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.

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.

Darwinism in action. Survival of the fittest. More ways than one?

To take the CTA in Chicago would cost me $4/day. I paid about $1750 for my dream commuter. I need to ride about 437 days to pay it off. Assuming two weeks vacation, there are 250 commuting days a year (50 weeks times 5). Accounting for winter (when I ride less though I still ride) and other factors, I easily commute 175 days per year (probably closer to 200 but let's keep it conservative).

I will pay off my bike in 2.5 years.

ews, that's a very quick return on your investment. I see the big difference between the city and the suburbs. In the city, driving is highly impractical and therefore ruled out. So you're comparing cycling with mass transit. As we pointed out, car ownership is dominated by fixed costs, and they don't go away unless you get rid of the car, which isn't practical. Most of us can ride a great many trips but still can't get rid of our cars.

We have a 2002 VW Passat wagon and a 1998 Honda Civic hatchback. If we got rid of the VW, we wouldn't have a car for road trips, so I guess we would rent. We can't get rid of the Civic, because that's my wife's car, and she drives to NYC where parking is tough. Having a short car is a big advantage. Plus it gets better mileage.

I often have to drive people from our commuting train station to our house. It's one mile, up a steep hill. What can I do? Taxis are unreliable in the suburbs.

I lived a mile from the N train in Queens for 5 years. It's a 15 minute walk...