I know people who make little over $10/hour and their lives have been LIBERATED because of the money they have saved up since selling their car and just using a bicycle+public transportation.

Yeah. If you need to change your brake on a bike, it's like $20 bucks. If you need to change the brakes on your car, it will run hundreds of dollars including labor.

When your bike needs maintenance, you go to the bike shop and they will usually be able to tune your bike while you wait a half hour or something and pay $5-30 bucks tops depending on the job.

When your car needs maintenance, you go to the mechanic and your entire day is killed and you're getting charged $60+/hr for labor + parts!!! :eek:

I haven't seen mention of the money saved on anger management.

LMAO!! Great coment. That just really sums it all up!!

saving money is for wussy

I agree. At what point does commuting save $$?..... NEVER! In fact, it costs me. If I spent the extra hour at work I would make 10X what I save in gasoline. Bike commute for the fun and enjoyment.

LMAO!! Great coment. That just really sums it all up!!

I was saving money and getting in better shape by commuting. Then it happened I thought why not by a road bike and start club riding. I am in even better shape but it will take a lot of commuting to to fund my road bike. I will need to commute to a second job before long.

The bike will always be cheaper than the car. But at some point your time will be more valuable to you. At some point a commute takes up too much of your day. For most people that happens at about an hour each way. Once it gets much more than that you want your time back!

If your bike commute takes you one and a half to two hours each way, the car will look pretty attractive.

hmmm... so I dump the 2nd car. I don't buy another one to replace it. Buy a few trinkets for the bike and I pig out till I burst while getting tons of exercise and peace of mind and somehow this is more expensive than driving/owning a car? have you priced cars, gas, upkeep, and insurance lately? I can buy an awful lot ot knick knacks as someone pointed out for a bike and never come close to the expense of a car. nah this is a no brainer.

I save both time and money commuting on my bike. Here is some of the breakdown of my big savings:
$ 300 per year savings by dropping health club membership
$ 125 per year savings by re-classiying my car to be driven less than 7500 miles per year and not to work
$1000 yearly savings from riding 3000 miles vs driving. The car costs about $.35 per mile to operate.
$ 560 yearly savins from not driving to the club twice weekly (16 miles each time * twice a week * 52 weeks * $.35 per mile)
That gives me a total of right about $2000

Expenses for my cycling last year:
$1500 New road bike
$ 250 SPD shoes, pedals for road bike and hybrid
$ 100 new winter tires
$ 75 new summer tires on hybrid
$ 200 misc parts chains, cassette, bottem bracket, cleaning supplies, and what ever else I've forgotten
$ 200 additional riding cloths for the Winter
My expenses this year: $2325

I nearly broke even this year and that incudes buying a $1500 bike!

This past year I was able to avoid having to do anything other than one oil change. As I am coming up to 100,000 miles, I am going to have to do some maintenance on the car this up coming year:
$375 brakes (rotors, pads) I'll do the labor myself
$ 25 Flush the brakes with high quality fluid
$100 Flush the transmission
$ 25 Air filter
$ 25 Cabin air filter
$ 25 Spark plugs
That will be about $525 in maintenance... if nothing unexpected need fixing. Cars are not cheap to keep of maintain, but I still need a car too often that we can't quite go down to 1 car. Even so, by cycling I am saving money i

For next year my bike costs will be a lot lower:
I expect to spend about $500 on a lighter/better venting Summer helmet, some additional shirts, and what ever other parts that I need/desire. So next year I'll actually start seeing major savings.

Happy riding,
André

i dont see it as a problem. i buy lots of expensive bike **** becuase i love cycling. i use my bikes mostly for fun so as i see it, my commuting is free becuase i had the bikes stuff already.

if i had to do anymore than say 30miles commute to work, i probably would just get the train there and ride home, as i dont want to knacker myself out before ive even started working.

The cost savings are immediate, but the benefits are beyond price.

