bike + bus commuting
With the disruption of career change behind me (at least for the most part) I decided it was time to get back into the swing of using the bus to get to and from the office. I am fortunate enough to have a Park & Ride location very close to my house and a bus route that gets me within a couple of blocks of my office. Because I get on the bus at a Park & Ride I could drive my car to catch the bus but because the trip is so short it would be hard on the car. Unfortunately its too far to walk and squeeze in those few extra snooze button cycles. This left me with a dilemma – how do I complete the first leg of my daily commute – by car, on foot, or by another mode? With all this context in mind I set out to create a comprehensive approach to commute to work in as timely, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly way as possible.
commuting by car
Like most suburbanites I have to drive a bit to get to work. My daily round-trip commute is 40 miles. I typically get between 280 – 300 miles on a tank of gas. After subtracting my weekly commute mileage and accounting for the errands I typically have to run over the weekend I routinely have to fill up the car once a week. With gas prices near $4/gallon I spend between $60 and $70 a week on gas.
In addition to the cost to me of driving my car there’s also an environmental impact. Cars produce pollution. That’s a fact that we can’t dispute. I found an online emissions calculator to get a general idea of the impact of me driving my car to and from work daily. If my calculations are correct my car produces 1.2 pounds of CO2 for every mile I drive. By me commuting to work by car means I generate 240 pounds of CO2 each week.
The up side of commuting by car is shown in the time spent behind the wheel. It takes me roughly 20 – 25 minutes each direction depending on when I leave. It takes more time the later I leave the house. To keep the numbers round I estimate I spend 5 hours per week commuting by car.
To recap, here are the stats related to me commuting 40 miles a day 5 times a week:
cost: $60 – $70
environmental impact: 240 pounds of CO2 produced
drive time: 5 hours
getting to the park & ride
I am fortunate to have a Park & Ride very close to home. The strip mall behind our house features the neighborhood market, a noisy biker bar, and various and sundry useful and not so useful specialty stores, and is a high-traffic location. Basically it is a great location for a bus system Park & Ride. Unfortunately for me it falls in a middle ground between too far to walk to quickly and too close to get the car warmed up. Getting up really early to walk to the bus stop sounds really painful and driving the car such a short distance is hard on the car and keeps me from fully avoiding the gas cost and preventing some (if even a small amount) of the CO2 pollution. What to do? Start riding a bike. I don’t need to wear a suit and tie any more so I can ride my bike to the Park & Ride in street clothes, avoid the cost and pollution, and even get a little exercise. Each bus is equipped with a bicycle rack on the front so I can simply drop my bike in the rack, climb on the bus, and then sit down and relax. My completely kick-ass Second Chance Bikes austin rambler was built for commuting, so this part of the decision was a no-brainer.
cost of bicycle: $950 *
commuting by bus
With all these facts and information in mind, the hard part is building the habit of commuting. It is easy to oversleep a bit, miss your scheduled bus, and just drive the car. Sleep is awesome and the car is always ready to go so getting in the habit of getting out of bed, doing my morning rituals, and getting to the Park & Ride in time for the 6:45 downtown express bus takes conditioning. Again, it is easier now that I don’t have to wear a suit and tie – and no suit and tie makes me feel OK about not shaving daily – so I can get around and get out the door faster.
It is important to be clear – riding the bus is not free. My local bus system charges $2 per trip if I pay cash. I can, however, buy discounted 10 ride passes online for $18.56 and they are delivered by mail very quickly. This makes my cost per trip $1.86.
daily cost of commuting: $3.72
My time spent commuting by bike + bus can be broken down like this:
bike to park & ride: 5 minutes
bus from park & ride to stop nearest office: 40 minutes
bike to office: 5 minutes
To keep the numbers round I estimate I spend 9 hours per week commuting by bike + bus
summary – cost & time comparison
| category | car | bus | savings | advantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cost | $65 | $18.56 | $46.44 | bus |
| additional CO2 | 240 | 0 | 240 | bus |
| time | 5 | 9 | -4 | car |
breaking even on the bicycle
A lot of my discussions with friends about the cost of bicycles centers around justifying the cost. For most people bicycles are considered a luxury item and not a tool so there is a built-in belief that buying a bike means parting with disposable income. In these tough economic times trying to convince someone to drop nearly $1,000 on a bike is a tough sell so I thought I’d throw out a thought on breaking even on the bike as a transportation tool.
Through the cost & time comparison table you can see that I am saving roughly $46 per week by taking the bus. My bike cost $950 – a non-trivial amount of money – but by using it to save $46 per week, in approximately 20 weeks the bike has paid for itself. The more I ride my bike and avoid miles on the car, the faster I break even on the up-front cost of the bike. Also the mileage avoided on the car decreases the frequency of oil changes, tire replacement, and other maintenance activities.