Price of cycling vs a car

Got into a debate with my OH about money and bikes yesterday. I don’t own a car (although she does) and I think that although my commuter bike cost £1k about 2 years ago and occasionally I have to shell out for new stuff for it, it’s overall much, much cheaper to do most things (commute, go to the shops, etc.) on a bike rather than a car.* I’m also sure that most tasks where I’m using the bike instead of a car – for instance commuting – are quicker by bike, once you’ve allowed for parking, traffic at 8am, etc.. I’m certain my colleagues who drive leave home earlier to get to work at the same time and live a comparable distance away.

Neither of these are the primary reason that I use a bike rather than a car – it’s because I hate driving in general and driving in cities in particular – so I’ve never really tried too hard to either look for evidence to support that or to generate some evidence myself. So I was wondering, has anyone ever quantified how much money they’ve saved/spent by cycling rather than driving for everyday-type tasks? And how much time?

One of the reasons I would find it quite difficult is that my commute is very irregular – I often commute at strange times and I move workplaces every 1-2 months – and I haven’t had a car for about 4 years now, so I don’t really have a good idea how much a car would actually cost me.

* this in turn makes it ok that I occasionally splash out a few (*cough*quiteafew*cough*) hundred pounds on my mountain bike habit, hence the need to a) argue about it with my OH and b) find some evidence to back it up.

Bike = happy you vs car = grumpy you

Done all the sums for you 😀

I work in London 4 days a week.

I commute for 2 of those by bike, 2 by public transport.

Daily cap on public transport is £11, so £22 a week saved.

My bike cost £650 after RTW so the bike was paid for after 30 weeks, so I now have £22 a week to spend on bike bits.

Winner 🙂

No sums, but I’m a big fan of bicycle bangernomics for commuting. My last commuter was a 15-year old Raleigh Max, which my girlfriend had from new. When the BB, brakes and hub bearings finally died on that, I bought a Sunn from eBay for £45 (including train fare to pick it up). That’s been doing sterling service for my daily seven mile commute for the past two months and counting.

I’ve often wondered the same myself. I’m like you and only have one car for the family but i’ve biked for the commute now for 10+ years and wondered how much i’d have saved over those years.

I just can never be arsed to sit down and work it out. 🙂

As far as personal happiness and wellbeing goes, balls to using a car for anything other than absolute necessity 😀

On fuel alone I save in the region of £25 per week by cycling to work. That’s a very rough estimate though assuming I get 40mpg, which I don’t as half the journey involves very slow moving traffic, so realistically you could add another £10 fuel on that.

If you look at ‘true cost’ so 40p per mile then that would be £80 per week saving. Plus I’m healthier and happier cycling to work.

Well I’m off the bike for a couple of weeks and so I had to drive in today (or not be able to visit the bike shop on the way home).

Even if you had already paid for a car (or leased one) and paid for insurance, and drive steadily to get 50mpg (not that there’s much chance to not drive steadily on the way into work), it’s about £8 a day to take the car into my work and park. That would cost me (not counting holidays) £173.80/month.

To buy a car and insure it, tax it and maintain it, you’re talking at least £100 a month if you are using it regularly. So £250-£300 a month.

I am normally in a similar situation, I commute but my wife generally has the car and thus we don’t need 2 cars. When my wife made a comment about my expensive bike habit a month or two back I shut her down pretty quickly. Of course **** here pays for the car, insurance, and tax, and wife only pays for the petrol out of her food/petrol allowance I give her, but that’s another story…

Edit – of course I very rarely spend £250-300 a month on bikes, and spend far less than this on average, though as I’ve got a longer commute I do ride a reasonably decent bike on it as I spend so much time on it!

My rule of thumb is commuting costs about 10p/mile buying/replacing fairly cheap bits and rarely upgrading anything.

Mountain biking costs about the same as the car ~50p/mile because the bike costs more in the first place, consumables cost more (£35 tyres every 1000miles Vs £15 tyres every several thousand, XT cassette Vs 9 speed) and general upgrading (the commuter will get new bars if they snap, the MTB will get new bars if I have £50 in my back pocket and fancy a change).

I cycle to a client at the moment so get paid £4/day (at 20p a mile) to do so.

