Originally Posted by
Jaeger
There are hundreds of different assumptions that can be used that greatly affect the comparisons - I won't rehash them all here, they're all in many threads in the commuting forum. Bottom line, when you add up the cost of the bike, the replacement of tires, chains, brake pads, cassettes, cables - and add in the costs of all the accessories (floor pump, mini pumps, tools, locks, blinky lights, batteries and clothes, etc), cycling can easily start costing in the range of 30-50 cents/mile or so that it typically costs to drive a car. Depending of course on the type of bike, mileage and lots of other factors.
Adding it all up is a bit of an eye opener and does explain why you don't see that many poor people riding bikes for transportation.
if you are using a car only to commute distances that are practical to commute by bike and nothing else, there is no way they would cost the same if the quality of the vehicles are scaled reasonably. If you count bike tools into the cost of a bike, then factor in the cost of tools required to service a car. how much does a tire mounting machine cost compared to a tire lever?