27 years old Theodora Robinson started cycling in March this year, because she is "very tired of squeezing the subway during rush hour", and she wants to choose a healthier, cheaper way to travel. Theodora won a Liv Avail mid - grade bike free of charge by "riding to work", and the car was priced at 750 pounds ($950).
Theodora said, "it takes me about 40 minutes to ride on the office car, depending on the traffic condition. Unless special weather, I will choose to take the subway. On the whole, riding is cheaper and more convenient, the cost of this year is only half the cost of my past year, and it will be cheaper if I continue to ride to work next year. " She said that because the newly bought bicycles had three free checks in the first year, the maintenance cost was very low. "The biggest expense is to change the tire by 40 pounds (about 50 dollars)."
52 years old Italians, Marco Mazzei, a social media manager from Milan, is very keen on riding. In 2010, he began to cycle to and from work. After 2 years, he made a bigger decision to sell his car. Now, he needs to ride 16 kilometers to go to work every day. Marco's bicycle is a folding bicycle worth 1100 euros, which can easily bring trains and offices.
Marco said, "I can put it under my desk and do not have to pay extra tickets when taking the subway." His annual maintenance cost is almost 100 euros. He said he knew that it could save money, but he had never made any concrete calculations.
Benny Horn, who is in charge of cycling in the Sydney City Council, says, "although there are not many people who choose to go to work in Australia now, the population is growing." Horn was tired of slow traffic and expensive tickets, and he started riding to work from 2008, spending a $700 (about $500) in the early period of buying a bike, and then spent about $200 a year (about $150) a year. He said: "2000 Australian dollars (about $1500) for a year by train in Sydney."
the question of whether this account
is really cheaper than public transportation is true of riding to work, "based on pure data analysis, the answer is negative. In the short and medium term, the bus cost is actually higher.
in order to find out whether a bike can really save you a lot of money, the British national transportation website and BBC compared the spending of people riding in 12 cities (including the purchase of a bicycle, related accessories and maintenance of the rear of the vehicle) and the cost of buying a public transport monthly card. The results show that although the cost of cycling is higher, it will soon be offset by high bus costs.
if you live in a high consumption city like London or New York, cycling is the most cost-effective option. Suppose you have bought a new bike for 300 pounds, which is enough for you to buy a 2.1 - month ticket in London, while in New York it's only a 1.7 - month ticket. By comparison, it doesn't cost much to buy a car. (small notes: in Beijing, this data is about 7 months)
but in other cities, in the opposite direction, such as Krakow in Poland, the bus cost is much lower than that of other cities, and the monthly card is only $22.9. The price of a new bicycle is $427, which means that the money for a bicycle can be used for 18.7 months of bus, which does not include installation of vehicle accessories and later maintenance costs.
as one of the "invisible consumption" of bicycles, the maintenance cost is the key to ensure the life-span of bicycles. According to Ed Reynolds, a member of the board of the American Professional Cycling Association, fanatical riding enthusiasts are spending as much as $320 to $530 a year on bicycle maintenance. The cost includes two times of vehicle modulating and maintenance each year, replacing chains, brakes, tyres and other accessories. Reynolds also said that the life span of a bicycle is between 5 and 8 years, depending on how you maintain the two bicycles. There is an old saying in cycling circles:
"there are two ways to scrap bicycles: one is riding it regularly, the other two is never riding."