I bike commute, and I have to say that it is not cheaper than taking a car. Here's why.

1. There's a fair bit of maintenance to do on the bicycle. Over the past two years I've had to replace an entire rear derailleur after it ate a spoke on my rear wheel, change out the chain, replace the tires, change at least a dozen flats, spend about 3 hrs adjusting the front derailleur (and no, the LBS people didn't do it right). I'd say that the costs of maintinence and various upgrades over the past year or two has amounted to about 500

2. True, car expenses include things like yearly registration, paying for parking, gasoline, replacing broken parts, etc. However, by and far car maintinence is, mile-for-mile, cheaper. Tires are a great example. The last flat tire I got in a car was entirely my fault and a result of a flagrant misjudgement. I regularly get flats in bicycles, both road and mountain, while doing on regular pavement. Otherwise, a low-end tire will take you 40k miles, and a set will cost maybe $500. With bicycles, you're buying a new pair of gatorskins at $80 every 4k miles. Cheaper tires last shorter.

3. there are other costs not accounted for. An obvious ones of course are the greater mobility of the car allowing you more freedom in getting to jobs, carrying capacity of people and cargo, and the fact that cars are safer than bicycles due to safety regs which will ensure that you're okay should you ever be hit. With a bicycle, mile-for-mile, you're at a greatly increased risk of death compared to a car, in general it takes you longer to get to places, you're breathing in toxic fumes from the vehicles on the road.

Now of course, I love bicycles and commuting in them so that's what I choose, but economically, at best it's a wash in terms of cost savings.

change a transmission once: $1500= $2500 +
still riding on my no name tyres.. >1500 miles
Paid for. (are you including the financing, insurance, registration and operation (fuel and maitenance) of a car in your calcs? )
Car Parking is not free (even if you pay nothing): https://bit.ly/jlhII
Better overall health: (commuter car=lardass)= lower overall life expenses.
sure a terminal collision might be just that: Terminal, but even that is cheaper than 6 months on life support.
Do a little more math, support your fellow cyclists.

Not buying.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling the savings. Me? I notice a HUUUUUGE savings over driving. I probably save around 150-200 bucks a month on gas alone. Then there's the physical condition that i'm in, which is probably the best i've been in at least 10 years, if not my whole life. That's worth more to me than the money.

Sell the car, redo your math and you have a fair comparison.

Toxic fumes? If you don't think you're breathing those sitting in your car you're wrong.

3 hours adjusting a derailleur? I should have stopped reading right there.

I don't think that upgrades should really be counted in the costs if they're something you choose to get for enjoyment rather than something that's necessary to keep the bike running (similarly I wouldn't count the costs of a car enthusiast's various modifications as a commuting expense).

Looking at your maintenance items I don't really see it coming to $500 unless you're getting pretty high-end stuff. My maintenance over the last couple years was pretty similar except that I didn't have a broken spoke. Replacement derailleur, a couple patch kits, a cable, and replacement tires over the last 16000 miles cost me about $70. No, they weren't Gatorskins at $40 each, but I get at least 4000 miles on the back tire and twice that on the front using Nashbar's housebrand Kevlar-belted tire that I can generally get on sale at under $10 each. My biggest bicycling-related expense item is fuel, which is more expensive per mile than the fuel cost of my car. But filling up the bike motor is more enjoyable - especially with ice cream and chocolate.

Unfortunately, no matter how much I ride, I still seem to be have of extra "fuel". Given the 20lbs reserve tank I'm carrying I'm not sure that I should count any of the food I eat as a commuting expense.

I use Performance Forte brand tires... generally get them for about $12 (sometimes a little cheaper) and the lowest mileage out of one of them (that wasn't replaced under warranty... I've had two replaced after a weeks use) was 2500 miles.

A rear dérailleur cost me $15 and took less than an hour to mount and adjust. By comparison the last repair I made to my truck was replacing the transmission... cost me $200 for a used transmission and about 8 hours of work (With a friend helping for part of it) to get it swapped and running.

Food? I don't eat anything special for commutes and errands, so can't really count food as a cost of riding unless I'm doing recreational rides (more than 3 hours at a time) and then I count those costs as recreation, as they're obviously not commuting expenses.

I've spent around $1500 on bikes and maintenance items (tools included!) in the three years since I ditched the truck... and put a LOT of recreational mileage on my bike as well as my commuting.

Compare that with the $2500 per year I was spending on the truck and maintenance and $50-$80 a week on gasoline that I was spending, then add on insurance.

No way you're going to convince me that a car is cheaper... There was a study released last year that said the average American spent something like $6000 a year on their car... you can get a LOT of nice bike stuff for $6000.

Yeah, I'm going to have to go with commuting on a bike being cheaper. Parking in Philly is at least $270 per month, which is $3240 per year.

