Hmm... Troll alert?
Originally Posted by
adlai
I bike commute, and I have to say that it is not cheaper than taking a car.
Rrrright. And an elephant is not bigger than a gopher.
1. There's a fair bit of maintenance to do on the bicycle.
Two months of car insurance alone would cost me more than all the bike maintenance over the last couple of years.
2. True, car expenses include things like yearly registration, paying for parking, gasoline, replacing broken parts, etc. However, by and far car maintinence is, mile-for-mile, cheaper.
Maintenance is such an insignificant expense when it comes to comparing the cost of owning a car vs. bike, that mentioning it as the first two reasons (out of three) really does not make your argument sound very convincing.
The last flat tire I got in a car was entirely my fault and a result of a flagrant misjudgement. I regularly get flats in bicycles, both road and mountain, while doing on regular pavement.
And every time you're out of 3 bucks (if you don't patch) and ten minutes. At five flats per year (which I think is a pretty high number), that's 15 dollars and almost an hour of your time. Wow. Impressive. Not.
Anyway, I know it's bad luck to brag about a long flat-free stretch, but in the last two years I had perhaps two or three flats, one of which was my own fault (riding an old bike with worn out tires).
Otherwise, a low-end tire will take you 40k miles, and a set will cost maybe $500. With bicycles, you're buying a new pair of gatorskins at $80 every 4k miles. Cheaper tires last shorter.
When I read stuff like this, I always wonder what I'm doing wrong. I've been on the same set of tires on my primary commuter for the last, um... three, I think, years. That's about 10k miles. I've no intention of replacing them anytime soon - they're doing great. $90 (Canadian) per pair, Schwalbe Marathons. I'm sure you can find them cheaper in the States.
3. there are other costs not accounted for.
Since you argument that "bikes cost more $ than cars" has no wheels to stand on, you're deciding to go into the non-monetary aspects. Funny how you mention the advantages of a car, but fail to mention those of a bike. How about the improved fitness (and thus prolonged life expectancy), or the fun factor?
An obvious ones of course are the greater mobility of the car allowing you more freedom in getting to jobs
I haven't yet been limited by my choice of transportation as to what jobs I chose to take or to decline. It's not as though you're forced to ride your bike for the rest of your life. If you get a new job far away from home, you can always devise a different transportation plan (whether it be a car commute, a multimodal commuter, or moving closer to your workplace). Once you have a job that's bike-commutable, commuting by bike and living car-free is certainly cheaper. Also, don't forget that with remote workplaces come their own costs: namely, a huge chunk of time wasted every day by sitting in traffic.
carrying capacity of people and cargo
Get a trailer and you'll be able to carry a lot of stuff. For the other people - get more bikes.
Another perk of a bike: great social activity.
Again, I've never felt restricted in this regard. You can always rent a car, you know, if you want to transport something bulky. You can also get lots of things delivered: even if you have to pay for it every once in a while it will be cheaper overall than owning a car.
cars are safer than bicycles
They are not.
With a bicycle, mile-for-mile, you're at a greatly increased risk of death compared to a car,
Not greatly. I recall a difference of a factor of two. If you measure by hour of exposure, it goes in favour of the bicycle, for about the same factor.
in general it takes you longer to get to places
But in the time it takes you to get there you're actually doing something good for you body and soul while at the same time accomplishing the mission of getting somewhere. This SAVES time. No need to drive to the gym to do boring stationary bike cardio and then drive back.
you're breathing in toxic fumes from the vehicles on the road.
Sitting in a car, you breath them in too. On a bike though, you get exercise which makes you fitter. Ever heard of that 20:1 ratio (per every life-year lost to injury, 20 are gained as a result of health benefits of road riding)?
Now of course, I love bicycles and commuting in them so that's what I choose, but economically, at best it's a wash in terms of cost savings.
It depends on the situation. In many situations, including my own, it's vastly superior when it comes to economic benefits as well as lifestyle benefits.