1 million bike rides

It might be enough to make your legs feel tired, but there's been 1 million bike rides already this year, past my favourite bike counter.

I missed the day itself as we've had a lot of wet weather recently; though obviously not bad enough to stop other people riding bikes. It happened sometime around mid-October.

If you saw my previous post on this, I'm comparing it to how many people use the sports stadium nearby. The rugby league season has now ended with a total Broncos' home game attendance of 401,421.

Already this one bike-path is 2.5 times more popular - and there's still a few months to go.

UPDATE: a couple of days after the photo above, I say the sign tick over from 1049999 to 1050000. My attempt to capture it was seconds too slow and another rider ticked it over one extra.

It's a bit like that feeling - back in the car days - of seeing the odometer tick over another milestone. Except this feeling doesn't come with an obligatory car servicing, or thinking about how much I've wasted on fuel.

Repairing the bank balance

Some people can't even comprehend being car free. Others do get it, and are slightly jealous.

"Yeah. You must save heaps - not having to buy petrol," someone said to me recently.

Well yes I do but that's only a fraction of it. In a recent cleanout I found an old bank statement from my car-owning days.

Yes. Car repairs for $3033.62. Even ten years on, my first reaction is "Ouch!". It's one of the things we don't factor into the cost of having a car. But it's a real cost. On the bank statement it's very real.

My second reaction is gratitude in realising how many years I've avoided these unexpected surprises. Just another benefit of being car free.

PS. Other car costs include depreciation (buying a car for $20k and selling it for $10k), lost interest (that $20k could have been in the bank earning interest), car registration, car insurance, car repairs and car maintenance. Depending on how you drive, there may also be speeding fines and parking tickets. So yes I save on fuel, but there's so much more than that.

More Road Space

One of the great things about riding a bike, and about public transport is how little space it takes. Especially compared to cars.

Smarter transport frees up so much space on the roads. Groups have taken some stunning photos to illustrate just how much extra space there could be on the roads.

There's also the famous photo of the space to transport 60 people, and this animation of the space saved by a bus.


But one of the pictures I find the most compelling is this one from an international study. Building roads is such a wasteful way to transport a lot of people.

Train and bus cheaper than a car

I stumbled across the article, Train and bus commute cheaper than the car, reporting on a study of transport costs in Australian cities.

In summary it calculated the costs at:
$10,698 - commuting by car (even a small car) for 15km.
$5,155 - catch public transport, leave the car at home. Saves $5543
$2,370 - catch public transport and have one less car. Saves $8328

That was one year ago. So for 2014, I tallied up how much I spent on public transport - each time I added credit to my go card.

$1195 - my total transport costs for 2014. About one-tenth of the average car costs.

So if you think you're saving money by driving, you may want to re-think that. (See how much your car costs you)

PS. You might notice it got a lot cheaper near the end of the year. I left my previous job in October, and have travelled mainly by bicycle since then. That's another great advantage of being car-free - you only pay for what you use. With car ownership, if you leave (or lose) your job, you still have to pay a year's registration, a year's insurance. The car still gets older, and loses its value. You'll also be tempted to use it (and need to buy more fuel) when you could use cheaper and healthier options.

Master of Transport

This week I attended a friend's graduation. A few of us came to see it, and her partner arrived just in the nick of time. He'd driven in, and had a nerve-wracking time doing so.

Having got to campus, there was 20 minutes of driving around, to find a place to park. Then the ticket machine (yes it was paid parking) wasn't working. Once he'd sorted that out, it was another 20 minutes navigating an unfamiliar campus to find the graduation ceremony. All in all, it was a frustrating and exhausting experience in the heat of a Brisbane summer.

I have to admit I felt a bit smug that I'd zoomed in on my electric bike (total travel time about 10-15 mins), and parked in the bicycle rack about 1 minute's walk from all the graduation action. But I didn't gloat - that would have only made it feel worse.

Of course, he didn't have the option to ride (apart from CityCycle) but there's also a bus that goes from the street of his workplace to the university in 12 minutes.

I'm not sure why we seem to think that car is a fast and convenient option. Perhaps the graduates at the Psychology graduation would have a better idea.

I have two guesses. For many people it's the default, and our brains like to avoid decision-making so the default wins. Also, at the decision point (the journey start) the car seems convenient because in one minute you can be on your way. But the trouble comes later. Just like "buy now pay later", which seems like a good idea .. until "pay later" comes along.

Light on the Wallet

Aldi have just had one of their bicycle-related sales. Among the bargains was an LED lights set - front and rear for $9.99.

The bonus is that batteries ARE included - 6xAAA batteries. A 4-pack of these is $3. So that's $4.50 worth of free batteries.

All that maths means that really the front and back lights for your bike are just $5.49. That's loose change.

I'm continually impressed with how cheap it is to cycle.

Double fees for car parking

One ever-increasing cost of car ownership is parking. At my work, these are the new parking prices.

Combined with last year's increase, it's almost doubled in two years. $75 per week - that's 2 and a half times my total transport cost.

Mind you, it probably has to increase that much. We can't just keep jamming more and more cars into the city. And the sooner we realise this, the better.

I reckon the best plan is to leave the car at home. Less stress. Fewer fees.

More than 20 years!

Brisbane's Little Stanley Street hosts a series of restaurants with outdoor dining overlooking Southbank Parklands. One is the Eastern European restaurant Torba.

While our meal was prepared, a pretentiously expensive looking car arrived nearby. This prompted my girlfriend to share a recent realisation:

You know, my public transport costs me about $30 a week, tops. For the same price as a $30,000 car, I could catch public transport for 1,000 weeks. That's 20 years! And that doesn't even include petrol, registration etc.

