Thread started by trickmilla at 05.15.08 - 12:01 pm

Right now its costs about 54¢ a mile to drive a car (according to AAA).
Has anybody ever seen a computation of the cost per mile of riding a bike? Its not free. If It was I wouldn't be dropping so much money at O20 and other bike shops.

This isn't an entirely rhetorical question.
I am billing USC for a job I did there a few weeks back and they have a section to document travel expenses. If I'd done it in a car I suppose I'd have about $15 in travel and parking expenses I woudl bill them for.

I am sure my cycling expenses would come out to pennies but it would be nice to have reliable meter of average expenses. Shouldn't we be getting write-offs and reimbursements when we use our bikes for for work?

To come up with a price, I'd have to compute the following:
tires, tubes patches, batteries
replacing lights..
deprecation of bike
wear on shoes
maintenance (headset, bottom bracket, hubs, wheels, derailers)
Increased caloric intake.
Increased water consumption.

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Dont forget to factor in beer! Everyride I spend about $5-7 bucks on beer!!



speedybrian2000
05.15.08 - 12:06 pm

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(see caloric intake)



trickmilla
05.15.08 - 12:11 pm

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I know messengers that have been deducting tires and tubes for a long while.



Eric Hair
05.15.08 - 12:34 pm

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I would bill them same as car mileage.
These forms usually say mileage they don't specify what mileage.
Employees usually get reimbursed the IRS rate which is currently $0.505/mile. Since a bike is human powered you shouldn't count only the cost of purchasing/maintaining the bike but also the cost of maintaining that gorgeous body of yours.

You should also inquire if USC has any incentives for encouraging alternative transportation. Some employers may give you $75-200/mo for NOT bringing a car to the workplace. That's how much money THEY save them for not having to build and maintain a parking spot for you and they may also get federal or regional credits for pollution/congestion reduction.





marino
05.15.08 - 1:28 pm

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Thanks Marino,

Instead of billing them for transportation, I wrote "I rode my bike".
I am sure they have some incentives for employees, but I was just an independent contractor. Filling out the form just got me thinking that it would be rad if I had a number to plug in there and get my 75¢ or whatever.

A federally recognized standard would be awesome.





trickmilla
05.15.08 - 2:15 pm

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I did a little googling, and though I couldn't find anything for the U.S., the U.K. standard is 20p/mile, or about $0.39/mile at current exchange rates. Not too shabby...



nathansnider
05.15.08 - 3:09 pm

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I agree with Marino...I would bill them same as car mileage. But that means not adding in tubes and trying to figure out the depreciation of your bike. But it's simpler that way and will look more legit to the company. I get 45 cents per mile. But you should do the slightly higher IRS one.



0gravity
05.15.08 - 5:08 pm

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Last year I did a pathetic 7000 miles. I also bashed in my face while riding. I spent a bunch of cash building up my dream bike . . . so here's the breakdown for me:

Maintenance (new tires, broken lights, expensive ass ten speed chains, etc)
about $300

building a new bike
$1500

Face
$6K

So a rough cost per mile was either
4 cents
25 cents
$1.11
depending on which of those costs you add in.

I wonder what the added food I ate cost? What about the health benefits? Fascinating and intricate subject.



Alex Thompson
05.15.08 - 5:21 pm

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Probably gonna have to have a downhill rate and an uphill rate. Factor in head wind or tail wind, group miles or solo.



SoapBoxLA
05.16.08 - 2:11 am

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most work sites that are 10,000 square feet or more should provide showering facilities for they're bike commuting or walking or running employees. In most cases large companies also participate in rideshare employee incentive programs. when i was at fox they paid $3.50 a day for bike commuting for work and that was taxable at almost 50% so i wouldn't get much back but bus commuters would get a non-taxable amount of $2.75. So since they didn't really monitor who rides and who takes the bus i'd enter 1 for public transit and get my tax free $2.75 a day and that would add up to about 30 bucks a month. If i had started a savings fund with that money alone i'd have 2 new carbon dura bikes right now....

damn!






Eddie GOpez
05.16.08 - 3:08 am

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so ask USCabout a rideshare program for students.

when are you going to mix again and where Patrick?



Eddie GOpez
05.16.08 - 3:10 am

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Funny, I was asking myself the same question as I rode this morning, all the stops at gas stations for "fueling up" (gateorade/water) was comparable to driving a car.



XPC
05.16.08 - 3:33 am

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