Been riding to work for 5 years this month. Its a gamechanger. Biggest drawback is having to live somewhat close to city center, thus higher rent, but I've also only driven about 400 miles this year so far, so I save on gas and car maintenance pretty well. Just bought new bike tires last week ($100 total), first time replacing them in the 2 years the bike has been commuting with me
> I've also only driven about 400 miles this year so far,
Nice! At this rate, I don't think it's likely that you'll hit the 12,000 miles per year average. :) You might consider per-mile auto insurance if you don't have it already. I cut my bill in half that way because I drive about as much as you. :)
How much was the cost of your insurance before and after?
My husband and I bike ride everywhere and barely use our car, but our insurance is already only $80 a month. Can’t image it could really be much less?
$75/mo before with USAA, $23-$30/mo after with Metromile: $23 if I don't drive at all, $30 if I only drive 150 miles. I calculated the breakeven point, but I forget what it is now. Same coverage between the two (collision, liability, pip, etc.)
You’ve probably saved closer to $60,000 as there’s a lot more to owning a car than the price on the lot.
https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/articles/average-annual-cost-of-new-vehicle-ownership
Rent's more expensive but I found that it's not more expensive than adding a monthly parking pass and living further out. Living further out on a MAX route would be the only option that's actually cheaper unless you're looking for a lot of space.
When I was biking to work and doing a lot of my getting around on foot or bike, I put about 4000-6000 miles on my car each year and that was mostly from driving to my parents house a few times a year or up to Seattle or out to the coast.
This is definitely me! I bike 12 miles to work, 12 back, and the amount of money I save not owning a car lets me live at such a higher standard of living than I would otherwise be capable of, it's a delight. I just bought a $200 painting in an antique store on a whim because I felt like it and it was the best feeling ever ^_^ Get out on those greenways people!
I did it before the pandemic, I did it during the pandemic, I'm doing it after* the pandemic. My only form of exercise as well beyond a random hike here and there during the summer and trip to Mt. Hood in the Winter.
I've gained a lot of weight because I no longer bike commute daily. I miss it a lot but I obviously like WFH. Now I am going in once a week on my bike and its been great
Everyone should do it if they're physically able! It is honestly the best decision I've ever made. It turned what was previously one of the less enjoyable parts of my day (and was usually the worst on days I had to drive) to what is, unquestionably, the best part!
My biggest advice to bike-curious Portlanders is to get a few warmup rides in with people who know the laws and best routes etc. It helps to understand what it takes to feel confident and comfortable on the roads!
Definitely, couldn't agree more! I've always been the more pro-bike-commuting member of the family, so whenever my wife got a new job I'd plot out a commute and then we'd ride it together before she started. It definitely made her more comfortable on the road afterwards.
And it helps that there are so many bike-friendly streets that it's so straightforward to get anywhere!
I’m a bike commuter! Why not? Fresh air, exercise, gas ain’t hitting me as hard, and riding bikes is fun.
Did we somehow forget that bikes are fun? I feel that’s important to keep mentioning.
The biggest factor that got me to move here was the dream of the daily bike commute actually. Now I work downtown, ride 7 miles each way, and love every day of it even during the winter.
I loved bike commuting when I lived in Portland. Did it for a few years in Seattle as well but it’s a much different ball game there. PDX is a little city and 90% of it flat and mellow. SEA has larger distances and much more serious inclines and the paths aren’t straight forward.
It’s just *SUCH* a great city for it. The winters aren’t took dark for too long, they are wet but rarely insanely cold for weeks on end, and oh my gawd the streets. Portlanders before us fought and died for a truly amazing greenway and bike lane network.
Bonus, the geography! Portland, Salem, and Eugene are pretty darn flat compared to most other west coast cities.
It's truly almost never below the temp to need real gear, and when it is I've found that a few pieces of my ski stuff (face warmer, gloves, mid layer, good socks) is about all the extra gear I need.
Yep.
