I've always taken it as a given that riding my bike is cheaper than driving my car. Recently though, a friend of mine wondered aloud if riding could actually cost you more once you considered the increased food consumed to power all that pedaling. At first I laughed, but then I decided I should take an objective look at the situation. What follows is a quick comparison between the cost of fueling 25 miles worth of driving a car fueled by regular gasoline and 25 miles worth of riding a bike fueled by bananas (every cyclist's best friend, but apparently an atheist's worst nightmare).
First, some assumptions and values. For the sake of calculation, we'll assume that the car in question gets 25mpg around town. Additionally we'll say that the cyclist in question can cover 25 miles in two hours at a light to moderate riding intensity.
AAA has the national average for a gallon of gas pegged at $4.087 per gallon today. So there is our price per 25 miles for driving.
Health A-Z.com estimates that 2 hours of riding burns 750 calories for a 150lb person.
My last grocery receipt shows bananas at $0.69 per pound.
FitDay.com estimates there are 315 calories in a pound of bananas.
Divide the calories per hour by calories in a pound of bananas and multiply by the cost per pound and we get a cost of $1.62 for 25 miles of riding ((750/315)*.69).
So it turns out that riding is indeed considerably cheaper than driving when looking purely at fuel costs ($2.44 cheaper every 25 miles!). In future posts we'll take a look at other considerations such as start up cost, equipment, maintenance, and insurance to get a more complete look at the financial benefits of the beautiful machine. Reactions, ideas and questions are always welcome in the comments or at legpowered@gmail.com.
