Cycling
I bike to work almost every day and for the most part enjoy ever ride. There are a few days, like the -25 degree snow days, that I wish I had a warm car with leather seats and a nice 22′s rolling on the side, but those dreams soon pass. What I do ponder on a more regular basis is how much I am actually saving by commuting via bike. I found a post where someone actually sat down and did the math…. its quite interesting actually. His whole post is worth reading (especially if you’ve never seen the math done on commuting by bike vs by car), but here are some highlights:
In two months I have had the following impact:
- I’ve saved $47 in gasoline expenses and the equivalent of $457 in fixed costs for a total savings of $471.49 when accounting for bus costs.
- Burned 22,356 calories which if I had been eating a normal diet is the equivalent of 6.4 pounds of fat!
- I have kept 543 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere (19.546 lbs per gallon and my car gets an average of 21 MPG).
Simply multiplying these numbers for the year would equal 3260 pounds of CO2 kept out of the atmosphere, $2542 dollars saved, 134,000 calories burned, and 38.3 pounds of fat. If I had a car loan payment for a $20,000 [car] the savings jumps to $7900!
Not everybody can commute by bicycle or public transit, but there’s a gigantic gap between the number of those who could and those who do. Sure infrastructure needs improvements in lots of places, especially in Calgary, but I suspect that many never even gave cycling or taking transit a second thought simply because it’s not part of their lifestyle.
The best paragraph, is this one:
I knew I was benefiting myself and the environment by commuting without a car, but to see the real impact is very amazing. These numbers don’t take into account the savings because of improved emotional and physical well being I am getting because of the exercise. They also don’t take into account the benefit to my community from interacting with my neighbors and fellow commuters. These numbers don’t measure the impact of the 40,000 people every year who’s lives are cut short because of car crashes. These are dry,raw, facts, and figures, but if you consider how these facts scale year over year for an individual, or scale for the United State, if just 5% of the people who commute by car switched to walking, bicycling, or public transit, the numbers would be astounding.
Absolutely! Keep testifying, brother.
Big savings over driving your own car everyday.
That said, there will be public transit (bus in my case) running every day regardless of whether I’m on it. So am I actually wasting energy by buying and using a bike vs taking bus that’s already there?
Carson, I don’t know why you don’t ban Kobe from making comments to your blog
He has is masters in Computer science, I have my “screw around and see what happens” education when it comes to computers. I would block him but i think he would find a way to post shit
Nice guilt trip. Off to buy a cyclocross commuter.
In a climate like Edmonton, which is much colder than Calgary on average in the winter, bike commuting year round is only possible with top notch clothing… and a hard core attitude.
I like the numbers for sure, but a couple things he is missing. The cost of the extra callories consumed. If you lost 38.3 pounds of ‘fat’ a year it might only be a few years before your own carbon dioxide levels slip to zero. Secondly what are your ‘fixed’ costs on a bike, tires, tubes, shoes pedals, extra laundry; I could go on and on.
If you are going to spend time on the true measure, why not really dial it in.
Uh, uh, uh. Excuse me. I have a uh, question. If you factor in the possible adverse events that may occur uh, such as uh, crashing into a squirrel. How does that uh, compare between a car and uh, a bicycle?
been riding drunk again Gareth?
One of the best self shots i have seen in a while.
Keep it up!
My pictures always look better with fantastic shrubbery in the back ground, without the greenery it would be nothing.