She's right of course. And I've written about how expensive driving is. But her thought is a great way of expressing just how much sacrifice is involved in owning a car.

PS. I recently did a course on behavioural economics, where one example was car buying. We compare one car with another, but struggle to compare across categories. We rarely ask a question like "Is this car worth more than two vacations a year?" to work out if there are better things we could do with our money.

PPS. We then caught the bus home - on free travel.

Free Holiday Travel

Last weekend I went to the Gold Coast for a weekend break. Because I went by public transport, all the travel was free.

This is part of the go card 9-trips-then-free deal. Normally I'm up to 9 trips by Thursday so get the rest of the week for free - but this is the first time I've used free travel for a holiday.

Including the trip down to the Gold Coast, the trip out to dinner on Saturday night, the trip back to our accomodation, and then Sunday's trip back home. Because weekends are off-peak, it would have only cost $31.62 each. But because of the 9-trip deal is was free!

$4,000 to park your car

This notice came around work on the internal email. I've blanked out the specific details, but the main detail is the $300/month (plus 10% GST). I work that out to be $3,960 per year.

Of course, this is in additional to the weekly 3-figure cost of running even the smallest car.

Meanwhile, my total travel expenses average $30 per week. These parking fees alone are more than double that. Surely there's got to be smarter ways of getting to work.

PS. A friend reminds me to take tax into account. To earn $3960 after tax, you have to earn $6000. That's a tenth of the average Australian wage. In other words, the average Australian would have to work 5 weeks each year just to pay for parking!

If someone offered me the choice of a carspace or an extra 5 weeks holiday a year, I know which one I'd choose.

120 good reasons to be car-free

There are many good reasons to be car-free. Bicycle SA put some of them into a graphic.

That figure is about the same as I've written before (check your car in the calculator) but they also looked at what else people could do with that money.

Or we could just keep the cash :)

Parking Pain

Another benefits of going car-free is parking. Or more precisely - not parking.

In my office building, drivers can either pay to park in the basement, or spend 10 minutes before work scouring the streets for an available spot. The first of those options became even less attractive recently when this email was sent to all employees.


In short, a 50% increase in parking fees. While full time workers now pay $60/week to park in the building, most weeks I pay less than 30 for public transport (for work and personal use). Also I don't pay for petrol, registration, insurance or vehicle maintenance.

Still Under Budget

I like to set myself goals. One little one is to keep my travel budget under $30 per week. For a car owner, that's pure fantasy - but for me it's doable.

This week was the bigger challenge, with a friend's birthday dinner at Sandgate. (For non-Brisbane readers, that's the second-to-last stop on that line.)

But i still did it! Total travel expenses for the week - $29.60 :)

PS. In another win for the budget, the restaurant meals were half price. (My friend is an accountant and has an eye for good deals).

$10 Servicing

On a continuing theme of low cost maintenance, the other week i felt that my bike brakes were wearing a bit thin. At my local bike shop, a brand new set costs just under $10 - and i can fit them myself.

Benefits of Riding to Work

This was part of my email invite to join Ride to Work day. It summarises some of the reasons i like going car free.

By the way, if you're interested, Ride to Work day this year is Wednesday 17 October.

How much is 13 minutes worth?

This advert caught my eye as i was reading an article online. It's part of the advertising for Brisbane's latest in a series of ill-advised toll road/tunnels.

If this road's main achievement is cutting 13 minutes on airport travel - is that really worth 4.8 billion dollars? If 13 minutes is so crucial, wouldn't it just be smarter to leave home 13 minutes earlier? I'm sure there are much better things to spend 4.8 billion on - such as public transport for one. That kind of money could buy more than a few buses or trains.

Record Low Price

For those who read last week's post about 5 days of free travel, no i did not set a new record for number of free trips in a week.

But i did set a new record for economy. The entire week's travel totalled $27.56 (for 18 journeys) which is quite a bargain compared to the 3-figure weekly cost of car travel.
---
ps. of course, the maximum i pay per week is 9 x $3.58 = $32.22, but when some of the 9 paid trips are off-peak or 1-zoners, that amount goes down.

Lunchtime Conversation

Today I had a celebratory lunch with colleagues to mark the completion of a recent project. During the talking the subject of travel came up.

While some were talking about places for "cheap" parking ($10 per day) and others mentioned getting $75 parking fines for leaving their car somewhere too long, i mentioned that i was already on free travel for the rest of the week.

People were impressed (and slightly awestruck). I explained that along with my daily commute, i had attended a lunchtime seminar on Monday, and visited a friend in hospital on Tuesday, and so Wednesday morning 8am was my last paid trip for the week.

Even the bus fare to the lunch was free. As will every other fare for the remaining 4 and a half days this week.

Stay tuned - i may set a new personal record :)

Paid for 9, Got 10 free

This is the ad for the new '9 trips then free' deal. On the flyers (they were handing them out at train stations) it says "What a break" under the picture - which i guess explains the billiard balls.

Speaking of which, i set a new personal record for free trips last week. My 9th trip was Thursday morning. Then for free i travelled...

Thursday 3 more trips, Friday 3 trips, Saturday 0 trips, Sunday 4 trips.

All up, i paid for 9 and got 10 free. A new personal record - and quite good value.

Buy 10 Get 8 Free

I've mentioned before about the Free Travel policy in Brisbane (well actually, across the South East Queensland network).

Last week I counted that i got 8 free journeys, after paying for my first 10. That's some kind of bargain for people who support public transport.

The news get's even better. Starting from next week, the number of paid journeys reduces to 9.

It's quite possible that some weeks i might get more free travel than paid travel. That's like getting 50% off.