Commute by Bike!
Mr. Allder has for a long time thought how neat it would be if he could commute (if at least part of the way) to work. I tuned up an old frame that I had laying around and with a little planning, worked out getting to and from work in a reasonable amount of time.
Now... that's just the beginning. I decided to see if I could compute (with relative accuracy) the cost savings both financially and environmentally, as well as the health benefits that go along with commuting by bike.
Carbon Emissions
I started by visiting the EPA's web site to determine the average fuel consumption and estimated level of carbon emissions from driving my car.
My 97 Honda Oddyssey "beach-mobile" consumes on average about 23 miles per gallon. Based on the EPA's web site, and the distance that I would ride my bike to school, my car would produce 10.1 pounds of carbon emmisions per 16 miles. I can offset the same 10.1 pounds of carbon emissions per day if I were to commute the 16 miles on my bike.
Fuel Consumption
Commuting from Bristol (16 miles round trip) would consume approximately 0.70 gallons of gasoline.
Since gasoline fluctuates, I really need to calculate cost savings based on the price of gasoline. Here is a scale to show approximate savings in US dollars and cents.
|
Price of Gas |
Gasoline consumption per 16 mile commute |
$ Savings per day |
|
3.00 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.10 |
saved per day |
|
3.05 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.14 |
saved per day |
|
3.10 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.17 |
saved per day |
|
3.15 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.21 |
saved per day |
|
3.20 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.24 |
saved per day |
|
3.25 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.28 |
saved per day |
|
3.30 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.31 |
saved per day |
|
3.35 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.35 |
saved per day |
|
3.40 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.38 |
saved per day |
|
3.45 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.42 |
saved per day |
|
3.50 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.45 |
saved per day |
|
3.55 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.49 |
saved per day |
|
3.60 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.52 |
saved per day |
|
3.65 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.56 |
saved per day |
|
3.70 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.59 |
saved per day |
|
3.75 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.63 |
saved per day |
|
3.80 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.66 |
saved per day |
|
3.85 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.70 |
saved per day |
|
3.90 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.73 |
saved per day |
|
3.95 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.77 |
saved per day |
|
4.00 |
.7 gallons per day |
$2.80 |
saved per day |
Health Benefits
I was able to estimate my caloric expenditure (how many calories I burn) while cycling using my heart rate monitor which tracks exercise intensity level during the ride. On average, it appears that I burn approximately 768 calories each day from cycling.
Commuting to work by bike is challenging, but worthwhile in many ways.