You also get to add whatever money you got selling your car.

Exactly. Right now I'm debating if I should really go car-free or not. My vehicle is a toyota 4runner, they last forever and I barely drive as it is, maybe 3,000 or so miles a year. So I'm debating if I should sell it or keep it in storage. If I keep it in storage it will break because the less you drive the worse it actually is for your car. But if I sell it and I will actually need a car later on I would either have to buy a beater which might break a lot of buy another toyota which would make me come up $0 in the money saved. Decisions decisions lol. :roflmao2:

If you see yourself buying a vehicle in the next year or two, you might want to hold onto it. Sounds like you have a good vehicle and coming accross another one is a bit of a crap shot.

If you see yourself needing a vehicle only once in awhile, rent one or bum one off a friend/relative when needed.

There are times I envy car free folks. They have the added motivation of not having an alternative to get them out of bed and into the saddle. This is worth something as well or atleast it is for folks who occasionally misplace their self motivation as I do.

Seven Months for My Break-Even Point ....
 

My new LHT didn't cost $5,000, but I've spent a total of around $4,000 so far on the bike and extra stuff. My break-even point will be less than seven months, another four months to go ....

10-Year Cost for Riding Your Bicycle ... ???
 

How did you come up with 12 cents a mile for the cost of riding your bicycle? I think a more realistic calculation would be to figure the cost on a 10-year average. How much would it cost you to drive for 10 years? Include everything! How much would it cost you to ride your bicycle for 10 years, including everything?

I drive my dad's pickup, but pay for my own gas. I don't have to make payments on the car, pay for oil changes, or insurance. The only time driving is cheaper is when i drive to work, because I get on the clock sooner earlier and consequently start earning money earlier. Oh, wait, stupid speeding tickets... yep, biking is cheaper... Ha i swear, the highway patrol is out to get me!

Gas costs me 200 a month minimum when I drive (I work in construction management and sometimes I have to drive to visit different job sites)
When I don't drive, sometimes for months at a time, I certainly see a difference at the end of the month, but then again, the bike is a given, I ride anyway and race and stuff so I would have the bike anyway, and would put in the same amount of mileage on the bike a day for training rides anyway

I think if you are going to include the price of the bicycle in these calculations, then you should also include the price of the car.

Once you do ... oh, man.

I think we need some DNA from all of you who are able to ride their bike without consuming any more calories. We'll clone you and use the clones to power bicycle generators and solve the world's energy problems.

There'll be some logistical issues to work out but this is going to be big.

Free money!

I have car insurance even tho I have been car free for 20 years. If I want to rent a car or happen to be driving a friend's car (cause I don't drink alcohol) I am good to go.

I have "non-owned vehicular" insurance through State Farm. I am 51 with a stellar driving record and the cost is $370 a year for minimum liability.

My Chase Visa covers damage or loss of a rental car up to the total value. So if the rental is $29.99 a day - I pay $29.99 a day, not the rip-off insurance costs which can easily cost an extra $20 a day.

Hm I was thinking you shouldn't but perhaps clone me. I've put just over 4,000 miles miles on this year and gained about 24 lbs since November soooo I'm not only biking without consuming more calories but it appears I'm generating calories from biking! ;):(:cry:

Tardy to the party
 

Commuting by bike is an art, and we all know that art is worthless... Or maybe priceless... Basically, money shouldn't factor into it, I just do what feels right. I don't know if I've SAVED money, but I know commuting has made me RICHER :)... I really don't know how to defend my commuting strategy in a way that makes economical sense because I still own a car and have to spend money on it's up keep anyway. I know that my body appreciates it, and it is fun to do, but beyond that it may have been cheaper in the here and now to never have started biking at all.

I like your outlook, DanBraden.

I hadn't planned on cycling in to work today, but my mechanic worked on my car last week, and over the weekend, I noticed the brakes were definitely not right. So I tossed my bike in the car, drove to the garage, dropped the car off, and cycled to work.

