Commuting by bicycle, the maths.

[Deleted member 1258]

Interesting maths on this thread, I can't make bike/car comparisons as I haven't owned a car for over 30 years. My only alternative to the bike is the bus, but I've never used it so I don't know times or fares, I think it would take a lot longer than the bike, involve a long walk each end and cost a lot more. I also might have problems getting home at night, I'm on a late shift and don't finish until quarter to seven at night.

 

[Ergates]

All you lucky people!

My commute is 17 miles.
By car............20 minutes there; 20 minutes back = 40 minutes
By bike...........70 minutes there; 70 minutes back + extra shower (15 minutes incl walking to changing rooms and back) = 155 minutes (longer in winter when it's dark).
By bus/train......not really an option - would take over 2 hours and cost a hell of a lot.

Getting to work by car is so easy (dual carriageway and motorway almost all the way) and I don't have to pay for parking either. Cycling saves me the petrol money and gets me fitter, but costs me 2 hours a day (and means I hav to get up an hour earlier).

 

[dellzeqq]

Susie's commute

bike 40-45 minutes
bus and tube 50 minutes £131 a month, although that would cover weekends
car never been tried, but probably 40-50 minutes, congestion charge £9 daily with auto-pay plus petrol
Brompton plus tube 35-40 minutes £4 per day

 

[Moodyman]

• Bicycle Journey = 45 mins longer
• Bicycle Journey when including showers, stretching, change of clothing - 1 hour 20 mins longer.
• Bicycle journey when avoiding 2 hours at the gym = +40 mins.

£5.40 train fare saved daily, but still financially down on the initial outlay of bikes, clothing, lights, etc.

Expect to break-even June/July 12. Thereafter, cycling will be cheaper.

 

[Tynan]

public transport came close to driving me insane the last time I did it full time

cycling is feel good, keeps me in far better shape than I would be otherwise and saves me money, some anyway

time is about the same

 

[Msmancunia]

I save time and money (sort of) by cycling.

Public transport - get up, have bath (shower on the blink but it takes longer!), walk to station, get crappy Northern Rail train if it turns up, get tram X 2 = 1hr 30 mins if I'm lucky. Cost = £6.60 per day.

Bike - get up, get out, 50 min cycle to work, have shower, have breakfast = 1hr 15 mins = cost free.

I'm just spending all the money I've saved on new kit, but, having said that, I don't need to fork out on gym subscriptions. And it's much more enjoyable.

 

[Nebulous]

Cycling doesn't make much difference over driving cash wise for me. I've about 2 miles to work.

Bus £1.80 each way -often a long wait at the stop - about 25 mins average each way.
Car about 50p a day in fuel, really nothing else in additional costs - as these are being met anyway. About 5-6 minutes each way.
Bike some costs in parts, batteries and kit. Over 300 feet of climb then about 70 feet of drop. Best time 8.35 going and 6.01 returning.

 

[Ethan]

Time from my house to uni:25 mins by bike
30 mins by car
55mins to 1 hour 10 mins by bus (including wait for next bus)

Time from my girlfriends to my uni:
20 mins by bike
40 by car
1 hour by bus (including wait for next bus)

Savings:Nothing from my house/girlfriends house to city center.
£4.20 a day to city center from uni.


Not only does the bike get me there faster at the times I commute, it saves me the price of two pints at the union everyday!
In case anyone cares, I go to uni in shootsalford, live in gorton and my girlfriend lives in fallowfield - Manchester

 

[cloggsy]

I 'did the maths' at work when I'd completed 1600 miles last year, to show people the savings...


1600 miles in a car (which does 50mpg - which most do not!) is roughly 32 gallons of fuel.

There are roughly 4.5 litres in a gallon, so 32 gallons is equal to 144 litres

144 litres of diesel is worth (@ 140.9/litre) £202.90

144 litres of petrol is worth (@ 135.9/litre) £195.70

If you equate this to your cars’ actual fuel consumption figures, it would no doubt be more!

Don’t forget “Cars burn your money and make you fat, Cycling saves you money and burns your fat!”

 

[2pies]

........cycling is much cheaper and could be considerably more so if I stopped buying cycling stuff.

Me too!