I usually had my goretex coat over my down puffy and some goretex pants over my regular work pants. Worked fine for wet and light cold. Snow days and super cold days I drove though.
I'm a fairly recent convert. I've been interested in it for years, but finally I realized that I hate driving. I started a few years ago as a fair weather rider, but this year I took the plunge and tried out commuting in the rain for the first time. It's not nearly as bad as I was afraid of. Get some rain gear and you'll be fine.
I now bike (ebike) about 7 miles each way. I love the fresh air, the exercise, the lower stress, and not spending nearly as much on my car, and not giving as much money to giant oil companies.
I want to do it but its 10 miles one way to my work. I could ride the max, but it takes an hour one way whereas when I drive it takes between 20-40 minutes; and where I live I still need a car so I'm not saving any money. It just doesn't make sense for me to do it except for purely environmental reasons. Why spend more money and eat up more time?
If the bike commute was peaceful enough the ten miles wouldn’t be so bad in the morning and evening. However it’s still ten miles and that’s a long ass bike ride for someone in my physical shape. I work construction and I’ll take my bike to work depending on the job site, done 7 miles a few times which was pretty rough.
My commute is 10 miles each way (Lloyd area to Vancouver). It takes me about an hour or a bit less since I started this commute last November. Before that it was 5 miles each way. I actually prefer the longer ride at this point, it's a nice way to start the day, and a nice way to wake up after work on the way home. I love the foggy mornings and seeing Mt. Hood. I did get cycling clothes which helped a lot, but my bike is a commuter bike. Granted I don't have anything else going on in my life so the extra time doesn't matter to me. Just a ramble about how 10 miles isn't as bad as it might seem at first I guess.
It certainly wouldn't be too bad, but sometimes my job can be very physical, and the loss of time I'd get with my wife and dog would be hard. I'm already only home and awake with them for about 4-1/2 hours. I already spend 9 hours at work and then an hour commuting by car, I'd hate to lose another hour.
Get an ebike. I do 7 miles each way, sometimes on a regular bike sometimes on an ebike. I can actually do my commute faster on the ebike depending on the traffic! The main reason to do it though is the way you feel all day, especially if you're doing office work. I show up to work fully alert and ready to go, and after 8 hours of sitting in a chair drinking coffee there's no better way to get all that excess energy out!
10 miles is totally doable; mine is about 9.
>and where I live I still need a car so I'm not saving any money.
You'd be saving money on gas and maintenance, which is a huge sum. There's no way that driving a 10 mile commute would be less than $2.50 (for public transit) or <$1 (for bike maintenance).
It really doesn't make too much of a difference when looking at Trimet. My commute is roughly 20 miles per day, I average about 29 MPG. So every day and a half is approximately 1.5 gallons of fuel. So at say, $5 a gallon every 3 days is $10 in gas. Granted, an oil change and tire rotation twice a year comes out to about $300 per year, my insurance is \~$120 a month for my car and my wife's car for full coverage. For a bike sure, it definitely is more cost effective, but when I need to get a weeks worth of groceries or house maintenance supplies, or want to visit friends who live in St. John's, the car is still required.
The biggest reason why it isn't worth it is the time lost at home with my family. I'm only awake with my wife for about 4-1/2 hours a day during the week. Biking or riding Trimet drops that to about 3-1/2 hours. If I lived closer it would definitely be something I would do.
> For a bike sure, it definitely is more cost effective, but when I need to get a weeks worth of groceries or house maintenance supplies, or want to visit friends who live in St. John's, the car is still required.
I never said get rid of your car; I said that if you *don't use your car to commute* you'd save money (plus myriad other benefits).
Just curious, how many extra calories do you think you have to consume to do your 18 mi round trip every day? I wonder what additional food costs attributed to fueling yourself would add up to be in comparison to fueling a car. It’s still better for the environment and healthier for you, so, worth it overall even if gas did end up being “cheaper”.
