I'm just curious how much money everyone figures they save monthly by riding their bike as oppose to driving to work????

Thanks

Save money?!! You've got to be kidding! I am always spending money on something cycling related, spares or upgrades to the bike(s) or cycle clothing.

I'm the same. I don't spend the £20 or so I save by not taking the bus or train every week (it would be much more if I had to pay to park the car), but I find I'm in "upgrade mode " at the moment, having just had my usual tourer/commuting bike re enamelled at a cost of £170

CAR annual costs:
Ad Valorem: $65
Gas @ $20/wk: $1,100
Insurance: $600/year
Oil/filter changes: $150
Various maintenance: $250
This total: $2,165

Bike annual cost:
Tires: $25-30
Tune-up: $60
Tubes (5/yr): $20
Maint. supplies (grease, cleaner, oil): $15
This total: $125

According to this calculation, I save $2,040. Actually, I still pay for and use the car but a week of bike commuting will save me $20-30 in gas or more.

Annual cycling costs are about £100
Alt public transport costs would be £350.

Not owning a car saves £1000
Renting (with company discount) or using trains costs up to £500

I save a min of £750 on tranport.

Not having to pay gym/swimming costs to keep fit saves another £200 (using my company discount)

Weekly cost of driving:

Parking -- $6 X 5 = $30
Mileage -- $0.36 X 11 miles X 5 = $20 (US Government rate)
Total -- $50
At 50 weeks per year -- $2,000

Cost of cycling -- about $100 for flats, $60 for tune-ups.

Result...about $1,800.

Intangibles

This is the only way I would ever get any exercise, so there are health benefits.

My car is free for my wife to use when hers is in the shop.

I enjoy rush hour.

Paul

Right on!

For me the option would be public transportation so the difference in price tags is not that big. But you just gotta love it when you zoom past a traffic jam. With any luck you'll have a couple of kids pointing at you from a stopped car and yelling, "Dad, do something, we passed that guy earlier!"



--J

None
It costs me money to ride, I keep building new and better bikes, the cost is way out of hand, it's less expensive to drive my truck.

I long ago decided that I didn't save any significant money by bike commuting--unless I got rid of the car. Fuel being so heavily subsidized in the US, the real costs are in car ownership, not in driving it! Interest, taxes, insurance, tags, all are required to own a car, whether it gets driven to work or not. In fact, one can make a financial argument that to better amortise the costs of car ownership, you are better off to drive it more (please don't flame me for that!). So, I guess I save maybe $20/week in gas/tires, etc. by cycle commuting.

Lately though, I have been seriously considering going carfree! Well, sorta anyway. Since my wife also has a car, and since she doesn't work (stay at home mom), being a one car family could be quite practical for us. The way I look at it, this could be an easy way to be kinda carfree--although it really more like half carfree since I'd still essentially have half a car. Maybe I should start a new thread to discuss this option.

Dave

Having not owned a car in a number of years, I no longer think of cycle commuting as a way to save money. But, one thing that it has saved me is a lot of headaches.

Weekly savings is only like $30 - $40, as I don't have the option of not owning a car. I can probably tack on an extra $200 a week in savings, though, as I don't need a therapist to help me relax from the rigors of the week, thanks to my trusty (and needing-to-be-reassembled) Bianchi.

That's probably true in most cases unless you have a collector car or something that you want to keep for more than 5 years.

I don't save much money from cycling because I own 3 cars and still drive alot. I guess it saves me about $15 to $20 per week for gas, about $40 per month in insurance discounts, and $12 a month that I stopped spending on mass transit. The real benefits are the exercise and enjoyment I get from riding every day, the removal of car commuting induced stress, keeping the miles down on my vehicles, protecting 2 of my vehicles since they don't have to sit outside in the elements all day for 5 days a week, and being able to be lazy with car maintenance/repairs because they don't have to be finished up every Sunday night.

when i used our car for work it sat there for 8--12 hrs doing nothing, now when i bike to work its on the move all day on some kind of "must be done" activity by my family, even if i wanted to go back to driving to work i dont think they,d let me, but they still poke fun at me on my bike it used to cost $20 a f/night in gas now its $60 !!! let alone the wear & tear!! but they,r happy. if they,r happy im happy anything for i quite life. so the short answer is no i dont save any $$ bikeing to work!!!