I eat and do laundry, anyway. I have a large family so laundry is almost a continuous process. An extra couple of bike shorts don't generate additional loads of laundry. As for food, I probably eat more, but only a little more, and not enough to register. I do, however gain the satisfaction of being able to eat and not feel guilty about it.

Knick-knacks and cycling gear: This is controllable expense. You don't "need" to keep spending money on this stuff, but there are things early on that will improve the utility of your bike, or your own comfort. Some of these things will wear out and need replacing over time, but consider this. In the US, we are obsessed with vehicles and we spend a lot of money "improving" them. If I wasn't spending money on my commuter bike or my bike gear, I'd probably be spending it on my car.

Furthermore, bike stuff only seems expensive when you consider your bike to be a toy. When you treat it like transportation, it's a steal. I just changed the oil in our minivan the other day and spent over $60 in supplies before I hit the garage. And I still need to have someone flush and fill the radiator and replace the transmission fluid, and I need a specialist to inspect the brakes because I don't have a micrometer, nor any way to measure "runout" on the discs. And this is scheduled maintenance!

If I wasn't biking to work, I would need some other form of exercise. This could mean gym membership, or it could just mean additional road biking outside of commuting. Either of these would require more money and more of my time with no return benefit of transportation. If I didn't exercise, I could expect to visit the doctor more often and to experience more serious health concerns, or to eventually become dependent on full time health care at an earlier age. How much does that cost?

When I bike to work, I am a happier and more productive person. What dollar value do we assign to that?

This morning in the soft light of early dawn, I saw three deer run across the road ahead of me, leap over a fence, and take off across a freshly mown field of hay. It was beautiful. What price, that?

I have a $60 monthly train ticket to go four stations, otherwise my r/t would be over 32 miles.

The expense I'm finding here in my first week of commuting is GROCERIES! I'm hungry always now.

I wonder if this will taper off, and my body become more efficient, but boy am I hungry!

Here is a link http://motofoto.cc/MotovsCarMaint.xls to a small psreadsheet to help you look are car costs (the purpose of the link was to see the payback time for riding a motorcycle; but, you can out in bicycle numbers and run it that way).

If you are driving a jeep then there is no way you are rolling at .09 per mile.
Here is what I cam up with on my motorcycle, then I will adjust it for jeep estimates and will use your numbers where you have given them.

Yamaha V-Star 650
Item Service life Cost $/mi
Tires 10000 200 .02
Oil 3000 10 .003
fuel 50 mpg 2.25est .045
dep see notes .06
maint see notes .02

Cost / mi = 14.8 cents

note:
cost / mile does not include safety gear specific to motorcycles (my riding suit is about 500 and my helmet is about 250, the gloves are about 100 for two pair, reflecting different riding conditions, the boots I would own anyways), experience shows this equipment lasts about 4 - 7 years.

Depreciation assumes initial price of $5,500, a service life of 75,000 and a salvage value of $1,000

maintenance generally = tires, cars that use expensive tires use more maintenance, this is based on nothing but a lifetime of experience

Now for a jeep
Item Service life Cost $/mi
Tires 50,000 400 .008 (I used your number for tire life and put in 400 for a set, we both know that a set costs more; but, I really an guessing on most of the jeep numbers)
Oil 3000 15 .005 (I increased your oil by 2 quarts and assume you still change it yourself)
fuel 22 mpg 2.25est .10 (jeep owners seem to report 20 - 24 mpg for the Cherokee, the CJ/wranglers are lower)
dep see notes .06 (I decided to treat your jeep as a used farmers jeep and left the numbers here the same)
maint see notes .008

I am at 18.1 cents, twice your estimate.


For several years in the 90's my father ran paper route (after he retired) and kept exact records. The only way he was ever able to get a car below 10 cents a mile was with a geo. Further, as I recall, he still had to not account for depreciation in order to get the numbers that low. Even the used diesel rabbit would not go that low due to maintenance.

My goal is to reduce car usage, improved health & fitness and to save a little money.

I spent about $2000 on the full set-up last year, including two new bikes, clothing and safety gear. My costs this year will be less than $250.

