Bicycling in and around Atlanta.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Bike vs. Cars: Money

First in the interest of full discloser: My wife isn’t very fond of bikes.  She looks upon my bicycle-centric lifestyle as just another one of my numerous eccentricities. 

 

So when I told her about my little rack disaster this morning I could hear her rolling her eyes over the phone.  You see she’s under the impression that I spend way too much money on cycling related activities.  Let’s look at the numbers.

 

My wife’s car payment: $400 per month

Insurance of my wife’s care: $100 per month

Taxes on car: $15 per month

Gas for car: $100 per month

 

That’s $615 per month, excluding everything I’ve forgotten.

 

Now I have three bikes none of which were purchased new.  In fact I’ve never spent more than $70 on a bike.  I have a few jersey’s, some shorts, leg warmers, ear warmers, panniers, a rack, a messenger bag, lights and a few other accessories that were all purchased on clearance.  In fact if you put everything I’ve spent on cycling as an adult together they still don’t equal one month of car ownership.  But owning a car is viewed as a necessity, which it isn’t, while owning a bike is viewed as a luxury.  If you took the $615 one might spend on a car you could buy a bike a month and have money left over.  The more you think about it the more America’s car-centric culture just doesn’t make sense.

1 comment:

John said...

The only new bike I've purchased in the last 20 years is also the one I ride the least. I'm like you: I prefer used bicycles. The one I ride most often was intercepted on its way to a trash pile.