Since I do cycle to work one or two days a week, I now can do it whenever I need to, for whatever reason. And I can also cycle to other useful places as a result. So I'm also richer in that way.

average new car: $12,000 & up
average new bike: $100-$600

even with parts, labor and other misc. things, a bicycle seems cheeper to me. upfront cost to ride/drive a bicycle is most definately cheaper...seems that way for long term use too. the cost of a motor vehicles operation is quite a bit more significant than that of a bicycles.

as for money saved and when it will be apearent... not a clue. i didn't own a car long, but iv'e owned bicycles for years and it seems to me cars need far more maintinince then bicycles. sure cars can go further faster and they can fit more cargo, but none of those are the point of comuting by bicycle. you comute by bicycle because you enjoy it.

You can get a new car for $12,000? Really? Which car?

Nissan Versa is one example.

That's about what we paid for a new Pontiac Vibe in '06.
Overall I've found my per-mile costs to be about a third less for my bike than for a car. Fuel costs are lower for the car but maintenance, insurance, and purchase/depreciation costs are higher.

You should include most, if not all, of what the IRS allows which is $0.55/mile for 2009. When you drive less, your current car will last longer so you won't need a new one as often-don't to forget to inclued financing. As your car's value decreases, it makes sense to raise your insurance deductable so your rates go down as well. There is less routine maintenence, less tires, less repairs.

The initial arguement about gas price and MPG vs food costs only makes sense if you got the equivalent of 25mpg when riding your bike. I have read that at recreational speeds, bikes get around 900mpg based on the calories in a gallon of vegetable oil which is close to the caloric content of a gallon of gas

But, like many people here have said, a lot of us don't ride to save money. I ride so that I can drink more beer.

How do you figure that riding a bicycle is only 1/3 less than driving? Not figuring in the cost of the car or bicycle, assuming that you already own one ....

It was costing me around $600/mo. to drive. Myself and my two boys riding three bicycles costs us for the past three months or so only a couple dollars a month total, for three bicycles!

Even if we were getting a couple flats a month (We've had no flats in over three years!), the cost would still only be a few patches, and maybe a new inner tube or two, so about $25-30.

The cost of riding a bicycle is much less than 1/3 of the cost of driving. Even if I only used one tank of gas, it would have cost me at least $200/mo. to drive.

So, for me, driving is over 100 times as much as the cost of riding a bicycle ... !!!

More realistically though .... If I had continued driving over the next ten years, I would have spent around $70,000-80,000 driving. As opposed to spending maybe $10,000 total for owning, operating and maintaining three bicycles for ten years, probably less though.

I think I figured out why we all can't see eye to eye on this issue.

First, each mode has fixed and variable costs. Purchase is a fixed cost. Parking at home is a fixed cost, whether it's zero or higher. Insurance is mostly a fixed cost, though if you don't commute by car, you insurance company might reduce your rate. Parking at work might be a fixed cost.

Fuel is a variable cost, proportional to miles. Repairs are also roughly proportional to miles. A few things will deteriorate over time regardless of distance, such as rubber tires and belts, making them fixed costs, but this fact isn't very significant.

If you have both a bicycle and a car, it isn't clear whether to compare variable cost or the sum of fixed and variable cost. That's because if you have both, you are not choosing the fixed cost of one over the fixed cost of the other. You are incurring fixed costs of both vehicles.

Because I'm figuring it on my costs - not yours. And mine were far under $600/month. The Pontiac was a car we bought for our daughter, but my estimated costs were based on my own car - an '87 Nova purchased new for about $9000 in '87. It now has 250,000 miles on it, so the purchase price amounts to about 3.5 cents/mile. Fuel cost has been just under 6 cents/mile, insurance has cost another 3 cents/mile, and maintenance 2.5 cents/mile. So the total is around 15 cents/mile.