AA publish typical running costs for comparison at http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/running_costs/

Commuting by car costs £1.10/mile [excluding cost of car].
When I was commuting by bike the cost was £0.60/mile [including cost of bike].
Wish I could still commute by bike for every other reason than cost.

When I lived in that London (during the week) I rode to work almost every day for 3 years.

If you take the last year into consideration when I lived in Hampton Hill, the return train fair was £14 per day, so £56 per week as I drove down on a Monday and back home on a Friday, so add £10 in tube fairs, weekly cost was £66, yearly cost was roughly £3000

I got a bike on bike to work, voucher was £800, so around £40 pcm out of my wages. Didn’t spend a penny on it in a year, yearly cost of bike was £480.

Which equates to a saving of around £2500, I then sold the bike for £400 once the scheme was done and I’d moved back home, the whole years worth of commuting cost me £80.

The voucher included the bike and some riding kit BTW.

I was commuting from cardiff to newport for about 2 years, and for me that was just too far to cycle (especially giving the changeable weather). I became fat and grumpy, and eventually left the job. I now commute 2.5miles by bike to work and feel so much better for it.

I’ve noticed the savings in fuel (about £100 a month) and I’m not stressing about my car all the time (repairs, maintenance etc.).

This person did a study over a year in Edinburgh of bike vs car vs public transport

How much money I saved in 2015 by cycling

It is admittedly using a fictional car, but also takes into account potential spending such as gym membership.

I’ve moved jobs this year and gone from a 6 mile bike commute to a [list]much[/list] longer car and train commute.

I much prefer the job I have, I much prefer the commute I had. It’s a short term plan though, or so I keep telling myself.

Cost isn’t everything, bike commutes are cheaper I am sure, but they also generate smiles per mile (or some equivalent cliche)!

This bloke did the sums for you

http://mccraw.co.uk/saved-house-deposit-cycling-work/

On a 6 year cycle and assuming 7000 miles per annum – My car costs have been worked out to be:

CAR

Fuel £9000
Depreciation /lease £9000
Insurance £1200
RFL £1200
Servicing and Maintenance £1900

£3717 Per annum.

BIKE

On the bike and assuming a new bike every 3 years

Bikes (2*£2000) £4000 (minus £1200 for what I might get back) so £2800
Clothes £600 (assuming 2* combination of new top or jersey, or coat or trousers every year)
Shoes and Helmet £400
Lights – £400 (decent new lights every 2 years again minus £120 for what t’others might be worth so £280
Maintenance and Servicing (New Pads, Chain, Sprocket, + Cables, tyres etc) £400 (4*100)
Insurance £150

£772 per annum

Both of these assume I already have a bike/car at the start and just replace as I go.

This person did a study over a year in Edinburgh of bike vs car vs public transport

How much money I saved in 2015 by cycling

It is admittedly using a fictional car, but also takes into account potential spending such as gym membership.

Indeed, that car seems unfeasibly cheap to run, and free to buy.

Commuting by car costs £1.10/mile [excluding cost of car].

There’s no way it does. Unless that’s 2-way (i.e. a 5 mile commute is a 10mile round trip)

Insurance £300
Tax £200
MOT £50
Tyres and other consumables £200
per 10,000mile per year = 7.5p/mile

Petrol 16p/mile (£1.30 at 35mpg)

Depreciation is by far the biggest cost until the car’s 8-9 years old. My 50p/mile figure assumes it’s costing about £2.5k/year (3yr old Focus territory).

I won’t do the sums cos I’m allergic to maths, but I bought a car just over a year ago, and am in the process of moving it on cos I cannot afford to maintain, insure and fuel it..
The same cannot be said of my bikes

Lots of great data, thanks guys.

As it happens I’m about to move to Edinburgh to start a new job so I might try to do something similar to the ClaireCycles blog and track my expenses / distance covered.

