Originally Posted by
I-Like-To-Bike
The only way to save significant dollars on daily transportation by using a bicycle or walking instead of a car/truck is to sell an existing vehicle already owned and used for that purpose and not replace it. That will eliminate the fixed costs (depreciation, taxes/registration, insurance) which make up the bulk of the IRS standard mileage rate as well as the widely quoted AAA driving costs of operating a motor vehicle (
https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/artic...-operate-a-car).
Fuel costs, even at current and predicted prices, only make up a relatively small proportion of the cost (though it is highly visible) of owning and operating a vehicle. Using a bicycle to replace 10 or 20 miles every day of driving will save money, but don't fool yourself about saving $5,237 or anything close to it. Not if if you keep owning the vehicle and are still paying the fixed costs as well as the additional costs for any other substitute transportation (rental cars, public transportation, taxis etc) to get to destinations in all weather previously reached by your automobile.
If you are driving an old serviceable paid for vehicle you are not paying that much for depreciation, but then you won't be "saving" that cost by bicycling. The amount of miles likely to be ridden by bicycle yearly for transportation purposes to replace miles previously driven is not likely to make much difference in the maintenance or wear and tear costs of that vehicle as long as it is still owned and used by the bicyclist.
Yup, after I said that the savings were based on the IRS mileage rate, I realized that the insurance and taxes were a bulk of that IRS figure, so it misrepresents the savings of riding instead of driving the car that I CONTINUE to own and pay for even if it's not being actively driven. So, if I look at the fuel savings only, at the old gas price of $4/gal riding every single day (250 days per year) saves $1,000 in gas costs annually, or $2,000 annually if gas hits $8/gal, PLUS whatever is estimated to be the actual annual cost of repairing/replacing the wearable items on the car for the 6,750 miles of driving per year that I wouldn't be doing (though I have no good way to estimate many of those: oil changes, brakes, tires, transmission, bearings, engine, bulbs, mileage depreciation, etc...) , so I'll leave it out of the formula for now, MINUS the costs of the replacing the wearable bike items such as ~3 sets of tires, 2-3 chains, brake pads, cassette, chainrings, tubes, CO2 (so approx. $450 of bike expenses if I buy the good quality stuff I always do). So the annual NET savings, at $4/gal goes down to $550, or $1,550 at $8/gal., and those savings go down by 40% if I were to choose to drive 2 days per week (on avg.), especially in the snowy months.