I had big plans to ride my bike to work this summer. Although I have been riding quite a bit, it hasn't been for my commute. I know I could save $100-$150 per month by riding to work. Plus its a great way to stay in shape. In stead of riding to work, in fact, I started paying $30/month to use my University's recreational facilities as an alum. That's $130-$180 per month that I am spending that I could be saving. Why would I do this? Seems like a bum deal. Oh the cost of comfort...
Not only would the commute to work on bike take almost two hours out of every weekday - precious time of which I have little - but I'd also have to deal with showing up to work... um in need of a shower. That means I'd either have to stink up the place all day or equip my bike so that I could bring a change of clothes and shower supplies. Plus leave an extra extra hour early to give myself time to get ready. These extra hours before work pretty much eliminate my morning tutoring. That's maybe $30/week of income lost and two hours of time.
Living within riding distance of the Rec Center I am able to get up at 6 am to tutor for one hour, then ride up to the gym to work out for 30-40 minutes and ride home, be in and out of the shower and at work ready to go by my scheduled time, 9 a.m. Thats one hour lost per day but I still have about $30 extra income per week.
Lets take a look at the true cost of comfort, but keep in mind that this does not account for any extra calories I might need or costs of my carbon footprint for future generations (sorry, unborn grandchildren):
Bike Commute:
- Gas: $0
- Bike Rack: $50/5 ride-friendly months
- Pannier: $50/5 ride-friendly months
- Gym: $0
- Extra Income per Month: $0
- Net Loss: $20/month
- Gas: $125
- Bike Rack: $0
- Pannier: $0
- Gym: $30
- Income Earned: $120
- Net Loss: $35/month
Plus, I can always use that extra hour after work for biking and walking trails - it allows me to explore new places. For example, I found a couple of sweet mountain bike trails just a few miles from home. I also like to ride around a neighboring subdivision; it has some great parks and paths.
To me this is more fun, I'll suck up the cost of comfort... until gas hits $5/gallon. Then its time to re-evaluate. But hey, I'll be in great shape so bring it on.
6 Comments:
I wouldn't feel too bad about that...an hour each way is a long ride. Last summer, my bike commute was 30 minutes each way and I couldn't motivate myself to do more than 3 days a week (took the bus the other two).
I've moved though, and can't recommend living close to work enough. My current 10 minute ride with no hills means that I can avoid even breaking a sweat, and, more importantly, there is no other form of transportation that could get me there faster than my bike.
Of course, I'm starting to do hill training at lunch (trying to get ready for a trip through part of the rockies, from Jasper to Banff), so I just live with stinking up the place in the afternoon. Several of my coworkers are now petitioning management for a shower.
Best of luck with your plan. While the $1/hour number makes logical sense...I think I would be frustrated by the idea that all that extra income was being eaten up by an optional gas bill.
Neil, you are always right on. Last year I had about a 20 minute commute and no car so I rode my bike 90% of the time and bussed it the other 10%. There were only moderate hills so I was able to go without showering.
The disadvantage to living that close is being in the "student ghetto". Once I started working full time it really annoyed me when my neighbors partied until 3 or 4 a.m. on a weekday.
When I think about my gas expense as "optional" I start to feel a little less confident in my decision. Maybe I'll start riding to work once or twice a week and just stuff my clothes, etc. into a backpack. That would reduce my gas expense by 20%-40% with minimal discomfort. Subtract $25-$50 from the driving commute and I'll come out ahead :)
Good post, a lot of people forget to include time in their equations. I might pay for gas and parking at the office but the time I get at both ends of the day is really valuable to me. How valuable? Well in my case more than the $150-$175 it costs me to drive to work (the difference with transit would only be about $50-$75, again my time is worth the money).
I did the bike-to-work thing for a while when I had a job.
It took me about 15-20 minutes to get there and 15-20 minutes back... about 7 or 8 miles one way if I recall.
I never did shower... because there weren't any to use! I just brought a change of clothes and that worked okay.
But the reason I stopped commuting on my bike (besides the cold Colorado winter) was the danger of being run over by a car!
I swear, commuters are not nice to bicyclists during rush hour. And there were just so many cars it was ridiculous.
One time, my tire dropped into an expansion crack on a concrete road and I almost went down in front of a bunch of cars. That was a close call.
After that, I reverted to the car and decided to plan my bicycling when there were fewer cars on the road. :-)
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You did forget to include an expense in your drive to work commute, wear and tear on your vehicle. Driving more frequently drives this cost up too, especially if your commute is primarily city driving.
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