Cycling more expensive per mile than driving?

[presta]

So, I've totted up everything I spent on cycling between 11.2.01 when I bought the bike, and 1.4.20 when I quit cycling, and it comes to £2945.11 for a total of 191 items, including the bike at £464.99. Then I looked up the inflation rate for cycling from the ONS, which wasn't recorded before 2015, but the average for the ten years since is 3.05%. Applying that to each price for the years from when the money was spent until now, and then totting up those gives a total expenditure of £5116.77 at today's prices. That was for a total of 45744 miles, which works out at 11.2p/mile.

Then there's the cost of food, my diet cost an average of £1.86/1000kcal in 2025/26.

During the last three years whilst I've led a completely sedentary lifestyle I've burnt an average 2387kcal/day, and based on my most recent 2920 miles of touring, I was burning ~4400kcal/day cycling 50-60 miles a day. From that, my excess calorie consumption, (ie. the additional consumption over and above that when sedentary) works out at 38.5kcals per mile. At £1.86/1000kcal, that works out at 7.2p/mile.

Adding up the two, that gives a total cost of 18.4p/mile, and if I leave out the purchase price of the bike, which is about the only fixed cost, it's 16.2p/mile.

Considering that people will commonly already have a car on the drive, and consider buying a bike to use for some of their travel if and when it's convenient, I don't think it's that unreasonable to compare the marginal cost of car miles against the total cost of cycling.

Google Gemini gives this for the variable costs of running a petrol car:

And this when I asked for an electric car:

 

[All uphill]

Considering that people will commonly already have a car on the drive, and consider buying a bike to use for some of their travel if and when it's convenient, I don't think it's that unreasonable to compare the marginal cost of car miles against the total cost of cycling.

What!

So you start from the premise that a car is free, because most people already own one?

That's classic petrol head maths!

Google tells me that people replace their car every 4 to 6 years in the UK. Why not suggest people replace their car with a bike?

I know it's not possible for everyone, but it is for many. Tell them they can save thousands every year on VED, depreciation, insurance, repairs even before they turn a wheel, and they will....



Give you a reason why they really need a car to do the weekly shop, instead of getting it delivered.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

So, I've totted up everything I spent on cycling between 11.2.01 when I bought the bike, and 1.4.20 when I quit cycling, and it comes to £2945.11 for a total of 191 items, including the bike at £464.99. Then I looked up the inflation rate for cycling from the ONS, which wasn't recorded before 2015, but the average for the ten years since is 3.05%. Applying that to each price for the years from when the money was spent until now, and then totting up those gives a total expenditure of £5116.77 at today's prices. That was for a total of 45744 miles, which works out at 11.2p/mile.

Then there's the cost of food, my diet cost an average of £1.86/1000kcal in 2025/26.

During the last three years whilst I've led a completely sedentary lifestyle I've burnt an average 2387kcal/day, and based on my most recent 2920 miles of touring, I was burning ~4400kcal/day cycling 50-60 miles a day. From that, my excess calorie consumption, (ie. the additional consumption over and above that when sedentary) works out at 38.5kcals per mile. At £1.86/1000kcal, that works out at 7.2p/mile.

Adding up the two, that gives a total cost of 18.4p/mile, and if I leave out the purchase price of the bike, which is about the only fixed cost, it's 16.2p/mile.

Considering that people will commonly already have a car on the drive, and consider buying a bike to use for some of their travel if and when it's convenient, I don't think it's that unreasonable to compare the marginal cost of car miles against the total cost of cycling.

Google Gemini gives this for the variable costs of running a petrol car:

View attachment 815197

And this when I asked for an electric car:

View attachment 815198

Who upthread said one can do anything with mathematics? Was it @All uphill?
How can you allocate your extra food intake exclusively to cycling? In the same period of time you were cycling, did you never do any other activities that made you hungrier than your usual?
What about the money you saved by cycle touring instead of going for a holiday abroad?
The stuff you bought, allocated to the bike, was it used exclusively while cycling?
I know that, off the bike, I use many items of clothing bought because they are comfy on the bike.
Waterproof socks, gloves, are good for long walks in wet weather, a buff can be used plenty when not cycling.
Accessories: I use an older bike light as a torch now.
Old inner tubes are used to tie trees to stakes (tree ties are really pricey, more than an inner tube!)
And so on
I feel your statement is a false equivalence, to quote the old, long gone, politics forum