Calculating Money Saved via Cycling



J

jim

Guest
Since I moved to Cheshire in September 1997, I've done quite a bit of cycle
commuting. I've been trying to work out how much I've saved by cycling, over
driving. However, I'm only trying to work out the saving on the car - I'm
not sure how much I've spent on bike stuff in the same time period.

This is a rough breakdown:

Sep 97 - Dec 97
Middlewich to Crewe and back
1213 miles total

Jan 98 - Apr 98
Middlewich to Crewe and back
775 miles

Apr 98 - Sep 99
Middlewich to Northwich and back
3762 miles

Nov 00 - Jan 01
Middlewich to Northwich and back
400 miles

Jan 01 - Sep 02
Middlewich to Chester and back
2040 miles

Sep 02 - Jul 03
Middlewich to Nantwich and back
1656 miles

Jul 03 - now
Middlewich to Chester and back
13064 miles

===========
Total = 22910 miles ish.

I've always worked out roughly that it costs £1 to do ten miles in the car.
Our our cars. We used to have a diesel laguna until the cambelt snapped.
Then in a fit of insanity we replaced it with a petrol volvo 940 estate that
does 17 mpg!!!! Though we have had it converted to LPG, so it still costs
approx. £1 for 10 miles.

That means I think I've saved us about £2290 by cycling instead of driving.

My wife was saying that the government allowed about 42 p per mile for tax
purposes, and that it's about 49 p per mile now. That's once you build in
paying for insurance, Tax, MOT, garage bills etc.

Even going on the 42 p per mile rate that's a saving of approx. £9,600.

Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
instead of driving?

Thanks
 
On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:36:04 +0100, "jim"
<flopflips<removethespam>@fastmail.fm> wrote:

>I've always worked out roughly that it costs £1 to do ten miles in the car.
>Our our cars. We used to have a diesel laguna until the cambelt snapped.
>Then in a fit of insanity we replaced it with a petrol volvo 940 estate that
>does 17 mpg!!!! Though we have had it converted to LPG, so it still costs
>approx. £1 for 10 miles.
>
>That means I think I've saved us about £2290 by cycling instead of driving.

You've neglected the cost of the extra calories used to fuel your body
for the journey, extra cost of more showers / clothing laundry if you
wear different gear for the ride.

But of course you've also neglected the health benefits in the
positive column...

Jim.
 
"jim @fastmail.fm>" <flopflips<removethespam> wrote in message
news:p[email protected]...

> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
> instead of driving?
>
> Thanks

It's a moving target at the moment. my car does not depreciate much so
taking insurance into account and garage bills, my car costs around a £1 per
day to own and around £4.50 per day when commuting. The £1 is a fixed cost
i.e. I have to tax and insure and MOT the car so there's nowt I can do to
make savings here apart from getting rid of the car altogether.

Savings made so far - nil.

I might start cycling to work 2-3 days per week when the new building opens
with its cycling facilities.
 
On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:36:04 +0100
"jim" <flopflips<removethespam>@fastmail.fm> wrote:


> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by
> cycling instead of driving?

FWIW, I get paid a little over £8000 per year in lieu of a company car,
having declined one from my employer. Even when the government have
had half of that in tax, it pays for the £800 bike I bought a couple
of months ago[1], and for the occasional taxi or overnight bill that I
might not incur if I had a car.

[1] Alas, I didn't get it tax-free, as that would've required me to
go to Halfords. But I still have the tax-free folder from my last
(self-employed) job.

--
not me guv
 
On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:36:04 +0100, "jim"
<flopflips<removethespam>@fastmail.fm> wrote:

>Since I moved to Cheshire in September 1997, I've done quite a bit of cycle
>commuting. I've been trying to work out how much I've saved by cycling, over
>driving. However, I'm only trying to work out the saving on the car - I'm
>not sure how much I've spent on bike stuff in the same time period.
>
>This is a rough breakdown:
>
>Sep 97 - Dec 97
>Middlewich to Crewe and back
>1213 miles total
>
>Jan 98 - Apr 98
>Middlewich to Crewe and back
>775 miles
>
>Apr 98 - Sep 99
>Middlewich to Northwich and back
>3762 miles
>
>Nov 00 - Jan 01
>Middlewich to Northwich and back
>400 miles
>
>Jan 01 - Sep 02
>Middlewich to Chester and back
>2040 miles
>
>Sep 02 - Jul 03
>Middlewich to Nantwich and back
>1656 miles
>
>Jul 03 - now
>Middlewich to Chester and back
>13064 miles
>
>===========
>Total = 22910 miles ish.
>
>I've always worked out roughly that it costs £1 to do ten miles in the car.
>Our our cars. We used to have a diesel laguna until the cambelt snapped.
>Then in a fit of insanity we replaced it with a petrol volvo 940 estate that
>does 17 mpg!!!! Though we have had it converted to LPG, so it still costs
>approx. £1 for 10 miles.
>
>That means I think I've saved us about £2290 by cycling instead of driving.

Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.

22,910 miles = 1,145,500 k cals.

A two finger Kit Kat contains 106 k cals.

You will need to eat 10,806 Kit Kats to cycle 22,910 miles.

A carton of 72 two finger kit kats costs £17.28.

You will need 150 cartons of 72 two finger Kit Kats to cycle £22,910
miles.

The cost of that is about £2,593.

And that is before you have taken into account the additional cost of
all the extra toilet paper you will need having scoffed so many Kit
Kat bars.
 
Tom Crispin <[email protected]> writes:

> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.

No it's about a quarter of that.

Jon
 
On 24 Jun, 03:06, "Clive George" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Jonathan Schneider" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:[email protected]...
>
> > Tom Crispin <[email protected]> writes:
>
> >> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.
>
> > No it's about a quarter of that.
>
> And he was overcharged for his kit-kats - I bought 36 for 3 quid the other
> day :)

and driving uses up calories too, you can't stop eating if you stop
cycling
 
Tom Crispin <[email protected]> writes:

> http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php
>
> Click "Bicycling Calculator"
> Click "Enter Speed and Distance..."
> Weight "200"
> Speed "11"
> Distance "1"
>
> Returns 49 Kcal

ok though my bookmarks include this site, and a second which is
currently down and lets you plug in handlebar, frame and tyres types.

http://www.cptips.com/calex.htm

and that doesn't get to 49 until >20mph which is a huge difference.

so these things are very approximate at best.

I reckon the decent tyres on my road bike must cost of the order of 1p/mile.

Jon
 
On 2008-06-24, Tom Crispin <[email protected]> wrote:
> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.
>
> A two finger Kit Kat contains 106 k cals.

Sure you're not getting kilojoules and kilocalories mixed up?

My round trip cycle commute is 25 hilly miles. On the days I cycle, I eat
*one* extra banana (at a cost of around 25p).

Since I don't have special cycling clothes (I just wear normal 'summer'
stuff to cycle commute), and I take one shower a day whether I cycle or
not (the only difference is I shower at work rather than at home if I'm
on the bike), I figure my savings of this:

Audi A4 - short journey economy will use 4 litres for 25 miles of
commuting. Unleaded is currently 123p/litre. So it's a hair less than 5
pounds per day to commute by car.

To commute by bike costs 25p. Therefore, a saving of around 4.75 per
day.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
 
On Jun 23, 11:06 pm, [email protected] (Jim Ley) wrote:
> You've neglected the cost of the extra calories used to fuel your body
> for the journey

You're assuming a need to eat extra calories to maintain body weight.
I cycle around 120 commuting/utility miles per week, and eat and drink
what I want. If I drove instead of cycling, in principle I could save
money by eating less. In practice, I suspect I would eat the same,
leading to increased costs for replacing clothing with larger sizes.

Rob
 
On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:29:49 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On 2008-06-24, Tom Crispin <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.
>>
>> A two finger Kit Kat contains 106 k cals.
>
>Sure you're not getting kilojoules and kilocalories mixed up?
>
>My round trip cycle commute is 25 hilly miles. On the days I cycle, I eat
>*one* extra banana (at a cost of around 25p).

But that's not sufficient calories for making up for everything that
you expend cycling (unless the alternative is also pretty physical, or
your journey very short) So you're presumably just using the stores
from previous days, I expect you'll feel it a lot if you tried to do
it every day.

Jim.
 
On 2008-06-24, Jim Ley <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:29:49 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
><[email protected]> wrote:
>>My round trip cycle commute is 25 hilly miles. On the days I cycle, I eat
>>*one* extra banana (at a cost of around 25p).
>
> But that's not sufficient calories for making up for everything that
> you expend cycling (unless the alternative is also pretty physical, or
> your journey very short) So you're presumably just using the stores
> from previous days, I expect you'll feel it a lot if you tried to do
> it every day.

But I *do* do it every work day. I've only not cycled three work days this
month. Cycling is the only physical exercise I do. So far this month
I've done 350 miles or so.

Paradoxically, I find my appetite in the evenings to be supressed when
I've been on the bike, I tend to comfort-eat more if I've driven to work
that day. I don't know why. However, I'm the type who maintains the same
weight seemingly whatever I eat, I've been 10st. 10 for the last 10
years, and the amount of exercise I've got has flucutated significantly
through that period.

--
From the sunny Isle of Man.
Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.
 
