I was speaking to my situation and understand that for some, a car is essential and there are some journeys where having our car is very cost effective vs other means of transportation... in travelling back and forth to Portland driving costs me less than flying by myself and with my daughters it is a no brainer as we'd be looking at $1200.00 / return for the three of us and would have to deal with airline security goons.

My car cost me $1.00 but was really acquired as a trade for some work I did which was in itself a little different... I saved my friend over $1000.00 on the repairs to his Mercedes van and he was rather grateful and gave me his extra car and the market value of a solid running and well maintained 1993 Nissan Sentra is probably $1000.00 and it has already paid for itself.

When I had a newer vehicle and payments, higher insurance, and higher fuel costs I was paying out $8000.00 a year for a vehicle that was also depreciating at an alarming rate.

My wife and were using Zipcar in Portland (usually when we needed a truck) and rented a car here for a few weeks this spring to deal with family matters and that cost me more than what I have in our car now.

My wife does not have a need to drive in Portland, she lives centrally and is very close to her work and my world here is pretty compact where everything I need on a daily basis is within 6 miles and this was arranged by choice so I could live a car free life.

Positives to the car would be that ability to travel long distances and travel at short notice and when it sits it does not cost me anything over the money I pay for insurance and registration and I get an outstanding rate as I have a squeaky clean driving record that spans 30 years.

Besides the financial savings, living car free or car light offers great mental and physical health benefits (to me)... with our current weather and recent snow my bike is actually the superior vehicle for getting around and having to drive under any circumstances makes me cranky and irritable while cycling (in any weather) puts a big assed grin on my face.

This depends on what you're measuring.
If you take what I spend on bike stuff and compare it to the gas and maintenance that I would be spending to go the same number of miles in my car, yes, I've saved maybe $5000 in the last 8 years.

If you count opportunity cost, I spend an extra 45 minutes a day commuting by bike rather than car. If I worked those hours instead, I would be making an extra $8000/year or so, so bike commuting is a huge financial loss.

But if you then count the fact that I'm a lot happier and healthier and will probably live at least a few more years and be healthier in those years, then it's back to being cheap again.

It also depends on how much car ownership and use costs each person. Some people pay hundreds a month just for parking. For me, I'm driving a 12 year old minivan that has long since been paid off and I do all the maintenance on it. It costs about $100/year for maintenance - oil, wipers, tires, and about $75/year for registration and $500/year for insurance. So that breaks down to about $60/month if the car just sits there. I haven't paid a dime for parking in years, anywhere. There are some places around here with parking meters but I haven't had any need to go there for years.

you save wear and tear on a car by bike commuting. I think you offset gym memberships and parking if you have to pay for that by biking. WHen i bike I have a better spot than when I drive. I am not sure how much i save because I always would like to have new bib tights, fenders, new tires etc.

but if you can reign that in you will have less expenditures.

Do I ride to save money? No. Do I save money by riding? Yes.

In addition to the original purchase price, I do spend quite a bit on cycling every year. Rain gear, winter gear, helmets, lights, tires, drive train, brake pads...no item needs annual replacement, but they all need to be replaced from time to time. Let's say $500/year, which is pretty generous. I think I spent that much this year only because I destroyed a crank and had to replace the whole crank/bottom bracket assembly.
(edit: I should mention the $500 figure actually maintains 4 bikes: 2 for me and 2 for my wife. Mine see more riding so make up the larger share of the cost, as well as a larger share of the benefits)

But a car...if my family needed a second car because I didn't bike, that's like 30 years of cycling expenses up front...for a cheap car. Even if we just burned an extra tank of gas every month, that would equal or exceed my cycling costs. Buy a bus pass to replace the bike commute? Roughly equal to the cost of biking (and only because there's a tax credit and my company kicks in 1/4 of the cost). Pay for parking to replace the bike commute? About 4x the cost of biking, ignoring the vehicle operating costs.

And then there's other things. My life insurance medical puts me in the healthiest category (despite being overweight). I thank cycling. Annual savings of around $100. Extra life expectancy priceless. Cycling's door-to-door convenience (I park inside my office and inside my home) means it's actually faster than driving for me, and also faster than the bus. If we assign value to the time (I generally don't, since I have no practical way of earning more money by cutting the commute time), it's probably worth around $15/week or $720 over the course of a year (48 work weeks).

I used to commute on a motorbike I paid $15K for. Now I commute on a $2K bicycle. That's a lot of scratch left over for tires and baskets and jackets and whatnot...plus the motorbike tires were $300+ each.

So...yea bicycles save me a lot of money.

I still have my vehicle, and my wife has hers. Between the two of us, we have 3 motorcycles.

