That's friggin' awesome. 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 (https://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.