Comments on: Commuting Cost Analysis: Bus vs Bike vs Car

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:30:33 +0000

My gosh it make my brain hurt just thinking about life like that! Looking at life like a payroll accounting software system would! Amazing in depth approach to a topic relevant to all of thanks for sharing your brain with us all.

By: Richard Eis

Richard Eis — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:05:18 +0000

In reference to being late for nursery pickup, why would you be late when you are not really ever stuck in traffic? Also, because of the reduced speed, you tend towards a more realistic average rather than having a massive difference between good and bad runs.

By: Candace

Candace — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:39:41 +0000

It all depends on where you live, obviously. People in rural areas with lots of weather could not do the bike commute but if you live in a New York condo, it would make perfect sense.

By: Cars

Cars — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:36:37 +0000

@Thomas you can go by bike, but what if it’s raining? I think cars will remain our number 1 travel solution until the teleportation will be available

By: Jon "Bike Parts King" Carter

Jon "Bike Parts King" Carter — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:29:26 +0000

I completely love the fresh view and perception that you bring to this. I think there are HUGE health benefits to biking as well which, if you are healthy, then are are happy. healthy life=happy life or maybe it is happy wife=happy life??? Thanks for the great research!

By: LHD Cars

LHD Cars — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:23:19 +0000

This is certainly a worthwhile exercise to demonstrate the advantages of cycling over the other ways of commuting. Also, as you say, you did not factor in the health benefits that would also come as a result of the exercise on your bike which would make it an even clearer winner.

By: Steward

Steward — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:40:00 +0000

I can see where you are coming from. I did not do a good job of communicating this in the body of the article, but this is a comparison between having a second car and bike commuting. As such, there is no need to add rental expenses into the equation because you already own one car and can just use that car when necessary. I ride the bike while my wife drives the car. I mostly bike – that means that I travel to work by bike and also run some errands on the bike as well – but I also drive some as well.

So this analysis is strictly between bike ownership and owning a second car, so in that way I think it is very fair and even handed.

By: Z

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:33:29 +0000

Interesting analysis…but I don’t think you are being fair to attribute all of the fixed costs of car ownership on your daily commute. To make the analysis fair you would need to assume that if you only used a bike or public transportation there would be a cost involved for renting a car for trips longer than your daily commute. Your cost assumption for biking and bus assumes that you would not have a car available for non-commuting needs. The opitionality/convenience of an automobile is understated in your analysis.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:16:36 +0000

I always go by bike! Precisely a rented bike, so I do not have to maintain it and do not have to worry about thieves. In my opinion that is the cheapest transportation

By: F

Sat, 30 May 2009 00:46:16 +0000

“My thinking right now is that you would need to count it as essentially money neutral”
That seems to be a valid conclusion In practice you’ll just use it to compare 2 commuting options: “OK so my car costs $$ more in vehicle costs but biking costs $$ more in time (i.e. commuting time minus any credit). Which means the best option is…” Pretty simple if you think about it.

“And I just thought of this, can you put a value on the exercise that bike commuting provides if you wouldn’t have exercised without it?”
That’s personal, as it depends on how much you value exercise. Is it something you feel you should do but never get around to? Would those 2h of biking be ideal or overkill? (If ideal, that’d zero net time costs for a bike, versus 1h for a car.) Or do you consider exercise to be a total waste of time? Torture maybe? Does that answer your question?