This.

Is commuting by bike cheaper?

This week I bought new winter gloves ($40), ear warmer ($12), Chain degreaser ($11), Chain-L oil ($11), Shimano freewheel tool ($6) and a spoke wrench ($5), Oh yeah, and a Surly Ogre frame ($575).

Clearly not cheaper in this case.

Money is not the determining factor. Time is.

Unfortunately, I cannot commute by bike. The geography and layout of LA doesn't allow it for my situation.
I wish I could, but it is not possible.

I have been in cities where it is, and I have used my bike as the main mode of transport and it was amazing.
Loved it, liberating, felt great, and saw more of the people and city than by car.
It was also the fastest, easiest way to go- by a large margin.

Cost of ownership has no influence on my mode of commuting.
People will take the path of least resistance and most practical for the situation. In cities designed for cars, cars are that path.

Things are changing, which is exciting. I hope it continues at an escalating rate.

Maybe i can help you save some money.
You can DIY the chain degreaser for cheaper doing that yourself for better results and more environmental friendly than what you will buy at the shop

Mix into water some sodium bicarbonate (2$) with some white vinegar (3$) available at your closest shop. This mix will transform into some sodium acetate and it's what is inside eco soaps. It's totally safe to make and to use (the bubble you get during the reaction are CO2 bubbles what you breath out so no worry)

I really don't feel that money would change my habits here. Anyone who rides regular knows what it's like to be out in the elements. It's why dogs hang thier heads out the window...

My apologies - this is an international forum and I spoke in American realities - see post #122.

Three projects I listed (Solyndra, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt) were enthusiastically supported and heavily subsidized by current USA administration. Solyndra imploded in most spectacularly public fashion and the White House quietly withdrew the support for electric cars last month to spare themselves more embarrassment in the election year.

Electricity does not come from nowhere, fuel is consumed somewhere in the process. Even if it is solar power, the panels are made from photovoltaic cells, which require high temperature (electric) furnaces to grow the monocrystalline silicon, and some sort of structural support, usually made of metal (say hello to iron blast furnaces and associated NO2 emissions or aluminum electrolytic cells and associated emissions of HF and - gasp - CO2, the very emission we strive to eliminate). We can follow the trail down to the lump of coal needed to produce electricity to air-condition the office where poor sleep-deprived geeks designed aforementioned photovoltaic cells, but you already get the picture.

In other words, there is no guilt-free way to conduct the business of living, even commuting by bike - see above description of where the metal comes from. As far as energy conversion efficiency is concerned, muscles are pretty darn close to electricity generation.

All we can do is to recycle religiously, be very suspicious of next be-green-feel-good bleeding heart messiah and his/hers true motives, employ critical thinking and be honest with ourselves. I commute to curb middle-age spread and to purchase one less gallon of fuel from people whose ideology I despise. Therefore it could be said that I commute out of vanity and contempt.

Ride safe and good luck.

SF

yeah, it's a horrible idea unless the energy comes from renewable resources. also the materials required to make the battery are quite unpleasant to the environment.

when one thinks about the electric car, it's a solution without a problem. the US would be better off adopting advanced diesel technology rather than pursuing electric car technology.

a lot of governments have jumped on the green bandwagon to get votes and look good but without considering ALL the consequences down the line. Electric cars are great in towns, but where does the electric come from? how do we make/transport/dispose of the batteries? they get coy when you start to ask these questions...

is it better to keep an older but well maintained car rather than buy a new one? in most cases yes and the enviro costs to make a new new one far outweigh the old one - but the governments encourage you to buy new..

Anyways........................... back to the main thread question..

In my opinion, commuting by bike can be much much cheaper than by car or motorcycle. Why? bc the cost can really be kept at a minimum and there is no gas to pay for..

HOWEVER, most bike commuters are also enthusiasts, and that creates the opposite effect when it comes to savings, bc an enthusiast will upgrade parts of the bike that could be just left alone until they broke. In general when you are an enthusiast of something you will spend more money than you would if you weren't

Hugs! And I'd looooove to have me one of these VW diesel trucks from the 80s!