Thing is, we would have those anyway, but I would be using my car, or one of the motorcycles to commute most days. So even with the cost of my bike (recumbent) and all of the gear, assuming reasonable costs of maintenance for tires/chain and other bits that wear out, I suspect my bike commuting will pay for itself in about 3-4 years, and I plan on owning my bike a lot longer than that. I haven't called to get a new quote on my car insurance yet, since I commute with it only about 3 times/month these days. I suspect the reduced insurance cost will make the bike pay for itself sooner. I still need my car though, since it's what I use to tow the motorcycle trailer to the track.

I say that I save about $100/mo on gas, but I'm not really sure as I haven't driven enough regularly to know how much gas I'd use. It's a good number though. I probably spend that or more on bike gear too - ha! I don't track my spending on bike stuff. Bicycle dollars are not that same a real dollars.

I do have quite a lot of high quality bike gear and clothes that I got at yard sales or thrift stores for a dollar or so. I rarely pay retail for gear.

And who has heard of a:

Speeding ticket for bikes.

Parking tickets

Bikes can be parked almost anywhere you think they would be safe without fear of that dreaded form being plastered on it stating some parking infringment and when freewheeling down some hill flat out no cop is going to pull me over for speeding

It is no doubt cheaper to ride a bike, but your food bill will be higher. I have to say, I love being able to eat!

My commute is 65 miles each way. I drive 7 miles to a commuter rail station, and take my bike in the train and ride five miles to work.

Cost of driving the full distance by car =~ $30 per day (my calc. based on my actual usage, not AAA's higher catch all $.50/mile calc)

Rail pass=307/mo = $15/day
Cost of driving 14 miles =$3.50/day
money spent biking per year =1500, = $6.00/day

Yes, it cost less, not even counting the intangible benefit of being a cure for freeway burnout, and just plain fun.

The GSX R has been sitting in the garage this whole year!! I can get to work in a flash on the Gixxer, but the fun has gone away with that. Enter the bicycle.. Oh boy..Each block is fun..Maybe next year the Gixxer will get some time. Right now it is all bicycle, 9 of them!!

BTW, the wife drives the F150, it gets about 8 miles to a gallon!!

I'd actually love to get a speeding ticket on my bike (if the opportunity presented itself). I'd probably have to take it to court just to see if the judge would laugh.

The ticket itself would get framed - and would obviously turn into a conversation piece. It may even go viral - if it were to ever end up on the internet (******, imgur, etc...).

don't even start! when I was about 17, I got a ticket for doing over 55 in a 25 on my torelli road bike. just my luck, I was bombing down a descent that went thru a residential neighborhood, of course that I knew very well, and just my luck, a cop was at home pulling out of his driveway. there was no way I could slow down so I just went around the patrol car. he proceeded to chase, and for some reason I thought that just maybe I could out maneuver him, but of course caught me once I was in the flats... and yes, that goes against your driving record.

I pay about 125-150 for a commuter-- pre-Gators or Schwalbe's--and thats it.
It costs as much as you want to put into it.

There is more than one way to skin the cat - apologies to all crazy cat ladies out there.

Bike - 2008 Specialized TriCross Comp, purchased second-hand for $1400, came fully set-up for commute, fenders, pedals, computer and front and end racks.

Commute - 30 mi RT across downtown Orlando.

Vehicle - Pontiac Aztek (before you say anything, I have heard it all already). 22 mpg average.

After 9000 miles, gasoline vs. purchase price plus maintenance - I just broke even. IRS mileage reimbursement minus purchase price - I made about 3K. Carbon footprint - about 1 ton of carbon emissions saved (not that I give a d@mn, I save Mother Earth for a living 9 to 5 at my desk). NOT purchasing a third car for my oldest and NOT paying teenage-rate insurance for a full-time driver saves about $550 a month. Being in good mood after a ride and NOT biting off family's or co-workers' heads - whatever it is worth to you.

Good Luck

SF

I try to focus on what I gain, not what I save.

(That said, I save $1920 in parking fees every year.)

I don't.

For distant vacations, like when I go to Colorado or Montana, I use Amtrak. (The same train, the Lakeshore Limited, that goes through Erie, BTW. Costs $20 extra each way for the bike, $15 of which is for their special Amtrak Bike Box.)

When vacationing at the family cottage in Ontario, I put one of my racks on my parents' Buick, and pay for the gas. (Yes, I don't own a car but I own a Yakima Holdup hitch rack, and a Saris Bones 3 trunk rack.)

I also pay for the gas when my ride partner picks me up and we use his truck to go somewhere. (Haven't decided yet where we're going for Veterans Day.) Both my parents and my ride partner tell me I don't have to pay for the gas, and I pay for it anyway. It's my choice.

I don't know what an "emergency day" is. Please define. My employer recently sent us all home early for the hurricane. I rode home, just like I'd ridden to work. Had it genuinely been too windy (I've ridden in the upper 40s sustained, with gusts over 65--substantially more than on Monday) I live and work on a bus line.