I'll bite

The biggest savings that I have gained from being a commuter is quitting smoking after 30 years. You can smoke and drive much easier.

interesting...


I recently had this discussion with a co worker, we live within eye sight of eachother, I bike to work, she drive and a third coworker takes public transportation.

I pay the least per month and I get to work faster during rush hour. if we end up working late and coming home after rush hour, I am slower than the car... but still cheaper.

We at first only counted actually costs of getting to and from work... then Bea was angry because I pay zero... so she asked us to count in maintenance costs.... I had far, far less than she did... no need to swap out summer and winter tires, I made all the minore repairs myself.. a break cble a couple of inner tubers, etc...

So, even with teh car sitting in the drive way, any me paying insurance, etc on it, I still save money by cycling...

yes, I would say that I am sucking in more nasty stuff as I ride in traffic, than those sitting in it in their cars... not sure how much more..



Robi

Probably not. I remember there was a study done sometime during the mid-70s bike boom that was reported on in the LAW (now LAB) magazine. The study looked at bike and car commuters using the same urban road (Ibelieve it was in the Wash. DC area) and tested their blood for CO and other pollutants. The conclusion was that the bike commuters were getting substantially less pollution than the car drivers in the lane next to them. AIRC there were a few hypotheses to account for the findings: car air intakes are lower to the ground than cyclists; cyclists can take an active role in avoiding pockets of high pollution (i.e. if you smell the exhaust from a poorly maintained truck you can slow down and minimize your time in the vicinity - a car driver is likely to stay behind that truck much longer); cyclists are running their metabolism at a faster rate and that may help the body eliminate polluting chemicals. Don't remember is they were able to determine which factors were most important.

My car lost more money the day I drove it off the lot than any bike has ever cost me.

You forgot to factor health and increased lifespan into the costs. Or did you think that stuff was worth 0$?

saved more than the cost of gmc denali bike just by parking a few blocks off my univeristy campus and biking the rest of the way. Parking was $80 a semester. Been riding that bike for 2 years stock, and finally started putting in money into changing the parts. Still cheaper then driving.

The longer you live the more it costs. right?

There are, of course, non-personal costs that could be factored in.

I spend very little on bike maintenance. My $50 set of tires last for 4-6k miles. I do get flats, but the cost of patching them is so small it's hard to see how this adds up to much of an expense.

OTOH cars are expensive as hell. Sure, the tires last longer but a set of new ones is typically in the range of $500. Then there are oil changes, filter changes and that time my car needed a new transmission at 66k miles to the tune of $3200.

I won't spend $3200 in 66k miles of bike commuting total, so the car managed to make itself more expensive with just one event.

My bike builds cost were really expensive to my co-workers, but they have no problem paying three as much for their cars. Also, the repair for an A/C one year, fuel pump replaced , insurance, registration, taxes, and gas add up faster than me switching from 105 to Ultegra drive trains.

an interesting and great discussion.

costs are not about dollars and cents.

enjoying a commute while at the same time not being in terrible traffic? priceless.

@OP

You're right, bike commuting is a *lot* more expensive than walking. My good walking shoes (2 pair, $180) are new this year and show no meaningful wear yet. The bag I use for most walking trips was a freebie.

By comparison, my bike was $800, is a year old, and has needed no maintenance. That's a lot more expensive! I guess I might want to adjust the brakes this fall, but that's about it.

Oh... wait... you were talking about cars. Don't use those.

If you go car free, you'd more than make up the cost of maintaining your bike just from not taking the annual depreciation hit on your car.

from a strictly financial standpoint bicycle commuting probably is more expensive for me than driving, BUT at the end of the day my quality of life is much greater. much of the money i save on gasoline is spent on bike gear, which is much more tangible than gasoline. plus i'm in better shape physically and mentally.

depends where you live. In a big congested city the mobility of a bike is greater than that of a car. I routinely get to school in just under 30 minutes by bike on the same roads I drove on. To do that in a car I used to have to start the drive to school at 7 am(2 hours earlier than I need to for the bike), and any time after 7 - 7:30am driving just 7 miles would take me 40+ minutes. The same idea applies for just about everything else. For longer distances ,like 20 miles through the city, the bike is usually just as fast. Of course this is assuming you're a some what fast rider but speed comes with regularly riding and good effort.

i estimate my c osts as 1000-1500 a y ear for a car. 600 for insurance and 400 for gas and inspection and registration. so i'd say cars for me are more expensive than a bike but not a budget buster as some would have you believe. i mainly ride a bike to work because it's more mellow than a car and more fun. it makes the commute more interesting. of course my worksite is only two miles from my house so my case may be different than most people.
a bus would cost me 500 a year by the way. and it is very limiting. 1 dollar each way on a bus so ten bucks for five days going to and from work each week for fifty weeks a year. i have two weeks vacation a year when i don't have to go to work.