I am looking forward to my first day of riding to work. I think it will be Tuesday but not sure. I am off until monday.

If you can get rid of a car, the savings will be obvious. Beyond that, there are the hard to define savings. Like less hospital/doctor visits, gyn nenbership no longer being necessary, oil changes and major vehicle repairs that will be fewer and faerther between (or eliminated if the second car goes), and the mental health benefits.

If you want to save money it helps to start with a stupidly long commute: mine is 48 miles one way. Then discover the local commuter buses (pass = $55/mo.) and ride the 9 miles to the nearest bus stop and back home from there. Longer rides home are optional -- just get off of the bus sooner.

Then discover that your employer will buy the bus pass for you, saving you that additional $55/mo. Wow. I'm commuting a hundred miles per day for free. I saved enough in gas money to buy a new Fargo (so much for free!) and that's considering that my main motor vehicle is an old, paid for BMW motorcycle that gets 45 mpg and only costs $175/year to insure. Parts $ sure add up quickly but it doesn't need much.

I have also pretty much quit running, so I no longer need to buy $$$ shoes every few months.

I don't want to move (the more obvious solution to the long commute) because I live in the woods and like it here.

Yea, I know about the variable part...stupid endorphin/gadget addiction.... As for replying, I have no idea what my point was when I wrote that. Half the time, I probably sound and read like a bumbling idiot.

That reminds me I need to check that for my cars. I keep two working cars, as two operating is better than paying for a rental if one is having issues. It is rare that both need a repair that prohibits them from being driven on a daily basis.

Is that necessary? Seems the cost of maintaining an extra car and the added insurance cost would exceed the cost of a rental, should you need it.

I suppose it is a different way of looking at things. My wife and I have one car, a 2003 Subaru that we paid cash for. It hasn't broken down yet, but in the rare event that it did, we could go about our normal lives using public transit and / or bicycles. I would hate to be that reliant on a car that it'd be cheaper to own two cars in case one broke down.

This sure has been an interesting thread. After having read all the posts above, I'd say it just goes to prove that not only is everyone's commuting situation different, almost everyone has a different way of looking at their situation.

Luckily my wife has no problem with me bike commuting, so the OP's problem is (thankfully!) not mine. My car is very thrifty on gas ('06 Honda Insight), so I get 70+ mpg in the warmer months and no worse than 63 mpg during the colder months (like now). Since I commute for 15 mi. + 20 mi. on the Metro ($3.00 per day) and my Insight costs only $2.70 in gas per day, it actually costs me more to commute by bike. That's with gas @ $3.85 here in SoCal.

Unless I add in all the other costs (insurance, maintenence, etc.) which would make it (I'm guessing) even up or an advantage to the bicycle. Both the car and the bike are paid for, so no payment issues. I'm a recreational rider anyway, so I didn't have to buy much to start commuting. Well . . . except the folding bike itself (DaHon Curve 8spd). I still drive on Mondays (the least congested freeway traffic day) and bring food and clothing for the week; bring home last week's laundry.

So, overall, I like the commute for the bike ride twice a day and it's okay with me if it's a break-even or costing me slightly more to ride my bike.

Rick / OCRR

I agree with some that just using gas can be the quickest and most realistic if you plan on keeping your vehicle. Using the .51/mile reimbursement value can be misleading. It's great if you just want to win an argument or avoid hard math, but when you're using one, catch-all number to apply to everyone and every situation in the country, you know it has to be a very general estimate and may or may not apply to any one person's situation.

Maintenance/wear and tear can be really tricky. If you're strict about changing your oil every X miles, that can be an simple number to add in. Otherwise it's really guesswork and averages. I could go years without a major repair and then get hit with a big one. If the big one comes during the year I was bike-commuting, all of the sudden those maintenance savings aren't there. So figure in costs that have a clear, per-mile cost like oil, gas, and tires. Maybe throw in brakes. Everything else is guesswork, averages, and luck. Some people like to calculate vehicle depreciation, but that's another squishy number. Lower miles keep your vehicle more valuable, but it still depreciates just by getting older. By most calculations, my car depreciated into negative value shortly after I got it, which is ridiculous, so treat those calculation with some skepticism.

Other places to look for savings:
Extra mileage. Sure, you know what your commute is, but do you always go straight to work and back? I don't. If you cut out those other detours, or do them on your bike, you can figure them into your other mileage-based savings. Likewise if you can make other, local trips on you bike, those can figure in. For me it got to the point where I had to be leaving town to even consider using the car, so not only did commuting miles go away, but so did all miles associated with local errands.
Gym membership if you use it and are willing to give it up.
Parking costs at work if you have them.
Insurance costs if they will go down.