If I sprain an ankle, I can't work anyway. Sick time. When I was hit by a car, the doc said I couldn't work for a week. The driver's insurance paid for my lost work.

I too live in a "lake effect" city. No biggie.

My coworkers hate me because they can't use the "too much snow to drive" excuse any more. The guy on his bike gets to work through the snow just fine. I ride clear across town and have to plan an extra 15 minutes or so. Takes them that much extra time just to brush off and warm up the car. I started bike commuting in March 2006, and missed only one day of it, in July 2006.

When you make the same commitment to cycling that most people make to their cars, it's easy.

a bike is cheaper than a car-period.it just so happens that alot of us that drive beater cars feel like we need the ferrari of bikes...you could commute on a wally world special just as well as in your 91 geo metro..

No, it's more expensive for me to use the bike. But, I suspect that my situation is unique.

Non-bike commute: 200m walk, 22 min subway ride, 200m walk (each direction). cost per month (€21 or €0.70/day)
Bike commute: 25km round-trip is roughly 60-65 min (rolling time) depending on cycle traffic.

Health insurance benefits: no difference as full-coverage health insurance (with the exception of a once-a-year €10 payment the first time you use it) is mandatory (roughly 8% of gross pay)

Bike costs: Bike, lock, starting gear was €790. Helmet was €100. Clothes have been about €30. Lights/tubes/bag: €50.

Extra food costs: 500kcal extra/day due to riding (we should assume that I eat most of the kcal as my weight is steady at roughly 72kg). Depends on what I eat: usually a mazipan croissant (€1.20) and extra cafe latte (€1.60) and usually a beer in the evening (€1.20) ... for €4/day. When I don't ride, I usually don't take the croissant/coffee at work or the beer while preparing dinner.

Loss of reading time: I do miss the reading time on the subway. I would always read the NYT, SZ and DN on the mobile phone on the subway (€0.05/day with prepaid card at €0.09/MB).

I really enjoy riding, but I don't save money doing it.

In addition, I may even make the environment worse when one considers the excellent public transport I don't use and the extra food that I eat (production/water/transport costs).

I should also state that I do own a car that I use once/month for a 750km round-trip drive. €2500 up front, €600/year insurance/taxes/inspection, €1.60/l fuel, €500/year repairs

IMO the savings increase a lot if you change your car for a bycicle,but if you just add a bike and keep the car (car lite) the savings would be less.

Extra food costs? So you count extra food as a cost like doing some fitness is a cost.
What about the health benefit as we usually need to do some fitness to stay healthy?
Staying healthy means eating less or equal calories equivalent than the calories spent doing some exercise as we usually eat more than we need. So overall the balance should be a gain not a loss.
Saying it is a loss is like saying that buying a good bottle of wine for collection purpose is a cost. It isn't it is an investment. On the short term you spend money but you gain money on the long term.
But i will agree with you in a way because from studies i have read there is no need to exercise 5 days/week to stay healthy. It's more like a quantity per week. And exercising too much is not better for health neither from what i have read.
So i would say you're right in a way that every food spent exercising which is beyond the strict minimum to stay healthy is a cost minus the health benefits related to bicycling (stress level, fun etc...)

I think about it like this:

I don't usually eat more than I need because I'm 6'2" and 165lbs, which is pretty average. I do get a little exercise without the bike, because if the weather is good (not raining) I leave work and sneak in a nice 1.5-mile walk to a different subway line. I also do a little rock climbing for variety and the gf tonight suggested that we start playing badminton

However, if I ride and don't eat the extra food, I lose some weight (5-7 lbs at one point) and generally feel uncomfortable, so I made it a point to eat the extra food to stay at a healthy weight.

I see the value of exercising in terms of life quality. However, it doesn't save me any money. If I never get sick, or I have a chronic disease that requires me to see the doctor one per week with various tests (renal failure for example), the monetary cost would be exactly the same (roughly 8% of gross pay.) Also, medications are free and everyone pays the same for old age insurance (think nursing home, 2.2% gross.)

I see many benefits to cycling and I enjoy it, but it should be viewed as a luxury because I take a monetary loss on it both in the short- and long-term even with only buying an entry-level MTB and with minimal expenses in clothing (mostly my old XC ski clothes.)

You have to box up the bike to bring it on a regional train? Is that true for all trains in the states?

I can't afford the car insurance, gas, and surprise repairs of a car, so you could say I ride because of money. I also enjoy it, prefer it, and am happier when I ride.

It does seem to be an endless money pit, but I enjoy buying parts and accessories for the most part, except for when a need comes at an inconvenient time. I'm hoping that once I'm done rebuilding my touring bike so I have a spare for my commuter that the expenses will drop off to just the occasional replacement of socks, bibs, and tights.