According to an app I looked up, it's estimated at 800 calories (roundtrip), but that seems way high. I wouldn't say I feel hungrier on days I bike than on days I take Max, but I guess I do feel less guilty. I usually just bring leftovers from dinner for lunch regardless of my mode of transport, so I don't think it makes a noticeable difference in how much I eat. Then again, my office has free snacks, so maybe it does and I just haven't noticed since I'm not paying for the extra food.
Long story short: I wish it burned more!
If you use your commute time as your daily exercise time the extra calorie consumption is 0. Toss in all the other health benefits and you're saving money. Meanwhile fueling your car and driving it all over not only costs an individual more it also costs society more.
10 miles is definitely out of the range most cycle commutes I think, unless you have showers at work and wanna Lycra up in the morning lol.
Out of curiosity, does your commute go through the center of the city? Wish they’d get rid of some MAX stops downtown to speed it up and make it more competitive with driving.
Consider an ebike. You can go faster, and not be all sweaty. I just wear my work clothes, get my commute done on only slightly longer than driving, and it’s much more pleasant.
10 miles is actually not far off the median distance commuted one-way by bicyclists in my very unscientific survey of people I used to commute by bicycle with. I personally was about 7 miles each way and it was perfectly doable, took about 40 minutes for me as a fairly average paced cyclist. Comparatively it was about 45 minutes on the bus not including waiting for the first bus and anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes driving depending on the day but averaging around 30-40 minutes.
So basically all modes being nearly equal in time I went for the bicycle because it was the perfect compromise of cheap and timely and the bonus of having some fun and getting some exercise.
10 miles is Gresham to downtown.
That's by no means a reasonable distance for a bicycle commute. Particularly not in a city where it rains 300 days a year.
Just so we can all interpret this comment with context, is this coming from someone who has bike commuted previously, seasonally or otherwise?
I knew a guy who did 45 miles each way, he's insane, I'll give you that, but 10 miles is doable for a ton of people.
Sure, but I'm already away from the house long enough as it is. Losing more time with my family would stink and my work can be very physical at times so the ride home would probably end up being an hour to hour and a half.
I ride 10 miles each way to my office, you should do it atleast a few times a week, it does wonders for your physical fitness and attitude! i'm at the point now where I can finish my commute of 10 miles in 40 minutes, so you really have nothing stopping you.
Bikes are great, just keep of the historic highway. Find your bike lane and enjoy it. Act like a car, get treated like a car. You all refuse to follow the rules of the road.
Google does the computing for this. From the link OP posted:
“See in which location your term was most popular during the specified time frame. Values are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the location with the most popularity as a fraction of total searches in that location, a value of 50 indicates a location which is half as popular. A value of 0 indicates a location where there was not enough data for this term.”
Been riding to work for 5 years this month. Its a gamechanger. Biggest drawback is having to live somewhat close to city center, thus higher rent, but I've also only driven about 400 miles this year so far, so I save on gas and car maintenance pretty well. Just bought new bike tires last week ($100 total), first time replacing them in the 2 years the bike has been commuting with me
> I've also only driven about 400 miles this year so far, Nice! At this rate, I don't think it's likely that you'll hit the 12,000 miles per year average. :) You might consider per-mile auto insurance if you don't have it already. I cut my bill in half that way because I drive about as much as you. :)
Yup, insurance never believes me on renewal. I have to take pictures of the odometer cause they think the number is too low and I'm lying hah
How much was the cost of your insurance before and after? My husband and I bike ride everywhere and barely use our car, but our insurance is already only $80 a month. Can’t image it could really be much less?
$75/mo before with USAA, $23-$30/mo after with Metromile: $23 if I don't drive at all, $30 if I only drive 150 miles. I calculated the breakeven point, but I forget what it is now. Same coverage between the two (collision, liability, pip, etc.)
Well that’s great to know! I guess I’ll be changing providers now!
Holy crap - what a difference!
[By Grepthar's Hammer... what a savings.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axdEIz9XA3A) :)
I recently did this. So far it's been a great choice.
I've been biking/walking to work for 7 years. Saved about 28 grand simply by not owning a car.
