The financial benefit of cycling vs driving?

I was involved in a discussion on Facebook recently where it was suggested that cycling saves money. Now on the face of it, this would appear to be a fair comment. After all, when you're using pedal power instead of the car you save money on fuel...obviously! When you actually start to "do the math" however, it's perhaps not quite so clear cut. As a casual cyclist on my mountain bike during the summer, I was doing a couple of hundred miles a year at the most, I was wearing baggy shorts and an old football top, the bike would be

Now where did I put the pump...?

serviced occasionally, and so yes the odd journey to work was effectively free.  When however you start to take cycling more seriously, the cost savings don't always add up as you expect.  First of all, the more you use the bike, the more wear and tear you have to pay to sort out.  I had 2 flat tyres in 2013, and although they can be fixed with a repair kit, I ended up buying spare inner tubes anyway.  Then of course I got my hybrid road bike, which was through the government backed Cycle2Work scheme, but still costs me money from my wages each month.  With that bike came various accessories, a new stem to make the handlebars more comfy, a new bottle and holder, a new frame-mounted pump, and then as winter came I needed better lights, warmer clothing, that sort of thing.  Of course this stuff should in theory last me for a few years, and if I'm doing around 1800 miles a year on the bike and the cost of all the stuff I've already paid for, plus ongoing costs of a decent service each year, plus a bit more which may be needed over this time too for additional clothes, etc. is then stretched over say 5 years, then I reckon I'm looking at around £200 a year, which is just under 11p per mile.  That doesn't include the cost of the roof rack I bought recently either, at around £150, as it's not essential for the sort of cycling I'm talking about here, but that would put a bit extra on the costs.

However you travel it's not cheap!

At the moment our Auris Hybrid is costing around 12p per mile in petrol, and I'm expecting this to drop a bit when averaging out winter and summer, hopefully to around 11p as well, so I suppose really there is no obvious cost benefit to cycling.  You may of course say that I'm comparing the costs of just fuel against the cost of a bike and all the trimmings.  That's true, if I include the costs of the car loan, insurance, servicing, etc. then the car costs between about 31p per mile (based on 14000 miles a year) and 39p per mile (if that creeps down to around 10000 miles per year), much more expensive of course, but seeing as there are a certain amount of journeys which can only be done by car, then it's there anyway and from a purely financial point of view, it would be better to use that and not bother using a bike. In fact, the more miles done in the car the cheaper the cost per mile is, so by cycling instead of driving I'm actually increasing the per mile cost of the driving I do.
Savings and benefits though shouldn't just be measured in terms of money spent.  Cycling is fun & of course healthy, it's much more rewarding to the body and the soul than driving is.  For that reason, I'd say that everyone should really invest in a bike and reap the benefits.  If you don't drive at all then ditch some of your public transport journeys and get on your bike instead, you really will save money.  If however you've already got a car, then just get a bike anyway and reap the non-financial benefits instead.

The Bridge

Amy & I have love the Danish/Swedish crime drama "The Bridge" (or Bron/Broen), currently on BBC4, where the police forces of Copenhagen and Malmo have to work together to solve a murder case which happens in the middle of the cross-border Oresund Bridge which links the two cities together.  Its haunting

Left turn Clyde...

theme tune runs through my head as I cross over our local bridge, the Erskine Bridge, the lowest and therefore last crossing of the River Clyde before it becomes a wide and dangerous firth (estuary for those unfamiliar with Scottish words!)  The Erskine Bridge is a busy dual carriageway, a vital link for long distance traffic wanting to get to Argyle and the West Highlands of Scotland without having to drive through the urban sprawl of the West End of Glasgow.  It's also a vital local link for the communities of West Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire.  Before the bridge was built in 1971 there was a car ferry, and if the bridge is ever shut due to high winds then the diversion can be 25 miles or more via the Clyde Tunnel in the West End or the Kingston Bridge in the City Centre.  I use the Erskine Bridge for at least 7 return

The old ferry slipway with the bridge towering above

journeys every week, both in the car and on the bike.  My work is on the other side of the bridge from our flat, we go on it to get to the southside of Glasgow via the M8, basically it's a hugely important bridge for us. Early last summer roadworks started which caused slight disruption, and then in September major roadworks started which according to the various signs dotted around adjoining roads will finish in Summer 2014.  These roadworks have dropped the bridge down to one lane only in each direction, with traffic light controls at one end and long queues at both ends.  A slip road onto the bridge from the town of Erskine has been closed - not literally, but the road is restricted to buses and emergency vehicles only, meaning that as well as a drive to work taking 5-10mins longer since the works started, a return journey home from work takes 15-20mins longer and involves at least an additional 4 mile diversion.  As well as this, just recently on late-night drives home, other slip roads have also been closed from the M8 which have meant 5-6 miles of additional driving.  It's really not fun at the moment, and yet in some ways these roadworks have been part of the motivation for my increase in cycling to work.  There are pedestrian paths and cycle tracks alongside the bridge which have

