I've progressed in my bike Fredness and expenses over the last year commuting... I started with a $200 bike and not much else. Since then, I've gotten dry-wick clothes, new wheels, fenders, lights, panniers, racks, etc. and eventually built a whole new bike. I'm still under $1000 total.

At least those people can keep more useful items on hand than just paper gas/insurance/loan interest receipts.

After 5 years of commuting and approximately 350 commutes, I have finally broken even. That is, the money I saved on car expenses is enough to pay for everything I have purchased for my bike commute.

I commute by bike because I enjoy it, not because it saves me a lot of money - it doesn't.

Actually, that's great analysis. I.e. in biz sense, 350 commutes to break even, after that it's all profit
So, if Joe Worker starts bike commuting at age (let's say 21) ... by 23, Joe has made 350 commutes and starting making profit, and can count on it for many years. It does save a lot of money after all.

Never mind the health and sanity benefits which are reasons many bike to begin with.

You still pay all the fixed costs of owning the car (depreciation, interest, insurance, etc...) unless you get rid of it. So it's not half. The fixed costs are large.

J.

A used car that you paid cash for is pretty cheap to just keep, on the order of $500/year fixed for insurance. I haven't paid interest on a car for many years. Once you pay off your first car, you just keep paying the same amount, into a savings account and keep the car for another few years. When you buy the new car, you've got cash in the bank to do it with. You really should only be taking out a loan for the first car at most, unless you have a car totalled on you and haven't saved enough for the replacement yet.

Bike commuting actually costs me several thousand a year, because it means an extra 50 minutes a day that I can't be working overtime and getting paid. But I do it anyway. I'd do it if gas and cars were free.

It makes a huge difference in my health, and letting that degrade would cost me way more than a few thousand a year.

This is where these analysis breaks down for me. You can calculate the fixed costs of transportation to some degree, but the health benefits are immeasurable.
To really get your savings, add in the prevented costs of heart disease, diabetes, and the time lost from work due to these types of problems. The savings are considerably more than that recently bought new bike, trunk bag, or those spiffy panniers.

As other have stated, biking and commuting by bike are fun activities and I do it more for my health than anything else. Its also my only vice so I spend a lot on it. Hey I can afford it, so I do it without hesitation. In my opinion the OP is getting off cheap.

Why only have 1 bike? I'm working on a third.
All my base layers are merino wool - good stuff that lasts forever
Got to have a hi-vis jacket - Not Cheap
Bought a pair of PI cycling pants last fall - Very nice
Don't have racks or panniers or any of those items - Never have to take much stuff with me
Don't forget shoes, toe covers and booties.
Gloves for cheap? - I've probably got $300.00 invested in gloves and I still don't have it quite right.
Then there is the maint items of new tires, chains, tubes, cassettes etc etc. - yes I can go cheap, but I got a nice ride so it gets pampered.

Like I said, I'm not in this to save money, but to save my health, and if I want to keep doing it I want to be as comfortable as possible and in my opinion the comfort factor is what costs.

Every case is different. My point was that the fixed cost does not get cut in half just because you drive it half as much. Fixed costs for most people who own cars are a very large part of it. For example, I'm in sales and I can't drive a beater so I have to keep a relatively current model car. In those circumstances, depreciation is more significant and is essentially a fixed cost.

Thanks for the lesson on car finance and good for you. I too, pay cash for cars but that is not how probably 95% of the cars in this country are purchased (used or new).

J.

I was thinking about this thread as I rode into Boston today for something work related on Newbury Street. And, I thought, maybe removing all the variables that people are using to compare the commuting costs and just look at the cost of the trip into town and back might simplify the concept a bit.

So, here it is. Leaving out the cost of the bike/car, insurance, maintenance, cycling specific clothing, food costs and the myriad of other factors people have used to support their assertion of how cheap or expensive it is to ride their bike. This is just what it cost to do the trip into town and back.

Trip distance round trip- 20.4 miles

Bike:

Zero dollars. Literally $0.00 Bike was locked outside my house. Rode to Newbury Street. Parked the bike. Just over 2 hours later rode the bike home. Done. Spent not one dime on transportation.

Had I taken the average American auto for the same trip:

Gas- $4.00

Tolls- $3.00 ( I could avoid the tolls by taking Storrow Drive, much less convenient and slower)

Parking- (Newbury Street is infamous as a place with nary a parking meter free but hoping that I got a meter) .25/15 mins.= $2.25 Not bad, BUT, it's a 2 hour limit on the meter and I was there just over two hours. I could risk a $25.00 ticket or park in a lot for $10/hour. Being just over two hours probably would have meant $30 to park.

Total by Car: $6.25 minimum to a max of $37.00.

My commute is insanely expensive:

Tolls: $10 a day x 5 days = $50 a week x 4 weeks = $200 a month
Gas: $50 a week x 4 weeks = $200 a month
Not to mention wear and tear and traffic. (It sometimes takes me 2 hours to drive the 19 miles from my apartment to my job.)

By bike it takes me a little under 1.5 hours going slow and taking my time.

No kidding. that one is a no brainer.

j.

For most families big savings come from having only 1 car in a family/household rather than 2. You then eliminate a lot of fixed costs as well as variable costs by bike commuting.

Having a car for weekend trips, shuttling kids or big item purchases etc is nice, but if I wanted to commute by car I'd need a second car which is way more than total of my bike belongings. I commute with wide 42 tires, they last 3-5000miles, other components much longer, marginal costs from each additional bike commute are tiny. My last $700 commute bike lasted 7yrs and is still fine.

Boom.

A very nice bike cost me $1300. I'm letting the insurance lapse on a car that I already own, so the only monetary cost from that vehicle is depreciation, $80 per year in taxes, and things that wear out as it sits (my tires are sloooowwwwly dying, but they cost me fifty bucks for an entire new set). By riding, I am saving 30-50 dollars per month in gas. $90 per month of insurance. An unknown amount of wear and tear. I am spending an extra five to ten minutes commuting (opportunity cost). At this point, ignoring depreciation and my tires, I am saving about $123 per month. At that rate, it will take me about 10.5 months to pay off the bike, maybe a whole year to pay off the bike and any extra stuff I buy for it between now and then. This is for a bike that will probably be reliable for a long time to come.

During this time, I will be getting non-monetary benefits. I will be healthier. I have the satisfaction of using a socially responsible mode of transportation. I am happier on days I ride. I am given an opportunity to be more mindful of my surroundings and be present in the moment (being in a car anaesthatizes me). For these things, I will gladly spend that extra time commuting, because almost nothing else that I would spend that time on would give me the same amount of benefit.

After ten months to a year, I will still be reaping these non-monetary benefits at a small cost of time to myself, while saving myself $123 a month. Economically the bike is a very sound investment.

Though I drive, my bike riding saves me a tank of gas every week (had I driven those miles).

But I really wouldn't call them savings as I just use that money to buy more bike stuff. -__- Now that I think about it, I think I've saved enough to buy a pair of clip-on aerobars....