The car usage is down about 1/2. If my car lasts 8 years instead of 5, I'll save about $1000/year for the next two years and $5000/year for the following 2 years. Having a car without any car payments is a major savings, 2 more years to go until then.

But it’s more about fun and fitness. I would keep riding without any financial incentive.

Michael

+1

The total cost for replacing my stolen bike so far is: $450 (Price includes accessories.)

Gym membership before I got the bike: $90/month (!!!)

Metrocard purchase per month: $50+/month

I'm saving over $140 a month just by owning and riding my bike! That's over $1,680 a year!

I've had my new bike for 7 weeks now but I'll just round it up to an even 8 weeks = 2 months. One more month and the bike will have paid for itself! :D

But having a hot bod + fun + avoiding a heart attack = Priceless! :thumb:

Fossil fuels took millions of years to be created, and we don't pay for that production, so even the refined products are extremely underpriced. A gallon of gas has 30,000 calories in it. Even if it cost $10, it would be insanely underpriced.

When I cycle, I definitely have to eat more. So on fuel alone, cycling costs more than driving a car.

But as others have pointed out, there are other benefits to cycling which make it worthwhile.

Then if you can replace a car with your bike, you're way ahead. It's not an option for me, though. I'm not sure I buy the health club argument, though, because while it's true I don't need to join, really, no one NEEDS to. There are cheap and free ways to exercise.

I don't join a health club because I know if I do, I won't use it.

^ No, part of the argument is that by commuting on a bike, you are going to work AND working out at the same time. Otherwise you need to set extra time aside for you workout, cheap or not.

Yes, it is very time-efficient by that measure. That's how I convinced myself to find the time to cycle to work. I need exercise but I could never allocate the time. It takes 30 minutes to drive and 60 minutes to cycle. So double that for the round trip, and I get two hours of exercise. Fantastic.

A couple of points. It will save you money if you are dedicated even for 20 mile one way commutes.

Increase in food consumption, and clothes washing is marginal and easily off-set by lack of car maintenance and gas consumption. The benefits in health are huge and will also show up as savings over time.

Secondly if you get rid of one car or all your cars, you will save much more. Going car-free for 8 years made a huge impact on my bottom line, so this is not idle speculation.

Finally, there are a lot of people who spend money on their rides and dump hobbyist money into the bikes as well. It would be foolish to count this as transportation costs. That is entertainment money, just as if you owned a Mustang convertible and worked on it all the time.

Good points, djwid. The savings go way up when you can get rid of a car. I wish I could do that, but I can't.

I too am one of those whose costs actually go up when I commute do to the extra food intake. :mad: But, I figure in the long run I'll save bundles on less healthcare. :D

don't forget laundry too. at least for me, I do more laundry. some folks can reuse clothing but I sweat too much and wash everything every time.

My thoughts are that you start saving money as soon as you start bicycle commuting. Even with increased calorie/laundry expenses, you're likely still saving $ over: gas/parking/maintenence, etc. Besides, you'd likely be driving yourself to the gym to get in the exercise you'd otherwise be getting from commuting; spending even more $. Also, think of it as an investment in your health.

From the moment yous top paying car insurance, gas, and citations and start pedaling.

50 MPG of water. Thats still cheaper than any hybrid.

GET RID OF the EARTH DESTROYING TANK (aka car) and there's no comparison in savings :)

Bicycling = Savings ... !!!
 

My experience has been completely different ... !!! I figured that I would be spending at least $70,000.00 on driving for the next ten years! Even when I ride 25 miles in one day, my food consumption doesn't increase that much.

Try shopping around and buying food and other stuff at better prices. I do most of my food shopping at Wal-Mart (only special items on sale), WINCO (especially bulk grains, and special items), Food Maxx, Food 4 Less, and Cost Less. I also stock up when certain items are on sale, and stuff our freezer full as possible.