This way it's all mountains, golf courses and distilleries...

had minimal disruption compared to that suffered by other road traffic.  Quite often I can cycle home from work marginally quicker than I can driving, which is definitely a novelty.  The bridge is quite steep, both in the paths leading to the bridge plus the actual gradient of the deck itself, so it's always a good work-out on the bike.  There are often strong winds to overcome, plus nasty patches of black ice, spray from lorries, etc. That in some ways is all part of the fun though, it's an impressive structure, a focal point for the area, and the views on a clear day are terrific.  It's also great going over when a big ship, sometimes even a proper naval ship, passes underneath.  Whether I'll continue to brave the conditions quite as often once the roadworks are finished I'm not sure.  I hope so, but you couldn't blame me for slumping back to my old easy car driving days could you?!  But then there are still Strava times to beat aren't there.  OK fair enough, you got me, last one to the other side is a sissy!

2 wheels and 3 stone lighter

As you may have guessed from the title of this blog, it's not just about our car.  2013 was a good year for me as far as cycling goes.  I've been into it for a while.  Now of course I was into it as a kid (I think most people have memories of bikes as Christmas presents when they are young don't they?) but generally cars win out once you reach your late teens and your bike ends up rusting away in your parents' garden shed.  My love affair was rekindled after an unfortunate/irresponsible brush with the South Wales traffic police in 2002, when I was forced back onto 2 wheels during a 28-day driving ban.  When I realised that wasn't too painful I kept the bike in use and then a few years later did some off-road mountain biking with friends at Cannock Chase, something which eventually encouraged me to splash out on a nice shiny 30th birthday present for myself, a Specialized Rockhopper.  That got some good use, both on the roads and the mud, but it was a purely seasonal affair.  On the few occasions that I tried cycling in the winter I quickly decided it was far too cold and wet to be a regular thing.  I briefly flirted with a road bike but storage issues once I moved up to Glasgow ended that, and I kept with only the mountain bike.  Unfortunately though, the rider was becoming a mountain himself.  A few long rides in the summer often ended in premature asthmatic crawls home and

"The results have been increbidle"

off-roading was particularly embarrassing.  I was seriously overweight and unfit, and something needed to change.  In early March 2013 I dusted the bike off and did a short ride, 2 or 3 slow miles, and enough was enough.  Amy & I had both decided we needed to lose weight, her Slimming World book was dug out, we pledged to eat healthily for as long as was necessary, and once I'd lost a few pounds I got back on the bike to try and improve my fitness too.  My the end of May I'd cycled 120 miles and lost a stone, by the end of August it was nearly 2 stone, and I'd upped my cycling to about 550 miles.  One of the catalysts for really racking up the miles was that I'd starting using a phone app called Strava, which tracks how far you cycle and works out your average speed as well as timing you over certain popular sections of your route.  This makes every cycle ride very competitive, you're

always trying to better times and eek out more miles each week and month, comparing your rides to those of your friends.  Around that time, buoyed up by the addictiveness of Strava, I'd started cycling to work fairly regularly and my mountain bike was proving to be less than ideal for the amount of road riding I was doing, not to mention it also being quite slow, so my work's Cycle to work scheme came in handy to get myself a hybrid road bike (mountain bike shape but with thinner road tyres).  So I got myself the very funky Charge Grater.  This meant that my mountain bike was reserved for off-roading only, which suits me fine, seeing as there are a number of excellent places to get muddy within a couple of hours drive of Glasgow.  With the combination of on and off-road cycling I was able to push on to 3 stone of weight lost by Christmas, with over 1200 miles cycled, despite the fact that the light and warmth of summer had long gone.  I guess now I'm prepared (although not always happy) to cycle in the wind, rain and cold, and of course dark.  Ice brings its problems, but luckily the snow hasn't hit yet though.  I'm commuting 2-3 times a week, 6.6 miles each way.  If I wasn't able to get a shower at work then this wouldn't of course be as attractive an option, but as it stands I reckon I've lost my "fair-weather cyclist" tag.  My aim is to get to the year mark, early March 2014, having reached a weight and size I'm happy with, and at that point I should hopefully have reached 1600 miles (which sounds more impressive as 2500km!)

Charge Grater hybrid bike at Draycote Water, Warwickshire

Lean mean winter rider (with embarrassing but v sensible clothing)

Specialized Rockhopper MTB at the Cathkin Braes trails near Glasgow