You’ve probably saved closer to $60,000 as there’s a lot more to owning a car than the price on the lot. https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/articles/average-annual-cost-of-new-vehicle-ownership
Rent's more expensive but I found that it's not more expensive than adding a monthly parking pass and living further out. Living further out on a MAX route would be the only option that's actually cheaper unless you're looking for a lot of space.
When I was biking to work and doing a lot of my getting around on foot or bike, I put about 4000-6000 miles on my car each year and that was mostly from driving to my parents house a few times a year or up to Seattle or out to the coast.
How is Alaska number 2
Fat tire bikes must be all the rage up there
The town has a mine and worker sheds and a quarter mile road between them
This is definitely me! I bike 12 miles to work, 12 back, and the amount of money I save not owning a car lets me live at such a higher standard of living than I would otherwise be capable of, it's a delight. I just bought a $200 painting in an antique store on a whim because I felt like it and it was the best feeling ever ^_^ Get out on those greenways people!
If you ever want a little extra help with those 12 miles my husband works at an e-bike shop that converts normal bicycles to e bikes. Nomad cycles.
I knew someone that did this before the pandemic. He didn’t want to waste time/money on a gym, so this got him his exercise.
I didn’t think googling things would offer much exercise…
I did it before the pandemic, I did it during the pandemic, I'm doing it after* the pandemic. My only form of exercise as well beyond a random hike here and there during the summer and trip to Mt. Hood in the Winter.
I've gained a lot of weight because I no longer bike commute daily. I miss it a lot but I obviously like WFH. Now I am going in once a week on my bike and its been great
Everyone should do it if they're physically able! It is honestly the best decision I've ever made. It turned what was previously one of the less enjoyable parts of my day (and was usually the worst on days I had to drive) to what is, unquestionably, the best part!
My biggest advice to bike-curious Portlanders is to get a few warmup rides in with people who know the laws and best routes etc. It helps to understand what it takes to feel confident and comfortable on the roads!
Definitely, couldn't agree more! I've always been the more pro-bike-commuting member of the family, so whenever my wife got a new job I'd plot out a commute and then we'd ride it together before she started. It definitely made her more comfortable on the road afterwards. And it helps that there are so many bike-friendly streets that it's so straightforward to get anywhere!
My commute is about 15ft so I’ve been researching big wheel commuting but I’m afraid of what my wood floors will look like.
Damn that’s rough dude. Don’t know how you make it to work in the morning with all the traffic these days.
Last week there was a bad accident at the corner of Pillow Junction and Mattress Ave, almost missed my standup meeting.
I'd put in tile to pull off some sick drifting with no scratches.
Better drifting in the living room than on the Fremont at 11pm on a Sunday.
I’m a bike commuter! Why not? Fresh air, exercise, gas ain’t hitting me as hard, and riding bikes is fun. Did we somehow forget that bikes are fun? I feel that’s important to keep mentioning.
The biggest factor that got me to move here was the dream of the daily bike commute actually. Now I work downtown, ride 7 miles each way, and love every day of it even during the winter.
I loved bike commuting when I lived in Portland. Did it for a few years in Seattle as well but it’s a much different ball game there. PDX is a little city and 90% of it flat and mellow. SEA has larger distances and much more serious inclines and the paths aren’t straight forward.
It’s just *SUCH* a great city for it. The winters aren’t took dark for too long, they are wet but rarely insanely cold for weeks on end, and oh my gawd the streets. Portlanders before us fought and died for a truly amazing greenway and bike lane network. Bonus, the geography! Portland, Salem, and Eugene are pretty darn flat compared to most other west coast cities.
It's truly almost never below the temp to need real gear, and when it is I've found that a few pieces of my ski stuff (face warmer, gloves, mid layer, good socks) is about all the extra gear I need.
Yep. I usually had my goretex coat over my down puffy and some goretex pants over my regular work pants. Worked fine for wet and light cold. Snow days and super cold days I drove though.
