Biking and saving oil

With my research lab 24 miles (38 km) from my university campus, I was forced to do a commute 4-5 times a week. Of course, when I could, I did carpool with graduate students who shared the same fate. As the months went by, I found that I needed longer hours at my lab and car pooling was constraining me. Plus, one particular semester turned out unfavourable and I was driving all by myself 4-5 days a week. I was putting 1000 miles (1600km) on my car each month. I could see my car age in front of me - Had to service the cooling system, rear brakes, front brakes, soon approaching the big 60K mile timing belt change followed by a transmission flush and more to come. I would soon be driving a 100K mile car that might fall apart anytime. That apart, commuting itself was a pain and added to my stress levels. And of course, I didn't want to live the "American" way, where you drive all by yourself to work. I wanted to save oil and cut greenhouse emissions.

So finally, I decided that I had to leave my house, nice roommates and social life in College Park and move to Gaithersburg, where I knew almost no one. Having driven so much the previous year and a half, I was eager to ride my bike and not touch my car on weekdays. And, so I moved. I biked 4-5 days a week, saving my car for the weekends. The results were magical. I drove only 6000 miles (10000 km) a year and driving became fun again. I was proud of myself for saving oil.

A year ago, I had installed a bike computer (calculates speed, distance, avg speed, etc). Looking at the Odometer, I've driven about 1100 km (700 miles) in one year, with only about 35 km of that being done for pleasure.

How much gas have I saved? 25 gallons (94 liters). For reference, I used 200 gallons (750 liters) or gas during the same time. Wouldn't have made much of a difference

Would I have saved on money? No. The extra amount I eat per day when I bike is about 1.5 times what I would have spent on gas at it's costliest.

Would it leave a smaller Carbon Footprint? Possibly. My per trip energy spent is 600 kJ, while the car spends 27,000 kJ. But you need to consider the energy required to process food.

How much older would my car be had I not biked at all? Less than a 1000 miles (63.7K miles instead of 63.0K miles). What I biked was only 10% of what I drove during the same time.

The moral of the story -

1. Biking does not really save much gas, but the fact that you CAN BIKE is what makes the difference. Move closer to your work place, but don't feel guilty when you don't bike.

2. Biking is meant for exercise and good health. Biking in itself does not save you any money, except if you can do without a car. Biking may be better for the environment though.