Health benefits exist, but are also hard to quantify. Cycling doesn't exempt you from any illness, but makes some issues less likely or less severe. On the other hand, some activity-related injuries might become more likely, so, again, a hard number to pin down. However, regardless of actual dollars spent or not spent, being healthier has real value. So while you might not be able to figure the money to any reasonable degree, I would still not want to downplay the value in general quality-of-life terms.

And, as has been mentioned, there are costs associated with biking. Those can be almost as high or as low as you want them to be. If saving money is the primary goal, bike costs can be minimized, but you might want to figure on some shift of funds from the car to the bike. Of course if you're already riding regularly and already maintaining a bike, then it's possible the increase in bike-related costs would be minimal.

My wife doesn't like to waste money, but she also worries about my health as well as her own. Any money that I put into my bike is money that eventually translates into better health, so she is, for the most part, fine with it. Gas savings are there. Car maintenance savings are there. Medical cost savings are there. Insurance, parking, and no gym membership figure in. But they aren't the justification. They are the gravy. But not the fattening, artery clogging kind.

I couldn't tell, is this a "she doesn't want me to commute unless I can show her that it saves money" thing or a "we have a difference of opinion on whether or not this will save money, but I'm doing it anyway and she's cool with that" sort of thing like a bar argument?

We went from 2 cars to 1. It's problematic at times with two kids and diverging schedules, but we make it work. Even if you own a vehicle outright, if you eliminate the insurance associated with owning the car, as well as the depreciation of owning the car, the equation is easy. I have to say though, at $3.50 +/- per gallon of gas, it shouldn't take too many tanks of gas to pay for most of your annual commuting needs providing that you're going to own a bicycle whether you commute on it or not.

Get your wife to agree on the cost savings equation, and then negotiate the value of each term.

The equation goes something like this:

(Savings by bicycle commuting) = (Reduction in gas costs) + (Reduction in auto insurance cost) + ( Reduction in auto maintenance cost) +( Reduction in tolls and parking fees) +(Reduction in auto depreciation) +(Reduction in health care costs) + (Reduction in gym membership fees) + (Reduction in costs for coffee and donuts while driving) + (Renewable energy credits) - (New bike and equipment costs) - (Bike maintenance costs) – (New bike clothes costs) – (Costs for extra food due to increased exercising)

According to calculator, saving $6k a year. In all practicality, I think it is more of $4k a year. (not counting Gym membership, fitness class, etc)
I don't think I really save it all at the end of it though with the amount of bike gear I keep getting, as well as nutritional supplements. More like $1-2k a year.
But I am truly enjoying it :)

Here's how I look at it. The money doesn't even enter into the equation; it's simply an unintended bonus.

I am severely overweight. I'm a lot less overweight than I used to be, but I'm still 150+ pounds above where I want to be. I need to lose weight. In my life I need to get from point A to point B frequently. I can choose to do so with an automobile, or I can choose to do so with a bicycle.

When A and B are my workplace and I chose to use my car, the variables are

Time: 40-50 minutes (and occasionally 2 hours if traffic is bad, but that's an outlier)
Energy expended: Virtually zero

On my bicycle they become:

Time: 70-100 minutes (and occasionally 2 hours if I have a flat, but that's an outlier)
Energy expended: 1000-1200 calories

Now, prior to my biking-to-work phase, I was exercising 120 minutes a day on average, trying to lose weight. So if we added up the time I spent cycling for fun, and the time I spent driving to work we get:

120 + 40*2 to 120 + 50*2, or 200-220 minutes a day.

Now, if eliminate the drive and cycle to work, this figure becomes:

70*2 to 100*2, or 140-200 minutes a day.

So by cycling to work, I actually have anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes extra per day, to do whatever I want. I get to exercise more, and save time at the same exact time. It's really a no-lose scenario for me.

As long as I need to lose weight, and this condition will remain true for at least a few years, bicycling saves me time. It literally makes no sense to drive unless I simply need to be somewhere faster than I can cycle there. Now here's the best part. I would have spent money on my bicycle regardless of whether I commuted or not, because I would be riding the bicycle anyway! So yeah, there's a few things I purchased for commuting, like the lights for commuting at night (which I now use for cycling at night even when not commuting!), but by-and-large, almost none of the money I've put into my bicycle is only used for commuting. So I'm saving money simply by not driving, no matter what, and all that money is a bonus, in addition to the time-and-health benefits I gain regardless.

I really can't stress how much of a win-win scenario this is.

