In this time of heightened economic anxiety, many people are looking for ways to save money. Dispositions like thrift, simplicity and the wise husbanding of resources have always been virtues, although many people seemed to forget this during the pre-economic downturn years in which the average American spent something like 106% of his or her income (yes, that means people dug themselves deeper into debt with each passing year). But thrift and economy are making a welcome comeback and for all of us thinking about the conservation of our personal resources, the humble bicycle should be the first choice for transportation.
Automobiles are, by far, the most common form of transportation in Los Angeles, including Culver City. Cars are, fundamentally, a way to get from point A to point B. But just how well do they accomplish this simple task?
The most noticeable cost associated with car ownership is gas, which currently hovers around $3.85 per gallon for regular. However, a car is incredibly inefficient at converting this increasingly expensive gasoline into useful energy. When a gallon of gasoline is combusted in a car engine, only about 15% of the resulting energy helps to get the car from point A to point B. The rest of the energy is lost to engine inefficiencies, heat, friction, inertia, wind resistance and so on (consumerenergycenter.org/transportation/consumer_tips/vehicle_energy_losses.html).
But it gets worse. To keep the math simple, assume that together the car and I weigh around 4000 pounds – I weigh 160 pounds and the car weighs 3840 pounds. Considering that I’m only 6% of the combined weight of the car and passenger, a mere 0.9% of the energy created by burning gas is actually used to move me from point A to point B. In other words, for each $3.85 I spend on gas, only $0.0356 – three cents – goes to getting me where I want to go. The remaining $3.82 is used to move around a large pile of metal, glass, plastic and assorted petroleum products (the car) – wasted money. Where else would you pay $3.85 for 3¢ of goods or services?
Fortunately, there is a better alternative for local trips in Culver City and surrounding communities: the bicycle. It’s true that a bike still needs fuel and that there are frictions and resistances associated with a bicycle; but since the operator is the engine and one needs to eat anyway, the fuel is already being paid for. And the savings don’t stop there. Owning and operating a car actually costs much more than the gas used to run it. Car ownership includes, at least, the cost of the car, financing charges and interest (unless it is paid in full), insurance for theft and collision, gas and oil, maintenance and repairs, parking fees and potentially, tolls and tickets. Looked at it in this comprehensive way, the more or less direct costs of car ownership often add up to something well north of $10,000 per year. Check out Edmunds “True Cost to Own” calculator online: edmunds.com/tco.html. Compare that to a bicycle, which might cost a few hundred dollars and which needs very little year-to-year maintenance.
And there are additional savings to enjoy. For example, rather than paying a monthly membership to sit on a stationary bike in a gym – trying to undo the weight problems to which car culture is a major contributing factor – do away with the membership payment and exercise by commuting or running local errands.
Economists tell us that one of the big reasons for market failures is externalities – hidden costs that are not reflected in the price and which we do not take into account. Mechanical inefficiencies are not, strictly speaking, externalities; the costs associated with social isolation, asthma, traffic accidents and climate change are actual externalities that are not reflected in our economic assessment of car culture. However, the parallel point is that when we make decisions without a true and accurate sense of the costs, we make bad decisions. And when we look at the real costs of an automobile lifestyle – direct economic costs and indirect costs from stress (traffic and parking) and obesity (lack of exercise), to say nothing of the astonishing social and environmental costs (perhaps the subject for future columns), we are likely to reconsider the humble bicycle: a simple, elegant, efficient and, above all, enjoyable way to get around town.