In comparison, my most-used bike was purchased for $400 used and I've ridden it a little over 80,000 miles so the purchase cost is only half a cent/mile. Maintenance (mainly tires and chains) is similar to the car at 3 cents/mile. But my fuel cost estimate (based on a mix of groceries, energy bars, and cafes) has been over 6 cents/mile, bringing the total to about 10 cents/mile - one third less than the cost for the car.

prathmann, are you figuring MARGINAL fuel costs for the bike? In other words, you should only count the EXTRA food it takes to ride the bike as opposed to taking the car.

Yes. It costs me about 30 kcal/mile extra when riding at my typical touring/commuting pace.

Total cost of 2 ****ty bikes....$100. Time spent riding them FREE!!!

Car Payment (based on a new affordably priced vehicle) $200-$300 per month
Insurance $50-$75 per month
Gas $50-$100 per month
Bus Pass $80 per month
Bus Tickets $20 per week
Bus Fare $6 per day
Vehicle depreciation 35%-40% as soon as you drive off the lot (and it sure ain't getting better year after year)

so...tell me how I am not saving money again?

You have owned the car for 22 years? Wow. How much do you pay a year for insurance? $350/year?- in San Francisco! Man, I better get Geico.:p

This is so very true:

My cycling to work I've done the following:

Here are my fixed cost savings: $450 (see break-out below)
$150 per year reduction in my insurance premium as I could reduce my yearly mileage dramatically and also change the status to NOT using my car for commuting
$300 per year savings in dropping the health club membership. I went for Pilates and Spinning classes. The cycling 100 replaced the spinning. I still miss Pilates as it is super for core strength, but the cost of the membership and the extra 1500 miles I was driving yearly to get to the club and home were not worth the time and cost.

Here are my variable cost savings: $1,400 (see break-out below)
I save about 4000 miles in driving per year. I figure it costs me about $0.35 per mile to operate my car so that turns into $1,400 in yearly savings. I eat pretty much the same as before as I burned my extra calories at the health club before and now I burn them riding my bike.

So my yearly savings are about $2000 per year.

My first two years worth of costs were the following:
$1500 for a road bike in addition to my hybrid commuting bike (a luxury I know, but it makes long rides so much more fun).
$1300 for making my hybrid capable of riding in a Buffalo Winter, additional cycling cloths, and some tires, chains, and other misc maintenance items.

Therefore during my 1st two years of commuting my net savings is about $1200. Not a huge amount of money, but certainly not nothing.

The gain in over all cardio health is one of the key reasons for me to ride my bike as I have a family history of heart problems. That is a piece of this puzzel that is extreamly hard to quantify in $$$. Hopefully adding a few more healthy years to my life on the other hand is priceless.

Happy riding,
André

My costs:
Car Payments = zero
Insurance = $53/mo
Gas = $350-400/mo
Repair/Maintainence/Tags/Smog = $115/mo

Bus Pass = $50/mo
Bus Fare = $$2.50/dy

I don't buy bus passes. We only ride the bus a couple times a month. I'm car free now. So we save a bundle by riding our bicycles .... Rode to work today. After work picked up my son at school, and we rode to the doctor. Then we rode to A & W for a tasty treat before riding home. Travel expenses for today = zero. In fact, our travel expenses for the past several months has only been a couple of bus rides, and some gas money I gave our friend next door to pick up some garden supplies.

I live in a town where having a car is considered a Macho thing.

I have a bike, and four kids with my wife.

I'm just showing them their math is wrong.

Santaria.. awesome taste in music. You da man :-D

Chipcom said it best: "you'll realize your cost savings by avoiding that first trip your fat, lazy, non-riding butt makes to the ER". I am 50 years old and people constantly tell me I look 40. Do you have any idea what it costs for triple bypass surgery? Or for insulin or dialysis treatments for diabetes? And don't forget the endorphins. I can't imagine how much I would be paying for heroin or oxycodone, or perhaps anti-anxiety meds, or maybe vodka or weed. But I don't need those things because I have endorphins, which are free. Not only do you save money on gas, tires, oil changes, and gym fees, but you get high for free! I'm thinking, if you have to ask the question, then you just don't get it, and you are just like all the other weirdos sitting in their expensive tin boxes burning fossil fuels in order to hasten their impending doom.