Tell Ms. Accountant that she's making a mistake by looking at the short term hard cost savings.
She needs to put that big GAAP book down and take a look at the long term soft costs.
Heart disease, diabetes and obesity to name a few... :thumb:

Yeah, but from a pure accounting perspective, you're also going to have to figure on an extra 10-20 years of food and shelter expenses.

Getting a rental is a pain in the ass that we don't like dealing with. Since we both own our cars outright and our agreed to plan of action on them is to run them until they are too expensive to fix, why not keep both? Her car just sits until I take it out to circulate the fluids and such, so one weekend a month of going to Ralph's or Target isn't going to cause me any additional maintenance on it. Maybe a tank of gas, no oil change, and some fuel treatment by STP and it is fine. My car insurance won't change if I have 1 or 2 cars, but if the mileage changes, my rates will change.

Now, if I were making payments on mine, I'd be seriously consider selling it. But since I don't, it doesn't cost me too much to have one of our cars sitting there.

Public transit is horrible here, even though it was an award winner in the past. 2 hours by bus to get to my office is far to long to travel less than 10 miles.

That's friggin' awesome. :thumb: Keep motivating.

Gas is only a small part of the total with the IRS considering 55.5 cents/mile normal.

How close you get to that depends on what your replacement interval (years or miles) is, how new your next car will be, and the maintenance costs that result from it.

If you're leasing a new car every 3 years and commuting won't run you over the mileage allowance you're not going to save any depreciation. You won't see a big difference if you're replacing your car every X years.

If you drive a nice newish car into the ground it's going to save a lot.

If you put the last 100,000 miles on a $2000 Honda/Toyota/Subaru you're looking at $0.02/mile.

When I did the exercise to amuse myself I figured driving cost

$.24 / mile @ 17 MPG (out of a theoretical 20 MPG combined city highway from 18 city and 29 highway - it's pretty easy to divide mileage by how much gas goes in at each fill-up to get personal numbers) the way I drive with $4 California gas.
$.20 / mile if I get 150,000 of my own miles out of the sports sedan I bought when it was 3 years old and get a few thousand out of it for parts.
$.10 / mile for maintenance, scheduled and otherwise
$.02 / mile for $600 tires that last 30,000 miles. Surprisingly this is less expensive than nice bike tires
$.56 total * 24 miles = $13.44/day * 4 days = $54/week, * 48 weeks = $2580/year.

and could add in

$.14 / mile for the beer I drink to relax after driving (cycling 12 miles each way results in relaxation comparable to two micro brews, tax, and deposit on the bottles which you don't get back when you put them in the recycling bin)

$.70 total * 24 miles = $17.00/day, * 4 days = $68/week, * 48 weeks = $3264/year.

Calc the mileage by bike and the mpg by car * avg cost per gallon to get direct savings. Then you get into the amortization and maint. Assuming you put 3k less per year on the car, that's one fewer oil change. Determine the residual value of the car pre-commuting. Now calculate the additional time elapsed after the car is fully amortized. The amortization by month is now savings. Determine that you can avoid replacing the car altogether and then you can drop insurance and registration values into the savings bucket. You will probably get close to break even with the additional amortization time.

100/miles a week is 4800 miles a year with 10 holidays and 2 weeks of vacation.

I eschewed bike computers for a decade and stopped keeping track of mileage but bought myself one 4492 miles ago last August.

I have 3740 miles on my current chain (Campagnolo C9) and can't yet measure a full 1/32" of elongation over a foot. Shifting degrades on Campagnolo chains due to side wear before they stretch to much so it'll probably get replaced with around 5000 miles on it.

When chains are rotated or replaced long enough before reaching 0.5% stretch the chain to cassette ratio can reach 4:1.

A chain a year and (all steel loose cog) cassette every four years isn't a lot of money.

My biggest wear item has been my $40/pair Bebop cleats which aren't making it through 3500 miles.

i am pretty sher it cost more then 3 96 in gas....the numbers on papers are simply that on paper...city its stop and go etc..

like you said all the extra wear on all.

dont spend to mutch on your bike to start wit if you want to save.

but have to think all the rest..............what it will had to you..your life your health that as no price bud...exercise..etc..this is worth more then your 4$ right there.nooooo.

good luck

joco

The reimbursement rate for driving right now is $.51 / mile (http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/...240903,00.html). So, your commute probably costs you about $11.22 per day all things considered (the reimbursement rate takes in to account things like wear and tear, etc.). I don't see how you could possibly spend that much on your bike commute in each day. Once you have your biking gear things will become pretty static in terms of cost. I get 2,000-3,000 miles out of a set of tires on average so they don't cost too much, I sometimes bust lights and have to replace them, etc. but that's about it.