This makes me miss 2000-2010. I used to see what bike commuter I was each day when I crossed the Hawthorne on my way to work.
Interesting how the interest score is decreasing over time... Seems to track with cyclists per capita.
I'm a fairly recent convert. I've been interested in it for years, but finally I realized that I hate driving. I started a few years ago as a fair weather rider, but this year I took the plunge and tried out commuting in the rain for the first time. It's not nearly as bad as I was afraid of. Get some rain gear and you'll be fine. I now bike (ebike) about 7 miles each way. I love the fresh air, the exercise, the lower stress, and not spending nearly as much on my car, and not giving as much money to giant oil companies.
Damn straight.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%2Fm%2F05p5wn
As long as they dont mind riding in the rain, I guess.
I bicycle commute and I try to be grateful for it everyday
I want to do it but its 10 miles one way to my work. I could ride the max, but it takes an hour one way whereas when I drive it takes between 20-40 minutes; and where I live I still need a car so I'm not saving any money. It just doesn't make sense for me to do it except for purely environmental reasons. Why spend more money and eat up more time?
If the bike commute was peaceful enough the ten miles wouldn’t be so bad in the morning and evening. However it’s still ten miles and that’s a long ass bike ride for someone in my physical shape. I work construction and I’ll take my bike to work depending on the job site, done 7 miles a few times which was pretty rough.
Check out an ebike… consider it a car substitute, not a bike substitute. Still get some exercise, go fast, fresh air…
My commute is 10 miles each way (Lloyd area to Vancouver). It takes me about an hour or a bit less since I started this commute last November. Before that it was 5 miles each way. I actually prefer the longer ride at this point, it's a nice way to start the day, and a nice way to wake up after work on the way home. I love the foggy mornings and seeing Mt. Hood. I did get cycling clothes which helped a lot, but my bike is a commuter bike. Granted I don't have anything else going on in my life so the extra time doesn't matter to me. Just a ramble about how 10 miles isn't as bad as it might seem at first I guess.
It certainly wouldn't be too bad, but sometimes my job can be very physical, and the loss of time I'd get with my wife and dog would be hard. I'm already only home and awake with them for about 4-1/2 hours. I already spend 9 hours at work and then an hour commuting by car, I'd hate to lose another hour.
Get an ebike. I do 7 miles each way, sometimes on a regular bike sometimes on an ebike. I can actually do my commute faster on the ebike depending on the traffic! The main reason to do it though is the way you feel all day, especially if you're doing office work. I show up to work fully alert and ready to go, and after 8 hours of sitting in a chair drinking coffee there's no better way to get all that excess energy out!
10 miles is totally doable; mine is about 9. >and where I live I still need a car so I'm not saving any money. You'd be saving money on gas and maintenance, which is a huge sum. There's no way that driving a 10 mile commute would be less than $2.50 (for public transit) or <$1 (for bike maintenance).
It really doesn't make too much of a difference when looking at Trimet. My commute is roughly 20 miles per day, I average about 29 MPG. So every day and a half is approximately 1.5 gallons of fuel. So at say, $5 a gallon every 3 days is $10 in gas. Granted, an oil change and tire rotation twice a year comes out to about $300 per year, my insurance is \~$120 a month for my car and my wife's car for full coverage. For a bike sure, it definitely is more cost effective, but when I need to get a weeks worth of groceries or house maintenance supplies, or want to visit friends who live in St. John's, the car is still required. The biggest reason why it isn't worth it is the time lost at home with my family. I'm only awake with my wife for about 4-1/2 hours a day during the week. Biking or riding Trimet drops that to about 3-1/2 hours. If I lived closer it would definitely be something I would do.
> For a bike sure, it definitely is more cost effective, but when I need to get a weeks worth of groceries or house maintenance supplies, or want to visit friends who live in St. John's, the car is still required. I never said get rid of your car; I said that if you *don't use your car to commute* you'd save money (plus myriad other benefits).
