I track all my costs and I can say that in 3 years I have basically broken even with public transport, perhaps saved a few hundred. The only reason for that is that I bought 5 bikes in that 3 years (2 new, 3 used, 2 stolen), plus all the start up gear and tools. Now that I am happy with the bikes I own (trusty FG commuter, rainy day and winter Mtb, and a social tandem) I expect to really start saving.

You can make commuting as cheap as you like. I could have been running a $100 Mtb this whole time and saved a ton but it was more enjoyable to try different types of bikes. As people say, once you are set up you will start saving.

I don't know about you guys but the 30 min bike ride to clear my head before/after work makes it worth it. I just put my mp3 player on and cruise. The most peaceful time of the day.

I also agree with everything everyone else has said about upgrades. I just spent $415 at the LBS, half of that was unnecessary: new fenders, pedals, QR seatpost bracket (got rid of allen wrench bolt), Bontrager hardcase tires, installation fees (I'm lazy). If you just wanna cruise around and enjoy yourself, then you really don't need to spend too much money. A yearly tune-up and a few flat tires is about it.

Most commuter trains have a bike rack.

6'2" and 165lbs. Morphology type : ectomorph. It looks like you are one of the few who don't need to exercise much to stay healthy.
From what i have read, exercising won't make you live longer but you will live better during the same period of time. Which means that you will probably need less medical attention than if you don't exercise. Which means less money spent on health care during your lifetime Probably no saving now but maybe more years from now when you should start getting health problems. By problems i mean arthrosis, alzheimer, heart diseases, flu and other viral diseases etc..
But statistics are statistics which means they apply to everybody in general and nobody in particular. Everybody is different.

No, acidfast7 is right. 6'2" and 165lbs is not uncommon outside of the USA.

My problem may be related to the fact that I own 2 cars and a motorcycle already. I could give up on the bike (and I am seriously thinking of it) since I don't ride it to work anymore, and it just takes a few kilometers from time to time on a saturday morning short trip. The cars is tougher to say, one is big enough to move the kids around and the other one... Well that Beetle is not being sold, full stop.
On my 10 miles commute, time is of no comsequence, since it's pretty much the same by car, motorcycle or bicycle. So, as I said, the only direct saving in my case is fuel price (at 1.6 euros a liter, roughly 4.85 a gallon) which at least at the beginning is not going to overcome the direct expenses of riding.
But of course, as you perfectly put, now I am healthier, fitter (I lost 20 pounds and I am back to the 154 lbs I hadn't seen since college, for a 5'8" guy is not too bad), and happier, and there's no way money can compensate for that!

Not regional, long-distance. We're a backward country.

I live in the U.S. and would also like to know the answer to this question.

Edit: And I just got it. Thanks.

My husband finally sold his car and we are now a one car family. My bicycle commute allows for huge savings in that regard.

As an otherwise boring, run of the mill, middle aged lady who has a secure job and secure income, I really value the self reliance piece.

Cycling is the part of my day where I feel the most confident, the most alive, the most playful. I am most impressed with myself when I ride in various weather conditions, various distances, etc. My colleagues, who are similar to me in terms of age and socioeconomic status, talk alot about their aches and pains and their dull lives.

Cycle commuting has taken the "dull" part out of my life and replaced it with "fun".

That to me is priceless.

This is a valid feeling. With commuting, I *think* you learn what you need as you go. The first year or to are big when it comes to that learning curve. What works, what doesnt, etc. I didnt have a lot of money at all when I first started commuting so I had to keep the trial and error with gear down a lot but as you go, you learn.

I like the way you are thinking and agree with all of it. I feel like a little kid playing in the sand box when I ride my bike.

Using an Excel spreadsheet, I tracked the cost of bicycle commuting vs. automobile commuting from July of 2011 to March 2012. I very simply tracked every penny spent on biking against my honest estimate of what would have been spent had I been using a car. My estimated car costs were based on actual costs from the previous several months before I started commuting on the bike.

For bike expenses I included the cost of the bicycle, which was about $600 for my commuter (that I called "The Rig"), and everything I bought for it. Included were lighting (NiteRider flamethrowers on the front, numerous blinkies on the rear), tubes and tyres, chain lube, any specialized clothing (shorts, spd shoes), and even increased the cost a bit thinking that cycling probably increases the amount I eat. I also included the cost of the panniers and racks, although I ended up ditching them and using a backpack. There were also some incidental expenses I added, the most significant being the cost of laundry detergent because of the extra load of clothing I had to wash weekly that would not have been washed if I wasn't a cyclist. For the car I included gas, oil, maintenance, monthly car payment, insurance, weekly visits to the car wash, etc., based on actual expenditures for several months preceding July 2011.