I would still sort of be running a car – I’d be paying for my OH’s car as she’ll be being a stay-at-home mum – but I wouldn’t be using it to commute so I might be able to use those expenses to estimate the other side of the equation a little bit more accurately.

thisisnotaspoon – Member
Commuting by car costs £1.10/mile [excluding cost of car].
There’s no way it does. Unless that’s 2-way (i.e. a 5 mile commute is a 10mile round trip)

Insurance £300
Tax £200
MOT £50
Tyres and other consumables £200
per 10,000mile per year = 7.5p/mile

Petrol 16p/mile (£1.30 at 35mpg)

Depreciation is by far the biggest cost until the car’s 8-9 years old. My 50p/mile figure assumes it’s costing about £2.5k/year (3yr old Focus territory).

Your figures seem about right, but most people will have to pay for parking too if they commute by car. For me this is £6 a day – around £1500 a year. I think it can be had at a bit of a discount if you pay weekly, maybe £20/week so about £1000 instead of £1500.

Obviously Commuting is a lot cheaper by bike. But what if you factor in stuff outside of commuting general day to day stuff as well.

Silly stuff like the cost of shopping at the local shop vs doing a big shop at a supermarket.
and Transport for family trips out at the weekend to wherever.

I think bike commuting costs are going to be more flexible. My old commuter was my ancient carrera mtb so initial costs were £40 worth of drivetrain and brakes from woolyhatshop, £20 worth of cheap 26er slicks, and £10 worth of hammerite. That lasted years with trivial running costs. It probably cost me the same as a month’s car tax, to run for a year.

OTOH my current commuter cost me probably £800 or so all in and while it doesn’t consume more stuff, the parts are more expensive. But the running costs are still way less than the car.

Buuut, I have to remember that the bike is an extra cost (as I don’t need a commuter, I do need a car) and quite a lot of the car costs are fixed so the only saving from commuting is fuel and wear-and-tear, which is way smaller. Having a commuter and a car is probably still cheaper than just a car for me, but by buttons.

I’ve the wife well trained, she never questions bike spends any more.
Its difficult to protest when a tank of fuel is the same as a decent jersey.

last time I bought a commuter (new) I worked out that it would pay for itself in 8months in fuel saving alone*

ie: I still had the car, insured, taxed, maintained, and available for use for other things, but simply not paying for fuel to get to work and back.

If you’re actually ditching the car completely it is massively cheaper.

Silly stuff like the cost of shopping at the local shop vs doing a big shop at a supermarket.

We do all our shopping by bike at the supermarket, even the big weekly one so no saving there, and the other aspects you mention are so massively dependant on location, lifestyle and specifics that it’s harder to compare on a like for like basis.

Was chatting to a chap recently who was saying he was envious of my (not even top end) bike and kit and asked how I manage to pay for it all, then watched the cogs turning as I pointed out that he could buy all of my bikes for less than the cost of a crap 2nd hand hatchback.

*admittedly that was a horribly uneconomic car, but even substituting for a better one, say twice as good would just push the payback out a bit.

Buuut, I have to remember that the bike is an extra cost (as I don’t need a commuter, I do need want a car)

Its perfectly acceptable to want to have a car for the freedom and time it gives you, but plenty of people get by without one.

Your figures seem about right, but most people will have to pay for parking too if they commute by car. For me this is £6 a day – around £1500 a year. I think it can be had at a bit of a discount if you pay weekly, maybe £20/week so about £1000 instead of £1500.

Fair point, I’ve never had to pay parking so didn’t consider it. It’s still only around 40p/mile + the car though.

One factor a lot of people are ignoring (edit: until the last few responses that appeared whilst I type this) though is that for 95% of people these are incremental costs.

I’d probably have a car regardless (costing tax, insurance etc)
I’d probably have a bike regardless.

The only actual cost of commuting is probably the fuel (for me), conversely the bike, if I commute I probably skip a ride sometime else, so actually it’s actually cost neutral (or positive if I’m wearing out deore 9s drivechains and £10 tyres rather than nice stuff).

I’ve always justified my commuter bike against the cost of driving into work. Basically, HMRC reckon mileage expenses for a car is 45p a mile, 20p for a bike. Then you have purchase cost, insurance, VED, depreciation.

I know I’m right. She just refuses to believe that could happen.

I save £110 on the train every month, but still get grief about such extravagants as a new bottom bracket.

My wife also bikes so there’s not much justification. 😀

If I don’t bike to work (it’s 21Km each way) then I get the train which is £6.50 return so it’s an easy calculation.

