cranky old dude

With the price of oil roaring up into the stratosphere, I find myself much less
willing to startup my car. I’ve been biking to work daily for the past few weeks
and intend to continue as long as my wimpy body can withstand the cold weather
and the rude, careless drivers. As far as shopping and errands are concerned, if I can bike it, I do…if not, I consolidate several errands into one big loop…even if it means
postponing some errands until a later date. If the bride comes along then the car is
mandatory due to her M.S., and rightfully so.

Just wondering if others of us are beginning to rely on our beloved bikes more than in the past, or have I just reached my individual economical breaking point?

edit: or the first to reach the breaking point?

Dchiefransom

Everything is planned. I no longer just go to stores that are a distance away. I also go to different stores of the same chain. Since the train doesn't run on Saturday, I have to drive to work. All my shopping is done on the way home, between work and home.

cyclinfool

Except for my trips to the ski hill in the winter I could probably stop using the car. Most of what I need to travel to is within a 3 mile radius of my house, groceries, doctor & dentist, work, library, post office, barber.

Marrock

Six years carfree, got a BoB trailer for the bike, my gf has a trike since she has some minor balance issues and she uses the bus for work.

Dchiefransom

As the price of gas gets higher, cycling will get more expensive(more glass in the bike lane).

Ken Brown

For 30 years bike has been my first choice for transportation. If I can reasonably do my errand by bike I do, second choice is public transportation, use my minivan when the distances are too great, the weather inclement, or I need to carry a lot of stuff, such as groceries. I keep an old 10-speed as my city bike, because I am apprehensive about locking my good bike in public places.

Beverly

I still work and have a 45 minute commute via interstates so riding the bike to work isn't a very good option for me. All this may change in the next few months to a year as my company is in the process of outsourcing many of the jobs in my department.

I have cutback or consolidated use of the car for groceries, errands, etc. After retirement I plan on using the bike a lot more for these activities. I have a Burley bike trailer I used for the grandkids and intend to use it for errands around town.

John E

Except for my summer internship at Autonetics in 1968, I have always commuted via various combinations of transit, bicycling, walking/jogging, and carpooling. As a result, my car, a 1996 Audi A4 (a hand-me-down from my younger son, for whom I bought it ), currently gets driven about 3k miles per year, and my wife's 2001 VW Passat wagon just turned 40k miles, at a current pace of 4k miles per year. By minimizing driving and selecting cars with at least moderate fuel economy, I render the price of gasoline essentially irrelevant to my budget and lifestyle. With restricted use and fastidious preventive maintenance, I have normally been able to keep a car for 15 to 20 years, which is a huge financial benefit, since capitalization and depreciation still cost far more than fuel.

Pat

I don't think that gas prices will have that much effect.

If you figure that most people buy a $30,000 car and use it no more than 5 years and sell it for say $10,000, they have $20,000 or $4,000 per year in depreciation alone. You add in insurance at $1000 per year (fast guess) and repairs for another $1000, you get $6,000 per year. If you figure 15,000 miles per year at 15 mpg, you have 1000 gallons and at $3 per gallon, gas makes up $3000 per year or only 33% of their vehicle's cost. Gas has to go to $6 per gallon to come to 50% of the vehicle's cost. Also, I see plenty of people driving large SUVs that get very poor mileage and are expensive to boot and are obviously never driven off road. I mean why does someone need an SUV to drive on clean pavement? I think people are hooked on large powerful vehicles as status symbols and it will take some doing for them to give them up. Something that might work would be for ultra high eff cars to become status symbols and you see that some with the prius.

stapfam

45 minute car commute here aswell Although I have done it- Bike commuting that distance leaves me with a very long day. But If I have errands to run round the local town or Even as far as 10 miles away- then the bike gets used. Have a rucksack with a good lock and chain in it that I always grab if out locally but It does get a bit heavy doing the weekly grocery shopping with all the wine wqe are drinking at present.

