Price of cycling vs a car

I bike to work (8 mile round trip) for two reasons:

A: it saves me ~ £40 a month in fuel plus wear and tear on the car.
B: it’s quicker in traffic and no slower when it’s quiet.

Strava says I do 1200 miles on the commuter bike each year so that’s 1200 less miles on the car. Add in the fitness benefits and the de-stressing effect riding has on me (even with crappy drivers etc) and the costs are immeasurable.

The cost doesn’t really come into it though TBH, it’s just so much more pleasant. If I finish work early (like today) I can take the long route home and go along the barrage, maybe stop for an ice cream or bimble through a few of the local parks. Can’t do that in a car. Even when it’s pouring down I prefer to be on the bike, but then I am a bit weird 😀

I think it depends on the journey to work out how if cars or bikes are easier/cheaper

I commute into Central London (from suburbia) and cycling makes more sense than tube or motorbike, car wouldn’t be an option for obvious reasons

We have 2 cars but could go down to 1 if we had to. But it’s not worth a lot and it’s often helpful having 2 cars (i.e. if I go away for a trip or for if the kids need different things). We only bought a 2nd car when I changed job to somewhere further afield, before than we only had 1

2 transport options is helpful, whether that’s car, bicycle, motorbike or good public transport

I feel like I should ask on a forum for motorists (is there such a thing?) to get the view from the other hand (and/or abuse about road tax, red light jumping, pavement riding, etc etc).

I think it depends on the journey to work out how if cars or bikes are easier/cheaper

I can imagine some commutes are easier by car but cheaper? Unless you’re running an uninsured electric car you got for free and a £10k wonder bike I can’t really see how.

My yearly spending on replacements/upgrades on my 26″ MTB commute*:

2016: £66
2015: £217
2014: £387 (includes new Forks!)
2013: £120

* excluding clothing/shoes/bags/etc as these also get used on the FS, for social rides, racing, etc.

While geared toward commuting the commute MTB is pretty versatile, as well as short commutes, it’s great for 50mile rides mixing country lanes with XC (the full suss sucks the joy out of that) and the XC is still fun on it. So in other words, it’s more than just a commute bike.

A car is always going to cost more than a bike, doesn’t need any sums to work that out.
The price of a bike is cheap and once purchases has very little running cost.

However, I never use a bike other than for pleasure. My commute is 10 miles and is mostly country lanes and takes 15 minutes on a good day. And because I live relatively in the middle of nowhere I have to go 5 miles to get to nearest shop and am not dressing up to go on bike, getting cold and wet in winter etc, to do so.

Happy to pay whatever the cost of my car is. Never worked it out but it is about as cheap as a car could be. (I like little, efficient cars and I am old so insurance is very cheap)

It’s 10 miles each way to work and I cycle as I didn’t have a car. I’ve just acquired a car (RS Twingo Cup as it happens), the reason being bike related 😳 . To take bike to races and not leave OH stranded (we had one car already). Otherwise it sits on the drive all week.

As for cost, well I commuted on my race bike yesterday, a bike that cost more than the Twingo. But my normal commuting bike or trike are about £1000 apiece. Petrol is incidental to running costs for 16 miles/day by road, but for me it is a matter of principle.

We won’t go into annual bike spending in a public forum.

As for car: Insurance was £340, It has not been serviced, petrol is about £0.1/mile and I’d travel about 3000 miles per if I commuted every day, so another £300. Of course seeing the green light on rev limiter means Conti tyres will be required too so probably another £400. That should keep me in bike spares for a while.

Bikes are nearly always going to be less for everyone on here

But not necessarily for all folks – if I use the general demographic on the people I work around

1 – they don’t have a bike
2 – they don’t have the bits they need to bike with – e.g. helmet and lock

Clothes and other bits you don’t need special biking stuff, but many buy this too. But by the time you factor in purchase price, plus potentially not many commuting miles, it’s not immediately cheaper

Especially when many folks will already have a car already. So it’s only wear and tear plus petrol price to factor in

It’s still mostly cheaper to cycle in though – definitely so in my case

Bikes – lower initial outlay, minimal running cost (just consumables and wear/tear)

Car – higher initial outlay, constant annual cost (tax, insurance, MOT), constant running cost (petrol, consumables, wear/tear)

From my own experience with commuting (1 hour each way), one thing that i always noticed was that i had to eat around twice as much. Noon cravings were pretty bad. And then ideally something before setting off as well.

I feel like I should ask on a forum for motorists (is there such a thing?) to get the view from the other hand

pretty sure the vast majority of stw own cars and there do seem to be a lot of proper petrol heads on here so you are getting a car drivers perception of it already

(and/or abuse about road tax, red light jumping, pavement riding, etc etc)

absolutely nothing to do with the subject matter. But you could well be right, ask a bunch of (none cycling) car drivers about cycle vs car costs and you’ll just get a load of anti-cycling invective.

one thing that i always noticed was that i had to eat around twice as much

you most probably don’t have to eat twice as much, you just want to.

As has been said a few times. It’s not just a cost saving I find ridibg to work means I arrives far happier and more relaxed.
It was 14 mile each way that was about 45 min bay car and Average of 50 min by bike

For riding to work ive always used cheap bikes and my current 1980s Mercian (£100) is doing just fine
But yes I do have all the clothes lights etc from my social cycling

Having moved it will now be about 21-23 each way but less traffic so still easy to bike

Out of interest what sort of jobs do most of the forum do ,manual labour ,shift hours,social or not(mine are 12 hour shifts 9-9 day or nights on rotation ,social care work )
As this can also factor in mode of getting to work.

Shop hours for me so currently 8-6 ish Somtimes later this time of year

Standard office hours for me but it’s slightly flexible can arrive late or leave early and make up the time.

Standard office hours for me, anytime between 8 and 9 to anytime between 5.30 and about 6.30) on average

I definitely eat more when I’m cycling, but I see that as a huge benefit. I love food and eating and cycling lets me do that more!

I buy 2 lunches everyday, have one at about 12 and another at about 3, plus lots of snacks in between!

As has been said a few times. It’s not just a cost saving I find ridibg to work means I arrives far happier and more relaxed.

This. Driving to work is crap – traffic congestion, finding parking, worrying about being late, etc.

As has been said a few times. It’s not just a cost saving I find ridibg to work means I arrives far happier and more relaxed.

+1

I reckon my yearly average spend on my commuter + kit is probably about the same as 2 or 3 of tanks of petrol, so from a financial point of view it’s a no brainer. But in terms of motivation for commuting by bike cost isn’t even on the list for me. Commuting by car (for my scenario anyway) is so grim I reckon I’d go by bike even if it cost more.