Also, do you have to pay to park at your work or is parking free? For me, parking is like $11 a day that I don't have to pay.

One other thing you could factor in to cost would be long-term decreased healthcare costs. I'm not sure how to quantify this one though.

and gas is REALLY going up. This time last week it was 3.09 and today it was 3.28. Thats a .19 cent increase.

Crazy.

Don't complain...gas in Okeechobee, FL are now $3.49 per gallon for regular. $3.28 is where we were a little over a week ago.

Tractor Tom in Okeechobee, FL

I am car free and am payed a very generous incentive at work to commute by bike (~$500). I did the math a few years ago and including parking ($1400 a year), no tabs/insurance, decreased health expenses, food savings (I lost 35 lbs over 5 years) I estimated I will save almost $3600 a year over 10 years. If I were to include the sale of the vehicle this number would go up by a thousand.

PS: I typically spend around $700 a year on maintenance, parts, upgrades, new bikes :).

I don't calculate the dollar savings - I have about an 18 mile round trip, so just over a gallon of gasoline per day. Of course, wear and tear, too. But the biggest benefit for me is just how good I feel when I get to work.

I suppose saving $15 or so a week adds up, but it isn't the reason I ride. I do, however, like it when I can't remember the last day I drove my car.

One point hasn't been mentioned here.

Aside from all the talk about how much is saved, the bicycle has another advantage. If you lose your work tomorrow, it's very likely that you could get by for a number of months without spending a nickel on your bicycle. At least, I know I could.

If you were totally broke, you could scrounge up some used parts, live a little longer with the bike clothing and gear you already have.

This often isn't the case with a car. You have to come up with the payments, insurance, gas, etc. etc, every month.. no exceptions.

So in a sense the bicycle is more like an asset, whereas you could never claim a car, with its rapid depreciation, is anything more than pure expense.

I haven't had a car payment since 1989; every car I've owned since then was an outright cash purchase -- yep, that's right, cheap old crap.... a total of 7 old cars, none over $900. Insurance was always PL/PD, license plates were always the state minimum. Gas mileage was never over 17mpg until the last one -- that baby, the hatchback, got 27mpg even the way I drove it!

That was the figure I used to determine my savings after going 'car-lite'; my sister's family lives with me, they have 2 cars, but I drive maybe 2x/year. Other than grocery shopping for the house, all their driving is for them. They pay those costs, doesn't cost me a dime.

I know the mileages of my various commute routes and errands, and I can well estimate my 'fun rides', as well. So my annual mileage, even without a bike computer, is a pretty accurate estimation.

Recently, I figured up the miles I put on the frame I'm about to replace (cracked); baby rolled 15K in 4+ years. So, at 27mpg, and gas between $3 & $3.50 a gallon over that time, my math says this bike paid for itself almost a year and a half ago, just in gasoline costs saved! Maintenance -- oil changes, tuneups, brake jobs, etc. -- pretty much balances out, what with multiple sets of tires, chains, and gears, and two sets of wheels. So, I saved 100% on insurance, and about 35-40% on gas!

Basically, I could buy a new $2K bike every 3 years and break even! If it lasts longer, I save (and they pretty much do)!

If you can eliminate the truck then commuting by bike would be much cheaper. The cost of a car - depends if it is incremental use or if you can literally eliminate it altogether. If incremental then you must figure in gas, maint, - probably at least .30 per mile on low end.

The health benefits are huge though - you can basically almost eliminate type 2 diabetes.

I've lived through a 10 year embargo with fuel crisis (a coca-cola bottle of petrol was expensive - like in a MadMax film). Then a short period of cheap plentiful petrol. Now in a rather expensive one (one litre is about 1.3 euros). All of my family have always used bicycle and found that it saves money, hassle and often time. However, my family has always had ONE family car. There are occasions when having your own car is realy convenient (eg. someone gets ill and there is no convenient public transport/taxi).

We bought previous car in 1990 and it lasted until 2010. It cost around 4000 euros back then, new. Simple, cheap to run, could maintain it myself most of the time.

Few more thoughts on savings. I've always found it a bit silly and too arrogant to use 1000 kilograms of self propelled steel in order to move ONE *****apiens around. I love cars and motorcycles, will ride them as long as there is fossil fuel around. Love the noise, the speed, **** the polution. However, I drive for fun, or out of necessity. For everyday moving around, I'd forbid anything but public transport and bicycles. :)