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| This Yuba Mundo Replaced our F150 Pickup Truck |
With gas prices heading out of sight, budget cuts threatening our infrastructure, and monster storms born from global warming demolishing our roads and landscapes, the time is now for considering a turn from use of automobiles to use of mass transportation, bicycling, and simple walking to get around. Some analysts are predicting $6 - 7 dollar per gallon gas prices in the near future, which is more typical of Amsterdam than Atlanta. And unfortunately, our mass transit is far inferior to what the Low Countries have for their citizens.
I have had several people in my office inquire about bicycles for commuting use. And, sadly, there is a lot of education needed in the US on relative value and pricing in cycling. Thanks to BS ads by TARGET and other big-box stores, the average consumer thinks it's possible to get a good bicycle for $100 - $200 dollars US.
So when I quote a price in the area of $1000 - $1500 to get a good functional, durable, and affordable bicycle to replace an automobile, I get pained looks. It's not only sad, but it's a big roadblock to the effort of getting people out of automobiles and on the bicycles in our country.
Another LBS owner wrote about the "Race to the Bottom" in quality in the USA. Too many bicycles feature cheap components on cheap frames. And I see this not just in manufacturing, but in other parts of the economy. We are in the middle of destroying our high tech industries by attempting to outsource critical jobs to third world country workers who are far inferior to our US talent pool.
The question I have to ask is - Why? No one is going to be able to build a new geared bicycle for daily use that costs less than $1000. That's a fact. Nor can we take a worker with over 20 years of experience and substitute someone who is one generation removed from dirt streets with no experience, strictly on the basis of salary. This mortgages your company's - and country's future - for your stock options.
Which is why so many courageous young people are setting up shop on Wall Street and throughout the country and saying "No" to all of the greed. Because in the end, that's what it's all about. When money and power run your life, you never have enough. And other people just become "things", and not human beings.
But that's another subject for others to take up. Let's focus on the cost of owning a functional bicycle that can replace an automobile. Consider the real cost of automobile ownership, and then factor in the cost of a new bicycle, set up for transportation use. Compared to the average cost of $30,000, that looks pretty good next to the bicycle.
Today marks the one month point of going totally carless. Our savings so far:
Gasoline: $400.00
Insurance: $124.00
Depreciation $250.00
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Total $774.00
That's just the cost of one car, being driven daily on a 30 mile round trip commute, and on the endless numbers of 2 miles or less trips we all take to go shopping. We formerly had two vehicles, until we sold the first in 2008.
In two months, you would have enough money for a brand new transportation build, aong with racks and bags to haul stuff. Food for thought, isn't it. How much would YOU save if you gave up one vehicle? And started living locally and simpler?
More on this next week.
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