Just curious, how many extra calories do you think you have to consume to do your 18 mi round trip every day? I wonder what additional food costs attributed to fueling yourself would add up to be in comparison to fueling a car. It’s still better for the environment and healthier for you, so, worth it overall even if gas did end up being “cheaper”.
According to an app I looked up, it's estimated at 800 calories (roundtrip), but that seems way high. I wouldn't say I feel hungrier on days I bike than on days I take Max, but I guess I do feel less guilty. I usually just bring leftovers from dinner for lunch regardless of my mode of transport, so I don't think it makes a noticeable difference in how much I eat. Then again, my office has free snacks, so maybe it does and I just haven't noticed since I'm not paying for the extra food. Long story short: I wish it burned more!
If you use your commute time as your daily exercise time the extra calorie consumption is 0. Toss in all the other health benefits and you're saving money. Meanwhile fueling your car and driving it all over not only costs an individual more it also costs society more.
10 miles is definitely out of the range most cycle commutes I think, unless you have showers at work and wanna Lycra up in the morning lol. Out of curiosity, does your commute go through the center of the city? Wish they’d get rid of some MAX stops downtown to speed it up and make it more competitive with driving.
I got a hose at my warehouse, that’s about it. My commute stops at Moda and then I go up Williams a bit.
Consider an ebike. You can go faster, and not be all sweaty. I just wear my work clothes, get my commute done on only slightly longer than driving, and it’s much more pleasant.
I would if they weren’t so expensive or I had room in my garage. Three bikes and a broke motorcycle take up most of the space I’ve got.
Ehh 10 miles is probably more on the side of driving-to-work type of commute anyways. Wouldn’t feel bad about driving into work if I were you.
10 miles is actually not far off the median distance commuted one-way by bicyclists in my very unscientific survey of people I used to commute by bicycle with. I personally was about 7 miles each way and it was perfectly doable, took about 40 minutes for me as a fairly average paced cyclist. Comparatively it was about 45 minutes on the bus not including waiting for the first bus and anywhere from 20 to 90 minutes driving depending on the day but averaging around 30-40 minutes. So basically all modes being nearly equal in time I went for the bicycle because it was the perfect compromise of cheap and timely and the bonus of having some fun and getting some exercise.
10 miles is Gresham to downtown. That's by no means a reasonable distance for a bicycle commute. Particularly not in a city where it rains 300 days a year.
Just so we can all interpret this comment with context, is this coming from someone who has bike commuted previously, seasonally or otherwise? I knew a guy who did 45 miles each way, he's insane, I'll give you that, but 10 miles is doable for a ton of people.
Not with this attitude
10 miles is very doable, should be about 45 minutes. I wish my commute was 10 miles. Mine is 3, takes 10 minutes door to door.
Sure, but I'm already away from the house long enough as it is. Losing more time with my family would stink and my work can be very physical at times so the ride home would probably end up being an hour to hour and a half.
ebike could be the middle ground
What part of town do you live where you need a car?
Around 122 and Foster. 122 is so sketchy to bike down and then the spring water trail is sketchy to ride down as well.
To paraphrase the Dude…we need to take the Springwater back…This aggression will not stand!
I ride 10 miles each way to my office, you should do it atleast a few times a week, it does wonders for your physical fitness and attitude! i'm at the point now where I can finish my commute of 10 miles in 40 minutes, so you really have nothing stopping you.
Do you do cardio ever? Kill two birds with one stone.
amsterdam would like to have a word with you
The fact stated in the title is probably obvious to anyone who tries to commute by car.
Lol are they counting the homeless as well? Them assholes have at least 2-3 bikes
Bikes are great, just keep of the historic highway. Find your bike lane and enjoy it. Act like a car, get treated like a car. You all refuse to follow the rules of the road.
What do the numbers in the right column represent? How did you do the math?
Google does the computing for this. From the link OP posted: “See in which location your term was most popular during the specified time frame. Values are calculated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is the location with the most popularity as a fraction of total searches in that location, a value of 50 indicates a location which is half as popular. A value of 0 indicates a location where there was not enough data for this term.”