On 24 Jun, 14:27, Dylan Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 2008-06-24, Jim Ley <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:29:49 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
> ><[email protected]> wrote:
> >>My round trip cycle commute is 25 hilly miles. On the days I cycle, I eat
> >>*one* extra banana (at a cost of around 25p).
>
> > But that's not sufficient calories for making up for everything that
> > you expend cycling (unless the alternative is also pretty physical, or
> > your journey very short) So you're presumably just using the stores
> > from previous days, I expect you'll feel it a lot if you tried to do
> > it every day.
>
> But I *do* do it every work day. I've only not cycled three work days this
> month. Cycling is the only physical exercise I do. So far this month
> I've done 350 miles or so.
>
> Paradoxically, I find my appetite in the evenings to be supressed when
> I've been on the bike, I tend to comfort-eat more if I've driven to work
> that day. I don't know why. However, I'm the type who maintains the same
> weight seemingly whatever I eat, I've been 10st. 10 for the last 10
> years, and the amount of exercise I've got has flucutated significantly
> through that period.
>
> --
> From the sunny Isle of Man.
> Yes, the Reply-To email address is valid.

I eat an extra breakfast of oats, sugar and milk to make up the
calories. That costs me about £1.50 a week at the most.
 
On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:36:04 +0100, "jim" <flopflips wrote:

> That means I think I've saved us about £2290 by cycling instead of driving.
>
> My wife was saying that the government allowed about 42 p per mile for tax
> purposes, and that it's about 49 p per mile now. That's once you build in
> paying for insurance, Tax, MOT, garage bills etc.
>
> Even going on the 42 p per mile rate that's a saving of approx. £9,600.
>
> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
> instead of driving?

Is the 42p rate correct? I thought it was 40p for a personal vehicle.

The less miles you do in the car, the more the annual
service/MOT/insurance/tax costs as a per mile rate. Most parts which need
replacing wear out in proportion to the amount of miles done rather than
with time, but it may not be that if you do 2x as many miles it will last
half the time.

It is interesting to work out though. A quick sum in my head (and
possibly wrong) suggested that the maintenance costs for my bike would
roughly equal those for the car (which I don't use much) if I'd had all
the work done by a bike shop rather than by me.

peter
 
On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:51:59 -0700, POHB wrote:

> I don't look upon it as a saving, more as an excuse to spend money
> indulging my hobby without feeling guilty.

A colleague 'collects' classic cars as his hobby which means he can
justify spending lots of money repairing/tuning them before selling them
on.
It just so happens that it doubles up as a convenient form of transport,
although he does come in by train quite often to save money.

It's a nice way to think about such things and one to remember when
someone is moaning about how much it cost to have their car/bike
serviced/repaired!

peter
 
"jim" <flopflips<removethespam> wrote:


> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
> instead of driving?

I've been trying to work out potential savings of late. I drive a
Mercedes C180 fairly sedately to and from work which is about 20 miles
away.

I'm highly unlikely ever to cycle both to and from work but did,
yesterday, take my bike on the train to the nearest useful station to my
school and then cycled home. I certainly saved money on the deal as the
conductor never got as far as my carriage so I wasn't able to buy a
ticket. I wouldn't, however, expect that to happen on a regular basis.

My regrettable conclusion is that, with rail travel coming in at around
5.50 GBP / day, I save money by driving. I probably don't need fuel to
become much more expensive for the alternative to start saving me money
but that relies on train tickets not rising in price.

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>
 
"Tom Crispin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.

The figures I've seen suggest about 300kc per hour. That would make it about
30kc per mile.

Ten years ago a mars bar had 300kc and cost about 30p, making the extra cost
of food for cycling about 3p per mile. At the time my small diesel car was
costing about 4p per mile in fuel.

However 2 people cycling somewhere would have used up together 6p per mile
instead of 4p per mile for the car.

But the 300kc/hour for cycling is usually quoted as the /total/ energy
expended, not the /extra/ amount. Since just sitting around (or in your car)
probably uses 100kc every hour, the extra for cycling is nearer 200kc
bringing the cost of the extra food down.

So cycling /would/ have cost some 2p/mile instead of 4p/mile by car ten
years ago. Now it's more like 3p/mile instead of 10p/mile. Although it
depends on what you like to eat; if you insist on caviar then cycling is
going to be expensive for you.

> And that is before you have taken into account the additional cost of
> all the extra toilet paper you will need having scoffed so many Kit
> Kat bars.

I'd think you will need a lot less...

--
Bartc
 
"Jim Ley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:29:49 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>On 2008-06-24, Tom Crispin <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.
>>>
>>> A two finger Kit Kat contains 106 k cals.
>>
>>Sure you're not getting kilojoules and kilocalories mixed up?
>>
>>My round trip cycle commute is 25 hilly miles. On the days I cycle, I eat
>>*one* extra banana (at a cost of around 25p).
>
> But that's not sufficient calories for making up for everything that
> you expend cycling (unless the alternative is also pretty physical, or
> your journey very short) So you're presumably just using the stores
> from previous days, I expect you'll feel it a lot if you tried to do
> it every day.
>
> Jim.

You are forgetting that the human body will adapt to an increase in exercise
by becoming more efficient in utilising those calories which will at least
partly offset the need to take more calories in.
 
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