53 * 5 = 265 work days
– 8 public holidays
– 25 personal holidays
= 232 days of work

232 * 6.5 = £1508

That’s buying the ticket every day, getting a weekly or monthly ticket would be cheaper but other than winter it’s rare for me to get the train every day and I’ll ride in one or two days a week. An annual pass is £1100, a weekly one £28. At a guess, over the course of a year I probably ride to work half the time so let’s call that half of £1500 = £750.

Against that I’ve the maintenance costs of the bike which so far amount to brake pads and tyres, let’s say a set of tyres and two sets of pads a year which is roughly £70 plus a cassette and chain at roughly £30.

So biking half the time saves me roughly £650/year. I’m sure there are things I’ve missed on both sides but as a guide it won’t be far out.

The only annoying thing in our house is the OH won’t entertain the idea of 1 car. And doesn’t want mine (which has the towbar).

So despite the fact I could quite happily do without a car except for maybe one night a week (getting to a group ride start point) and one Saturday a fortnight (going riding somewhere not local). She’s adamant that she might need it then, so we need two. I’m starting to consider something daft like a classic landrover. At least then it wouldn’t cost money just sat there, and £500 saved in tax/insurance would go some way to paying the fuel/repairs bill.

@thisisnotaspoon Get yourself something like a Citroen 2CV or a Ford Escort van or a Trabant!

We live out in the country and get by with one car between us. We used to have two but when we got the current car we traded in both of them. Sometimes a bit awkward but we’ve got used to it and organise ourselves so it’s not a problem.

STATO – Member

Its perfectly acceptable to want to have a car for the freedom and time it gives you, but plenty of people get by without one.

But they are not me, so their requirements are irrelevant. Lots of people get by without injecting themselves with insulin too, that doesn’t mean I can stop 😉

Get yourself something like a Citroen 2CV or a Ford Escort van or a Trabant!

I already have an MG midget in the shed :D. That’s a hobby in itself though rather than a ‘car’ so I don’t count it in these discussions! (OH refuses to drive it too, heavy steering, crap brakes and the levels of ape-shit I could achieve if she scratched it like her fiesta).

No ‘my’ car needs to tow the boat, so at a minimum needs to weigh ~1200kg and have ~100hp. Classic Transit would work, but they’re hens teeth, especially diesel ones (the petrol was a V4, which makes T1/T2’s look reliable).

There’s a lightweight landrover V8 project on ebay at the moment…….

I’m sure I could run rings through my own calculations, but I have to drive the first 20 miles in, then ride the last 5 miles three days per week. Using the figures from the AA website, correcting the running costs for the current price of fuel, I reckon riding this 30 miles per week, rather than driving ‘saves’ me £195 per year (30 miles per week ridden, not driven @£0.14 per mile over 46 weeks per year – I do this all year round).

I don’t buy anything special for this bike at all, but probably have spent a few ££ on lights. Even so, checking back at Strava it looks that this little extra exercise adds up to 57,822 kcal being burnt by me per year, and the extra endorphins I get as a result. That is more than worth it for me.

Sounds like some people (or their partners!) know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. I’d still ride my bike to work even if it cost me 10x what driving cost. 🙂

My OH and I both cycle to work most days, and we’ve both spent decent periods of time car free – I don’t think he’s ever had a car and I didn’t have one for a few years before I met him. We now do have a car between us, but it mainly gets used for transporting bikes from one place to another.

Parking will be the killer for me. At my current job I have a parking pass for the multi storey next door so when I do drive in I’m just spending a minimal amount on fuel because my commute is fairly short and I own the car anyway. I’m moving to a new job two doors away with no parking included. The rate displayed at the entrance of the multi storey is about £20 per day 😯

OK, I won’t actually park there and I’m sure that there is cheaper parking if I’m prepared to walk a short way, but by the time I’ve done that I may as well cycle right to the door unless I actually need the car (usually because we’re heading off somewhere straight from work).

Bikes piss all over cars for commuting.
For me the direct cost is £1.20 by car, £2.70 by train or £0 by bike.
Even when you factor in maintenance, insurance and evrything else, why would you want to travel by car? It suckks!

There’s a handy cost of car calculator just here[/url].