hillary dixon rust

This isn't an actual fight so I'm sorry if you're disappointed. 

What this is, is a very casual comparison between the cost and efficiency of riding a bike vs driving a car. I say "casual" because I haven't done any real research to find the facts I'm going to present. I googled a few things and used a calculator to do some rough math. I will say that I have tried to be as fair as possible and that I will continue to be. I will do my best to explain "fair" as I go along. In every case I basically gave the car the benefit of the doubt and the bike whatever the opposite of that is. 

The car I chose is the Toyota Prius. I'm using reported stats from Car & Driver (online) for the 2010 Prius except for the price where I chose to use the 2009 lowest possible estimated cost for a new one because it was cheaper. I chose to use the Prius because it is the most readily available and best known of the "environmentally friendly" cars.

The bike is imaginary. What I mean is that I'm making a "commuter bike" out of tons of different types of bikes to make it the most run-of-the-mill I possibly can. Not the lightest, not the most expensive. Maybe something along the lines of a Trek Portland http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/portland/portland/weeblylink_new_windowor Trek 520 http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/road/520/520/weeblylink_new_window but fully kitted out with everything you could possibly need for commuting including shoes, backpack, pedals (which aren't included on any bike from a bike shop these days) etc.

So, let the battle begin. 

Round 1.
The Prius weighs in at a surprisingly light (at least to me) 2,932 lbs. 
The Bike comes in (sans rider) at around 30 lbs. 

This means that if you assume that all the same materials are used in the same percentages, you could make about 97 bikes for every Prius. That's 97 people commuting everyday versus at most 4, if we assume the Prius owner is also a dedicated carpooler. 

Round 2.
For the lowest cost brand new 2009 Prius you'll find it listed at $22,000.
For the bike, with an entire world of commuting goodies, $3,000.

The average person could own an entire fleet of bikes for the cost of a new Prius. You could get a grocery bike, a bike to ride to work, a bike to ride in the rain, a mountain bike for trails, and a road racing bike and still come in under $22,000.

Round 3.
The 2010 Prius is said to get a combined (city and highway) 50 miles per gallon.
A bike gets an estimated 638 miles to the gallon.

A gallon of gas is roughly 30,000 calories. Estimates suggest that it takes a human 47 calories to pedal a bike 1 mile at 10 miles per hour. The Prius would consume about 56 gallons of gas to get to New York City from Los Angeles. The bike? About 5 gallons. 

Of course to be fair, The Prius can do it in about 43 hours of non-stop driving if we assume they are doing the speed limit. The record for the RAAM (Race Across America) Is something like 8 days and change and at that rate of speed you're burning a lot more than 47 calories a mile but you're still under 55 gallons.

Round 4.
Disclaimer - The amount of CO2 to produce/dispose of either of these has not been factored in.  
Prius produces an estimated 4 tons of CO2 per year. 
A bike produces zero. 

Everything I've read says cutting our CO2 emissions is a good thing. 

Round 5.
Average speed of a Prius in city driving conditions is about 20 mph. 
Average speed of a bike is about 10 mph if you're trying not to sweat.

What does it mean to take twice as long? Most people don't live that far from work. If you live in Los Angeles and you're riding in rush hour traffic on your 6 mile (average distance) commute I can assure you the difference won't be that much. It used to take me an hour and a half to go 13 miles in my car everyday. If your work is 30 miles away then it will take you a bit of a while and you'll have to restructure most of your life around your commute. 

Round 6.
The Prius had heating, air conditioning, and a roof. 
The bike has none of those.

If you're on a bike and it's hot you'll sweat. If it's cold you'll be chilly, and if it rains you'll get wet. The good news is that with all the extra gear you get with your $3,000  you'll find that a lot of very smart people have been thinking about how to alleviate these issues and they have done a pretty good job so far. The cold and rain are almost a non issue with the cycling specific coats, pants, hats etc. The heat...well, you can't ride naked but if you're a full time commuter you can always bring a change of clothes and a spritz of deodorant right?

Round 7. 
The cost of owning/maintaining a Prius over 100,000 miles & or 12 years is estimated at $8,000.
The cost of maintaining a bike used to the same extent is under $3,000.  

This area is sticky for me. I checked around A LOT and couldn't find any real average service costs for the Prius. Just averages as projected by dealers etc. Also, Most other car/driving facts are estimated from 150,000 miles or roughly 12,000 miles per year so I'm not sure why Toyota chose 100,000 miles or 12 years. Maybe there is evidence that Prius drivers actually drive less. $8,000 still seems awfully low  but...$3,000 to keep your bike tuned and fresh and ridable is including having someone else do the work. If you do the work the cost is less than half of that seeing as how your $150 tune ups once per year just got sacked. 

Round 8.
The Prius has a reported 72 cubic feet of cargo space.
The bike fully blasted out with front and back panniers and racks comes in way behind with like 10 cubic feet.

This sounds like an awful defeat, but think about a majority of your hauling needs? What do we use all that space for most of the time? Yup! Groceries! Now take into account that the largest refrigerators have about 30 cubic feet of space. When do you go to the store and buy enough food to fill up your entire refrigerator? If you've spent the full $22,000 and added a dedicated grocery bike with a nice front basket to your fleet then chances are you will never have to worry about having enough space to get everything home. 


Round 9.
The Prius can seat 5 adults.
The bike just one unless you get a tandem and then you get two.


The Prius wins this one hands down when it comes to family trips and say, getting your wife to the hospital when she's having a baby. But let's be serious, if you're this dedicated to cycling, your hippy wife is having the baby at home anyway so...The Prius is awesome if you find yourself constantly picking up hitch hikers or stray animals as well. 


Round 10. 
The Prius holds its value better than most cars.
The bike holds its value far better than the Prius.


Assuming that the Prius will depreciate in value at about the same rate as most other cars, in 20 years it will be worth about 1/20th of what it is worth when purchased new if it is in good condition. 20 year old Bicycles on the other can routinely be found for 1/2 of what they were originally sold for. And even if the bike isn't in great condition (which means it's cheaper if you're the buyer) you can spend $150 bucks on new parts and add in a little effort and it will be running like a champ again. 


Okay, that's all I've got for now. If everything goes the way I want for the documentary we will have a hybrid car of some sort as our  "chase" vehicle and we'll be doing a real world test of me on a bike vs a car. 


It's raining in Los Angeles. 


Chirp,
hillary