I'll be buying a new Surly Long Haul Trucker soon, and investing a total of around $4,000.00, including lots of goodies (!), and that doesn't even compare with driving .... That $4,000.00 investment will be good for many, many, many years to come ... !!!

Yes, I'll need to spend a little on maintenance and repairs, but that won't even come close to what I'd have to spend on driving.

Somethign else to consider ... Many people eat too many calories for each meal. Try eating less, and more often. Try making some serious changes in your diet, and eating more healthy. If you have the ground space, try planting at least a small garden. Greens are very easy to grow, and they grow quickly, and you can just pick the leaves, and keep the plants in the ground, which will continue to produce leaves for many months, especially kale, mustard greens, green onions, and swiss chard. You can even grow vegetables in small containers, on window sills, from hanging pots, on balconies, etc.

If more than one person in the house goes car free, or at least car light, the savings will be even greater ... !!!

Benefits and Rewards From Cycling .....
 

Lots of good comments here ... I just have to jump in with my story ....

I was spending about $500-600 each month driving my old Dodge Caravn, already paid for. I have a good driving, no that's excellent, driving record and was only paying about $300/6mo for full (maximum) insurance!

I've found out that I can get everywhere I need to by riding my bicycle, or taking the bus. I really don't need to ride the bus much anymore, as I'm getting into better shape, able to handle longer rides now.

I bought my Electra Townie last year. Had the shop upgrade the tires, added a super heavy duty Kryptonite lock ($150!), with a few extras. I think I've spent close to around $1000 total for the past year or so. The bike has already paid for itself!

The bike will be good for many, many more years to come, along with the equipment. I could keep riding the Townie for many more years without buying much more stuff, so the savings for me is astronomical.

However, as several people have already mentioned, it's not only about the money .... And some of us are addicted to bicycles. Riding is a really cool hobby, and a way of life for some of us. I really enjoy riding, and also I'm a gadget freak. So I like to have lots of cool stuff for my bike, but even maintaining three bikes (mountain bike, Townie, and soon to be proud owner of LHT), the savings for the three of us (myself and my two boys) will still be substantial.

I'm also thinking seriously about my health. I'll be 52 on May 18th (same day that Mount Saint Helens blew her top/side), and like someone has already mentioned, we spend so much time driving our cars around, not just to work, but all over the place, sometimes leaving little time or energy left for exercising.

So, by riding around all over the place, I get lots of great exercise. I feel great after a good ride. I feel like I'm not as stressed out when I was driving all the time. Don't have to worry if I'm going to run out of gas, or trying to find the cheapest gas station, or wondering if my car is going to start, or if I'll break down somewhere, repairs, oil changes, checking the coolant, oil, tires, cleaning inside and out, tickets, court, insurance, parking, etc.

I enjoy riding around, taking my time, stopping and talking with people, taking in the scenery, taking my camera with me so I can catch some interesting moments .....

That's my two cents worth for this morning .... I'm going for a 25 mile ride today all around town and along the Dry Creek Trail. Think I'll start working on the hills a little more ....

Extra Costs for Driving ...
 

Wow ... !!! You've been car free for eight years ... !!! Congratulations!

You brought up a good point, regarding the extra money that we spend on gadgets, and upgrades for both the car and bicycle. That really doesn't count as transportation cost. In fact, I was just pondering that issue the other day.

I see people spending thousands of dollars on upgrading their cars, like expensive wheels, spinners, bigger tires, extra shocks, hydraulics, interior, expensive paint jobs, restoration projects, synthetic oil, spoilers, tinted windows, details, special license plates, seat covers, steering wheel cover, dash covers, expensive music systems, monster speakers, gps, CD players, DVD players for passengers (sometimes two or three in one vehicle!), CD holders, carpet mats, etc.

I just gave away a Caddie which cost me $400.00 per month when gas was $4.00 per gallon. We are down to one car, I eat healthy cause the bike tells me to do it so I save by not going to the fast food place. I save money by not going to the gym and I save money by not going to the therapist cause the bike listens to all of my problems.

Gas, .69 cents the price of a can of beans.