 

[DCLane]

Don’t forget “Cars burn your money and make you fat, Cycling saves you money and burns your fat!”

That quote/picture is on my PC at work. Much to the chagrin of my non-cycling colleagues.

 

[bicyclos]

My commute now is only 4.5 miles by car(very rare) which can take 15-20 mins depending on the traffic. By bike it takes me a lot longer because I never cycle direct to work as I end up clocking up miles and going for a ride usually for 10-15miles, sometimes more when it gets warmer before venturing into work. I couldnt give a stuff really how long it takes or costs me on the bike (longer the better for me) as for the car, short as possible. In 11 years of commuting I have spent £6,589.55 on two bikes and the rest on clothing, accessories, stainess steel fixings and workshop tools.....yeh I know I am sad.

 

[twowheelsgood]

Clearly it's tons cheaper to commute by bike but having kept track of the cost the last few years it adds up to surprisingly large amount.

Firstly I don't include the initial outlay of kit as likely I'd own this anyway - this is a similar argument to car ownership in that a lot of depreciation, insurance etc. are fixed to a degree.

However tyres, tubes, brake pads, chains, cassettes, cables at least 2-3 items of clothing that are damaged or washed to death and then the engagement of services like spoke tensioning/wheel straightening, then I reckon on £250-£300 a year based on 400miles-ish Things like a new wheel rim or a set of SPD shoes can easily push it into 10p a mile territory.

The problem is, modern high-performance gear is great to use but is far more specialized and wears out far more quickly than the gear your grandfather would use on his 3 speed.

 

[400bhp]

Hard to do directly - some parts of owning a car just for owning it:
VED, Insurance, depreciation (loan repayments)
MOT and a service (annual services recommended).
'wear and tear' slowly.

2. But then you've got 'operating costs' of:
Fuel
Additional servicing.
Tyres.
Mileage depreciation
And 'wear and tear' at a faster rate.

Hard to estimate exactly how much it costs per mile, so I tend to work on two numbers - cost of fuel, which is £80 for 500 miles.
And 'cost my employer would pay in expenses' which is 45p for the first 'some' miles, and 20p thereafter. (Those are numbers the taxman uses, so I reckon it's at least a reasonable estimate).

So yes - my commute to work is _not_ spending £80 per month on diesel, so that justifies a £1000 bike budget each year, and still gives me ammo to throw at my partner for 'saving money'

You could apportion the costs roughly between the commute miles and non commute miles. E.g if you drive to work 2500 miles a year and do 10000 miles a year then apportion 25% of the annual costs to the commute. The hardest part is working out depreciation. If you are comparing costs v cycling then you could argue that by leaving the depreciation costs out of both sides of the equation then you are being fair. Although in all likelihood depreciation will clearly be higher on a car.

I've got a depreciation figure for my bike of around £35 per year. Allows for bike bought under C2W and sold after 5 years on Fleabay.

I have 3-4 different cycle costs allowing for different things. Boradly speaking cycling costs me 10p per mile.

 

[Sobrique]

I 'did the maths' at work when I'd completed 1600 miles last year, to show people the savings...


1600 miles in a car (which does 50mpg - which most do not!) is roughly 32 gallons of fuel.

There are roughly 4.5 litres in a gallon, so 32 gallons is equal to 144 litres

144 litres of diesel is worth (@ 140.9/litre) £202.90

144 litres of petrol is worth (@ 135.9/litre) £195.70

If you equate this to your cars’ actual fuel consumption figures, it would no doubt be more!

Don’t forget “Cars burn your money and make you fat, Cycling saves you money and burns your fat!”

My Mondeo will do ~550miles on 55l of diesel of 'commuting driving'. That's a nice round litre of diesel per 10 miles.
My commute is pretty much 10 miles (or will by by bike - it's a bit longer by car).
So two litres of diesel per day. Or - as I prefer to think of it - about a pint of beer.

But over the course of the year, we're talking - 252 working days. Assume 30 days of holiday (or otherwise 'not in the office' days) - and that's 222 - £621/year. (£1.40/litre).

Not counting, of course, other running costs of your car. Those it's much harder to economize on, or otherwise factor in, as they're (rarely) linear 'cost-per-mile'.