Now, I’m 43. I have a 33mi. round trip. I started cycling in July ’11. I’m up to 2 days/week. I’m averaging 14.7 mph over hilly terrain, sometimes with 20# in tow. On avg, per round trip, it takes only 20 min longer to cycle commute than to drive. Goodbye gym membership, gym commuting, and gym showering (ick.)

I’m a data junkie and I have an elaborate spreadsheet to track my cycling costs and performance, including comparative driving cost and time analysis.

My initial investment was around $1500. I’ve since bought clothing and gear which has brought my total to $2600. I live in New England. My warmest commute was 103F, my coldest, 16F. So I need a variety of clothing, lights, etc., and I want them to last.

Obviously, I agree with those who grimace at over-generalized cost-per-mile driving estimates, and over-simplified replacement scenarios. I’m not giving up my car (a ’95 accord on which I do nearly all maintenance/repair.) Even if I can cycle 5 days/week, I still need it for weekend travel, dinners out, etc. So generic costs like tire wear, insurance, etc. don’t qualify for my analysis. They’re either reduced or excluded. I’ve included items like gym membership and some auto maintenance in my calculations, along with gas, pkg, pkg subsidies, etc. I used 10 driving and 2 public transportation scenarios with variables including wkg from home occasionally, pkg for free occasionally (when the secret spots are open,) putting in for the subsidy, _forgetting_ to put in for the subsidy, rising gas prices, etc. My range of costs was $8.49 to $21.82 per day on an annual basis, or an avg. of $13.07.

Currently this means it will take 198 cycling days to break even. I’m in for 28 days so far, or 14%.

I got to this site searching for a way to accurately estimate medical cost savings attributable to cycle commuting. It’s been helpful in that regard but I still have some research to do. If I can add $1/day to my cost-savings, it will reduce my breakeven by 13 days.

In sum, I love being on the bike. 25 years ago it was the only way I got around. I couldn’t afford a car, and didn’t care. Chasing the breakeven and eventually saving on both time and money are great long term challenges at which I will eventually succeed. Setting a good example for my kids and coworkers is tremendously rewarding. It feels great. Staying fit, and avoiding showering at the gym are invaluable.

If I drive the 11kms to work in my clunky car, rather than ride my clunky bike, it costs me $2.50 in gas. I know this because it costs me $50 to fill the tank and I can go there and back 20 times before I have to fill up again. (I do have a life outside work but it’s all bike and foot based…).

Wear and tear, oil changes, tyres etc for the Delorean mean it costs about 15 cents a km to drive, so my round trip to work, at 11 kms each way costs $3.30 wear and tear, plus $2.50 gas, which of course equals (um…) $5.80.

My bike cost $250 and I’ve never spent a thing on it, though I probably should have by now, so clearly it doesn’t take long, at least in my case, for biking to be cost effective. Plus I get to see bear, eagle, deer and even a cougar once and that’s worth way more than a few measley gallons of fuel, and best of all I can stop by the swimming hole for a dip in summer and it’s downhill all the way from there to home so I dry off nicely. Sod the money; ride anyway!

I’ve been riding the same Bianchi Axis since 1987, and hope to ride it for another 10 years at least. I bought it because of the frame and components – I knew it would last a long time. Retail cost in 1987 was $1,200, but I paid $900 on sale. This bike has now cost me $37.50 per year, plus a $1.75 per year rider on my household insurance. So the $1,500 initial cost of a new bike should spread out over the time a person rides/owns that bike. I am a huge fan of buying used or on sale, so costs go down according to the savings one can find.

Even if everything a person buys to use to ride is on sale or from craigslist or thrift stores, a realistic cost per year is important to impart to would-be commuters.

I liked biking, but when I got married, didn’t have much time to bike. I started riding to work for pleasure, and would do it even if it weren’t to save money.

I may be fooling myself, but I think I save a buck a mile. If that is so, I save $5000 a year.

The big savings in riding a bike to work is not just in gasoline or carbon, but rather in medical costs, pain, and suffering.

My Seven on the road is $3500.
My Die Eis Hexen winter bike is about $4500.
A Heart Attack is $75,000 for the first one, if you survive. Then there are the monthly meds to consider. A whole other world.

Then there is the fun.