling for 40 minutes.
So consider this ratio--time cost quotient (TCQ) = (time spend commuting)/(average car commute time). The lower the quotient, the easier the commute. The quotient would be largely determined by your speed, stop lights, circuitousness of your cycling route compared to your drive, etc. It'd be interesting to compare.
My TCQ is 1.67.
What's your TCQ?
I have a spreadsheet that has my drive commute. When I fill up I put the price per gallon. On days I commute I use the miles I WOULD HAVE DRIVEN and the price of gas I paid for that time and have it show me how much I saved. ALSO I put how much I spend on my bike to support my commuting and have it show me what, if any, real savings there are. Obviously this is not factoring in all the other benefits of commuting, just the financial side of it.
All the above was extra info at no extra cost. To get back to what you are talking about but in miles as well.
TCQ Established
Driving Home -> Work = 20m
Riding Home -> Work = 1h:20m = 80m
Math = 80/20 = 4.0
I could lower that by driving over to the bike path and leaving from there. I'd have do combine driving and biking but that's doable.
Driving Home -> Work = 14.5 miles
Riding Home -> Work = 17.1 miles (using perfect route)
Math = 17.1 / 14.5 = 1.18