I walk by a VW bus (T1 through T5) specialist on the way to work and they always part the retrofitted stuff in the street. VAG (VW auto group) has some stellar diesel products :D

I see it a little different in the sense that i really enjoy riding, if i dont dont do it everyday to work (and on weekends) i feel guilty or crappy physically. Aslo i save a crap load of money on gas a week, i use to spend about $50 a week now i spend $50 a month. I still own a vehicle due to some family emergencies but what i have done to keep costs down was move 10 miles from work. My wife drives to work and i bike to work. Also its a hobby with two benefits, for a example about 6 months ago my hobby was guns and i would spend $100 on ammo a month plus things here and there and other than being able to shoot a quarter at 30 yards with irons there was no true health benefit and my hobby was costing me $$$ every month. Since i started biking my hobby pays for itself in not only the sense of transport but also in the sense that helps me physically. My BP was 168/88 a few months ago and sugar 92 fasting, last week when i was checked up i was at 138/92 and sugar at 70 and i also lost 12 pounds. Personally we all need hobbies of some sort either it be video games, movies, cars, biking, painting, shooting etc. but when our hobbies pay for them selves thats extra savings. As i see it saving money is just a plus of having biking as my hobby.

Quite true. I've recently gotten into biking, and ended up spending about $10,000 in total on bikes, servicing, and accessories. Oops. However, biking has helped me lose 20 lbs - and I was pretty active to begin with - and I'm rarely stuck for alternate transportation these days. During the summer when it was easier to commute the benefit to the gas bill was definitely appreciated. My wife and I have managed one car for almost 17 years now, both before and after we got married, and I'd like to keep it that way if possible. The insurance for the bikes is covered under our general insurance, and for the vast majority of us, I doubt that no matter what we spend on N+1 bikes, it will pale in comparison to the upfront cost of a car, plus gas, plus insurance!

I ride to work because I like to hear the whir of my tires and feel the wind in my face. The people in cars around me can jockey for position and race to the next red light while I spin my pedals. Sometimes I keep hearing a car creep up behind me and then I realize it's just the sound of my rear wheel spinning. Last week, before the end of DST, it was dark for my morning commute and the Moon was Waning Gibbous with Jupiter a few degrees higher in the Western morning sky. I'm not too concerned with the economics of riding vs. driving.

Whose ideology? The oil companies'?

Dear Vampy:
Commuting is a huge savings. I cycle in Philadelphia a big city known for bicycle theft. So I commute with the cheapest bicycle I can get. My present ride I bought for $ 5.00 at a yard sale. It is so ugly that no one would want to steal it. I buy most of my accesories at Craigslist so they are quite cheap. Lights were $ 12.00, a rack was $ 10.00, a front fender was $ 5.00. For extra "Fred" value I use a milk crate for a basket. I do a lot of touring so I do most of my own maintance. My bike is heavy so I get a great workout. When I ride my "real" bike on weekends it feels like I can fly! My savings on gas, parking and the general aggrevation of driving in traffic is quite substantial. John

Yes.

fyi: Ivan Illach Energy and Equity

http://203.77.194.71:81/present-cour...and_equity.pdf

here's an excerpt:
"The model American male devotes more than 1,600 hours a year to his car. He sitsin it while it goes and while it stands idling. He parks it and searches for it. He earnsthe money to put down on it and to meet the monthly installments. He works to pay forgasoline, tolls, insurance, taxes, and tickets. He spends four of his sixteen waking hours onthe road or gathering his resources for it. And this figure does not take into account thetime consumed by other activities dictated by transport: time spent in hospitals, trafficcourts, and garages; time spent watching automobile commercials or attending consumereducation meetings to improve the quality of the next buy. The model American puts in1,600 hours to get 7,500 miles: less than five miles per hour. In countries deprived of atransportation industry, people manage to do the same, walking wherever they want togo, and they allocate only 3 to 8 per cent of their society’s time budget to traffic insteadof 28 per cent. What distinguishes the traffic in rich countries from the traffic in poorcountries is not more mileage per hour of life-time for the majority, but more hours ofcompulsory consumption of high doses of energy, packaged and unequally distributed bythe transportation industry. "

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I haven't owned a car for over 10yrs. That doesn't mean I haven't used a car, or have been in company which socially demands the use of a car, but none the less, I have not purchased a car, nor do I have a motorized vehicle registered/insured under my name.
In that regard, most of the things I own, I have moved by way of bicycle. In a "Huxley-esq" version, the Bicycle is as if "the reducing valve", which all things must pass. My virtue of not owning a car, less calories are used to move items, simply because I can only produce X amount of calories per hour/day/week, etc... so the things I have in my residence tend to be more thoughtfully picked out, and surely purpose oriented. Which also brings to light the quantitative space in which I reside. Less space, less expense.

the bicycle is also somewhat limiting. my primary tact is to simply position myself in an area where income/necessities are located within a 5 mile radius of residence. Cycling environment is also important, making cycling pleasurable. great locations I can think of would be Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo, of course here in Monterey, Mill Valley, Fairfax, etc...