Looking out for a Bob Trailer for when I retire.

Beverly

I already work 10 hour days and adding more hours to ride the bike just doesn't appeal to me I only work 4 days a week so I have plenty of time for the bike. I also ride a couple nights after work but they're the short 20 mile rides.

Speedo

About a year and a half ago I started doing about half of my commuting by bike. I like to pretend that I'm cheap, or that I like saving the world, or that it's patriotic to conserve gas, but the truth is...

I enjoy the ride.

Speedo

Monoborracho

Two years ago I was of the opinion that the marginal price for gasoline in the U.S., i.e., the price at which demand would slacken, was about $3.50 per gallon for regular unleaded. We actually saw a slackening in demand when it reached above $3.00 nationwide. With inflation and economic growth during the last two years that marginal price is now probably closer to $4.00 per gallon. Until the price of gasoline reaches that level I question whether there will be any significant decrease in demand., i.e, people reaching for their bikes.

If anyone is interested looking at present and past prices, here is an interesting link to gasoline, oil, fuel oil, and natural gas prices.

https://www.oilnergy.com/

DnvrFox

OK, I just rode my mtn bike .85 miles to the store and bought milk and ice cream. It has double panniers on the back. Actually, I do this quite fequently, but I buy other things, too!

cranky old dude

I just rode 5.5 miles through pouring rain commuting in to work.
I might be starting to get a little hooked on this bicycle in place
of car thing. The snow will be a truer test.

The company I work for has chosen to not give pay raises and/or
cost of living increases for the last seven years...so needless to say
things are starting to get kinda tight money wise. The silver lining is
that I get to ride my bike A LOT.

stonecrd

That is a nice rational analysis but I doubt most people realize it. The fact that the car purchase is a positively emotional purchase while gas purchase is considered an expense and negative influences most peoples view of gas prices being outrageous. I tend to think that high gas prices are probably a good thing as it gets people focused on buying smaller more fuel efficient autos and gets more the of big SUVs off the road. It will also probably reduce the push for more hp as even smaller cars are now pushing 280+. It is a pain though to see your monthly go from $100 to $180 in the last few years. I don't have the ability to bike commute or I certainly would do so, I do car pool.

Neil_B

I've tried to be car free one or two days a week, with varying results. During the summer I managed it fairly well, keeping Sundays car free by using the bike for trips to church, the gym, groceries, etc. Lately I've been unable to do it. I was car free on Saturday, but I was so wiped out from a 72 mile ride in 40 degree weather that I didn't have the strength to cook, so I had dinner delivered. That defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Once I get my commuter bike set up with crank arm extenders so I don't hurt my knees, then I'll resume limited bike commuting. My commute is 17 hilly miles one way, and the return trip is at night.

PaulH

Ionly drive about 2,000 miles per year, so I don't pay any attention to gas prices. Since I only fill up once per month, I find it difficult to even remember what the last price was. The only downside is that people will tell me "I paid $3.50 per gallon yesterday!" and I come back with a "Oh, wow, that is really amazing!" without knowing whether the price was amazingly low or amazingly high.

I do sometimes worry that cycling might become less attractive in some areas if higher gas prices were to reduce road congestion.

Paul

Ken Brown

The USA has some of the cheapest gas prices. Here in Canada our current price works out to almost US$4.00 per gallon, and we are an exporter of oil. I was in Europe last month and the price is over US$6.00 per gallon.

John E

Bicycling for transportation is a win - win - win -win activity.

I like ClifBar's recent "two mile challenge" advertising campaign, in which they point out the gross energy, pollution, and economic inefficiency of very short car trips and urge everyone to consider walking or bicycling instead, saving the car for longer trips. This strategy greatly reduces engine and transmission wear, helping those of us who like to keep our cars for many years.

gear

Half the oil that exists on the planet has already been collected and the demand is still rising. The price will only go up.