My commute includes a monthly Bus pass but I calculate with fuel and wear and tear if drove it is somewhere around $3500 a year driving as compared to around $1200 for bike. This does not take into account the savings I have made by being in better shape therfore lower medical costs. If I were to gauge it on what my dad and brother pay for meds I am saving around another $600 a year

Ya know what, look @ it this way, compared to other hobbies, or sports, bikes are really cheap! Know anyone who owns a boat, or plays golf? How about folks who are into cars?

Now THOSE are expensive hobbies. My rule, is I can justify any required toys for any sport as long as there is no motor or insurance involved.

I was spending $10 per day on parking and gas, not to mention all the fixed costs of owning a second car. That comes to well over $2000 per year. After 2 years I have saved at leat $4000 and sold the second car. I have spent quite a bit on cycling stuff, but much of that was elective. The total comes nowhere close to the money spent on commuting by car.

I'm like you "hayneda". My wife is also a Stay at home Mom, or Work at home Mom, I should say. We currently have 2 cars and every seldom are we using both of them at the same time.

I'm not commuting yet, but have been considering buying a nice bike for commuting (a recumbent) and getting rid of one of the cars. I'm going to have about a 13 mile one way commute, most of which is out of town riding.

Thanks for the info,
Dustin

I've heard this subsidization claim several times on this board. I wonder what, exactly, is subsidized and how the petroleum industry's "subsidization", to the extent is exists, differs markedly from other industries' subsidization.

Yikes! I just calculated what my car costs and I'm sick about it!

Annual Figures
Car payment $3,996
Licensing 30
Gas 1,200
Insurance 900
Oil, filter etc. 60
______
$6,186

I would love to spend even half of that yearly on a bike.!!!!!!!

I've got to go now and drive myself to the doctors office to get
some antidepressants. I guess I'll have to add another $285 to that figure.

My conservative guess is that I save $1,500 per year. And based on the goverment's figures for my car's emissions, I figure I eliminate over 2 tons of air pollution per year. Not bad.

Geeze, this topic came up about a year or two ago.

Somewhere is an article on the internet that talks about the savings when bicycle commuting. It was around $6,000 per year after all things are considered.

I will look it up and post the url.

A very powerful military force to "protect the American way of life".

Maybe I missed it but I think you guys are leaving out 10% a year depeciation.
Many times I've heard the oxymoron "depreciating asset" in reference to automobile ownership, heh......

I honestly don't think I save anything by bike commuting, I'm just too into tools, gadgets, gizmos, better lighting, etc. The cost of car insurance doesn't change for me. The only real savings is reducing the number of of oil changes from 5 a year to 2 and going from 56 tanks of gas a year to 12. At our local prices that is about a $585 saving. Again that I spend $85/year on batteries for my light systems; $80 in degreaser & chain lube; $90 on tires and tubes, $200 in special shoes, shorts, jerseys, jackets, gore-tex socks, etc.; $30 a year in cab rides when the weather or mechanical woes strand me at work; $20 in brake pads; $25 on panniers which adds up to $530 and I need to have a wheel re-tensioned and trued. It's a good thing I didn't start commuting as an economy move. It's a way to get to work that I love, that's all I ask of it. I just try not to make it more expensive than car commuting.

Just the gas and parking is $1680 a year, so I can leave the car in front of the house all week and still save that much. Taking the train is about the same.

I've been trying for quite some time to convince my wife that we don't need two cars. Still trying. Losing the second car -- the one that's paid for -- would save us at least another $2-3000 a year in insurance, maintenance, licensing, etc., but she (not a cyclist) is willing to take that hit in exchange for the security of there always being a functioning car in front of the house.

Oh, well.

RichC

I've been using alternative means of transportation to work for too long to consider going back, now!