So for 7+ months it was Trek vs. GMC Jimmy on a 33 to 35 mile round-trip commute. Although I don't have the spreadsheet any more, it showed that the bicycle cost an average of $40 per week less than the car usage. Even though I am an advocate for bicycling, I was pleasantly surprised by how large the margin was. Total savings was about $1300 to $1400 us dollars.

My wife brought up another point when we were talking about these costs. And that is the real possibility that a healthy bicycling lifestyle may decrease medical expenses in the future. The incidences of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and alzheimer's are significantly decreased in a lifestyle that includes aerobic activity like cycling - so there's a lot more potential monetary savings there. I'm not saying we're immune to these diseases, but there are some staggering decrease percentages.

One final note: My comparison was not just based on bicycle commuting, it was based on a completely car-free lifestyle. If you commute by bike and still maintain a car "on the side" the savings might be a lot less.

So, in my little experiment: Yes, you save money cycling vs. driving.

But isn't it a pain cleaning the sand out of your chain? (snicker)

Clean a chain? (snicker, snicker)

I see your snicker and raise you three

Since I pay for the monthly Metrocard anyway I can't say I save anything by commuting by bike. But since I also ride recreationally anyway it is hard to say that what I spend on bike related gear is done just for commuting.

For instance, I just purchased 2 long sleeve Pearl Izumi thermal jerseys for $33 each (killer deal btw, go for it at Jenson if they still have them.) I've only used them for commuting so far, but I really bought them for weekend rides. Also, I bought lights for commuting, but found that I really like to do my park training rides in the dark now. Basically that leaves the bike, which I paid $125 for to replace the 20+ year old Trek 8000 that my son took with him to college, and tires and tubes. That's about 1.5 months worth of Metrocards. (The bike came in handy post-Sandy. It got me out of the house. The metrocard was useless as the trains weren't going anywhere!)

Monetarily, commuting by bike for the most part is cheaper, but one needs to also factor in on how valuable one's time and energy is when considering in commuting by bike. Short distance commutes by bike that only add several minutes to the commute are desirable, but when the additional commute time becomes an hour or more, this can add up to a considerable amount of time/energy spent when calculated over a year's time.

Commuting by bike is a lot cheaper, and I do enjoy the savings. However it's not just about money. For me it's about "lifestyle". I have enough money saved up , that if I want I can go and buy myself a car, but I have chosen to be car-free, I don't know what the future holds but I'll try my best to live a car-ree lifestyle for as long as I can.

This is a nice post thank you.

I don't like driving so I use my bike for 99% of my travels, and it save a big amount of money for me.

Well said. I vote for you at the next elections :)

I find the physical exertion of riding a bicycle as enjoyable, but I'm still working on finding the "fun" in interacting with US motorists during an urban commute rush hour.

Only happens in spurts, usually co-workers.

If you're looking at something like a one-year window, I'd wager that the savings are minimal.

But if you look at it much like a hybrid is considered when accounting for the vehicle paying for itself, the bike eventually takes a staggering climb northward on savings. If you're paying for a car to sit in the driveway or for public transportation, that's a different variable than what I've been able to see.


A bike will never depreciate below the income saved from riding it.
A car will never save income through depreciation.

My van was costing me upwards of $100-150 a week to use. None of the driving I was doing was over 5 miles so the vehicle was getting the worst case scenario on gas mileage. When I sold it this summer to pay for my last semester of grad classes, my wife and I went back to being on the bikes 100% of the time. While we've agreed to buying another car in January when I start my new job with the school district, we've been able to see a few interesting things.

I rode 700 miles in October. At 18 MPG in the van, plus insurance and any maintenance costs, it would be reasonable to assume without doing any actual math that the bike was a better, less expensive option.

The bike is paid for and my gear has been paid for for years, which is really my point.

If you just spent $2,500 to get all the gear+a new bike, you're going to have to wait a year or two to begin to see a profit margin through savings. But a car is just the inverse. A new car driven off the lot will eventually be worth less than $2,500 within 10 years unless you're dealing with a Jeep or truck. Even then, the cost of yearly maintenance, replacing tires and potential mechanical repairs means you're going to come out several thousands of dollars ahead on the bike and that number will eventually plateau, it shouldn't necessarily decrease.

The trick is, if you're looking at saving money, is to buy quality and keep it; you must avoid N+1 and other things that all absorb your profit margin.

Me, personally, I just like to ride because I'm getting time between work and home where I can help my wife take care of the army of children versus being angry still from work and then dealing with ******** in traffic. While I may deal with the same ******** in traffic on the bike, I can always remember I'm not trapped in a chair in a cage.