After nearly a month of waiting for the weather to cooperate, I finally was able to ride my bike to work this morning. I still haven’t saved up enough to buy my own bike, so I’m riding one I borrowed. So far I have purchased a helmet, a safety light so other drivers can see me, a rear-view mirror (which I discovered this morning is useless), and a lock, totaling around $40. When I finally buy my bike, it will cost about $350 after tax, so my total cost for this first year will be somewhere near $400. On my way in, that got me to thinking about the cost effectiveness of this latest adventure.
Considering that my truck has been getting about 16 miles per gallon lately and the price of gas is $3.50 per gallon right now, I’m currently spending 21.88 cents per mile. Since my commute is 3 miles round-trip, I spend 65.63 cents per day for gas. If gas reaches its estimated high of $4.00 per gallon this summer, my commute will cost 75 cents. Averaging the two (since we have no idea what the price of gas will do), I spend about 70.32 cents on gas each day I drive to work.
Of course, I can’t ride my bike to work every day due to weather and other circumstances and by late Fall it will be too cold to ride. Taking that into account, I’ll probably only be able to ride my bike two-thirds of the time between now and the end of September. Based on that estimate, I will ride my bike to work 83 days this year. Immediately, that will net me a savings of $58.37 over the course of this year.
That doesn’t sound like nearly enough yet to justify riding my bike. That barely pays for the stuff I’ve bought so far, let alone the total cost of the bike and its maintenance. I’d have to ride the same bike with the same equipment with no maintenance for almost 7 years just to break even! That may be true, but I’m saving much more money by biking than just the cost of gas.
- Since I will now be getting regular exercise through my diet plan and riding my bike, I canceled my gym membership. That saves me $30 each month, or $360 each year.
- By not driving my truck, I’m incurring less wear and tear on it and it will need less maintenance. I estimate I’ll save about $50 each year due to less wear on my tires and brakes and more time between oil changes.
- With the added exercise, my overall health and weight will continue to improve. I will save $20 each year just by making one less trip to the doctor.
Adding that up, I’ll be saving almost $500 each year by riding my bike to work whenever the weather cooperates. This doesn’t even begin to consider the overall benefit of using less gas and exhausting pollutants and greenhouse gases.
My first trip went much smoother and faster than I expected, but it sure proved how out-of-shape I am. I’m still hacking from the dry, cold air abusing my lungs and I only just stopped feeling light-headed. I’m looking forward to a happier commute home since it will be about 20 degrees warmer. This may be Day 1 of my latest adventure, but I think this one is already safe to consider a success!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Now consider taking that money saved and investing it. What would you estimate as a rate of return? Is ten years a reasonable amount of time to ride a bike to work? What is the total return on that?
Those are some interesting questions. That sounds like good topics for a future post. When I get enough information to put together a decent estimate on my savings from not driving my truck and the cost of owning and riding the bike (due to the regular maintenance and potential for flats) I’ll put it together for everyone to read.
Caveman – What about the winter months when you can’t ride your bike? You mention that you will cancel your $30 / month gym membership saving you $360 / year. What do you plan on doing in the winter months for exercise? If I decide to eventually ride my bike to work, I could do it about 10 months of the year where I live which would be nice.
Weather does have a big impact. Lately, it’s been raining way more than usual and preventing me from getting on the bike. But that doesn’t mean I’ve been without exercise.
I have a Wii Fit, an established exercise routine at home, and summer softball has finally started. In the two months I’ve been free from gym membership, I’ve logged more exercise hours (even if you don’t count softball) than over the last two years of gym time combined.
My husband and I are mountain bikers, and during the winter months when we can’t bike outside (snowy Michigan), we bought a bike trainer that turns our bikes into stationary bikes.
They’re made of metal and they look like two triangles on each side with a thing you attach to the back wheel–so you can pedal all you want and now go anywhere. I think ours was around $100. A little expensive, but alot less than what you would pay for a stationary exercise bike with all its different setting and modes. Its a bit noisy because of the tread on mountain bike tires (especially in our apartment), but if you put it in the basement of your house it shouldn’t bother anybody.
Best part is that once winter is over and you can ride to work again, you don’t have to get used to it again.