The problem with electric cars is that electricity isn't a fuel; it's a storage medium. This means your car is fueled by whatever fuels your power grid, which is most likely coal, natural gas, nuclear, or hydroelectric power (in order of "green-ness," from low to high).

Of course, even bicycling fuel (food) isn't particularly green, with all the petrochemical costs involved in farming, processing, and transporting all this stuff... :D And the human body is not nearly as efficient at converting fuel to work as our modern mechanical contrivances. If we are ever phased out of production by our robot overlords, it will doubtless be a far greener planet!
:innocent:

buying a car, is still buying a car.

buy local produce.

I wish more people understood that. I was having a conversation with a coworker today and he is looking to buy a new car. He was thinking of the Nissan Leaf so he does not have to pay for gas, he figured it would be a "free car". I reminded him that electricity costs money and that he will see an increase in his power bill anyway. Interestingly enough his power company has been raising their rates a lot lately.

He never even considered that his electricity bill will go up dramatically if he were to plug his car in every night.

I see a lot of people ignoring a lot of costs on the car side when comparing, you really have to look at the big picture

ok Vehicle cost. People are talking about the cost of buying a bike, accessories and clothing. But is seems that no one is talking about what their cars cost.

To make a true comparison you would need to compare a car you would commute in would cost compared to a bike you would commute on. Pretty clear that no matter how you trick out your bike, aquistion cost for a car is a lot more.

then there are the 'friction' cost of owning a car that don't apply to bikes insurance and registration. Again cost for car is a lot more even with older cars and a good driving record.

then add in the cost to smog your car.....pretty trivial but still a cost a bike does not have.

Maintenance.....oil change with synthetic easily 50 to 80 depending on car, sure maybe once a year of so but another item that does cost on a bike

Routine 15/30/60 checks on a car add up...... a lot more than a trip to a bike shop or the tools for do it your self.

I will grant that bike tires are a lot more expensive per mile than car tires, but all of the above more than balances.

I just don't see any way that bike commuting is not cheaper, even ignoring car aquisition cost, if you look at the big picture

people definitely underestimate the cost of their car. Of course, a lot of that is sunk cost once you decide to have a car.

Driving to work (about 14 miles each way) for me costs about $8 a day for gas alone. If you factor in the cost of the vehicle, regular maintenance and repairs, it's more like $14/day. Add insurance, registration, etc. and it comes up to about $17/day. Now, this is over a 10 year period.

I spent $350 on my commuter bike. And about $700 on clothing, lights, fenders, saddle, rack, panniers, etc. ~$1,050 invested in the past 12 months. In the past year, I've commuted by bike on average once a week, so it works out to about $20/day.

I certainly don't plan on spending $1,000/year on the above mentioned things - probably more like $150-200 for tires and other things that wear out. So, basically, if I continue my trend, I'll break even in a few months, and after that it'll start to become worthwhile from a financial standpoint.

If I were to commute everyday, though, things would certainly be different. I would probably go through 4 sets of tires every year, which would cost about $300-400. It would work out to about $6/day for the first year, and about $2.25/day each year thereafter, assuming the bike frame, wheels, and clothing hold together.

Total daily cost would be right around $3.00 over a 5 year period...again, if I were to ride every day. Maybe my math is flawed, but that's definitely cheaper than driving.

Electricity is a storage medium, and I would say that is its great benefit. We can make power lots of ways, some greener than others, but we can always run our stuff on electricity. This allows us to use power from lots of disparate sources, and we can develop those sources.

If you run your cars on gas, it's always going to be dirty. The costs, both to our economy and our environment, associated with producing and transporting oil are never going to be reduced.