While the factors driving up the cost of motoring are complex and take in everything from the higher price of fossil fuels as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the high cost of computer chips and silicon thanks to a spike in demand and a shortage of supply, the answer – at least for many people – could scarcely be simpler.
It doesn’t involve investing tens of thousands of euro in an electric car or moderating the way you work through the gears of your car or even checking your tire pressure or emptying your boot to save yourself a few bob on fuel.
Just don’t drive. We’re not suggesting you don’t own a car – that would be unrealistic for most people. Simply don’t use it as much.
The numbers don’t lie and when it comes to cutting the cost of getting from A to B there is s nothing better – or at least cheaper – than a bike. If your commute is just 8km each way and you usually drive, then you will travel 3,760km to and from work over the course of a year.
If your car has a fuel consumption rate of 9.5 litres per 100km then you will use about 370 litres of fuel on your commute each year. If a litre of fuel costs around €1.80 then the cost of a commute in your car comes in at a pretty worrying €666. Add €350 to cover tyres, servicing and repairs and the total cost rises to more than a grand.
By contrast, you can easily buy a bike that is good enough for the daily commute for €500; the lights, helmet rain gear and lock will add another €200 to your bill. Once tax breaks under the Cycle to Work scheme are factored in, the actual cost to you will come in at €350. Spread that over five years and add an additional €50 a year for maintenance and the total cost of commuting that relatively short distance will come in at €600. The cost of the same commute in a car is €5,080.
So, at the risk of labouring the point, a 25-year-old who decides today to forgo the pleasures of a car for their daily commute will find themselves better off by around 50 grand by the time their time to retire comes. That should buy them a whole lot of jet packs or teleport machines or augmented reality devices or whatever mechanisms people have from getting from A to B in 2072.
But money saving is not the only reason more people should at least consider leaving their cars at home more often than not. There are more positives of pedal power than the merely monetary.
Live longer
A report published in the Lancet a couple of years ago found that cyclists tend to be slimmer and more likely to live longer than their car-driving counterparts.
As part of the exhaustive – and some might say exhausting – study, scientists pored over the biological data of more than 150,000 people and studied the health of half a million others aged between 40 and 69. And what did they find?
Men who cycle weigh an average of 5kg less than their driving counterparts, while the average woman cyclist weighed 4.4kg less
Cycling commuter have a lower body fat percentage and body mass index in middle age compared with car drivers. Men who cycle weigh an average of 5kg less than their driving counterparts, while the average woman cyclist weighed 4.4kg less.
It is not hard to see why this might be the case. A gentle cycle at just 15km/h will see you burn around 400 calories in an hour, and if you cycle at a zippier 22km/h you will shed 700 calories. By cycling regularly, you will improve your aerobic fitness, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke, lower your blood pressure and your cholesterol, while boosting your energy levels.
And because it is such a low-impact exercise, you can do it for almost as long as you live – and if Danish research is to be believed, that will be seven years longer than your non-cycling cousins.
There is still more, even parking the undeniable wealth and health benefits of the bike. For a start is it, by any measure, the most reliable way of getting to and from where you need to be in a timely fashion. When you cycle, you can count on your commuting time being consistent and unless you find yourself headfirst into a hurricane (which you won’t) then going from A to B will always take the same length of time.
It is not as damp as you might think. While we understand that many people are put off by cycling because they don’t fancy arriving at work flushed and sweaty or are concerned they will be rained on, the reality is quite different.
Unless you cycle with the intensity of a Tour de France competitor, you can generally cover the ground you need to cover without breaking much of a sweat, and if you live on the east coast and cycle to work you are only likely to get rained on on four days out of every 100 which means you will stay dry 96 per cent of the time.
While cycling is cheaper than almost any other mode of transport – with the obvious exception of walking and running – it is not entirely free. You can spend anything from less than €100 to well in excess of €2,000 on a bicycle, although it is always worth remembering that the more you spend on a commuting bike, the more attractive you will be to thieves. And theft is an issue, obviously.
Secure parking
If you secure your bike properly and don’t always park it in the same spot, you should be grand. And we reckon the State could do a whole lot more to provide secure parking for us.
There is also the environment to consider. A car that commutes just 8km to and from work every day generates a tonne of noxious gases over the course of its life, not including all the pollution generated by its production and all the plastic and rubber required to keep it going. Bicycles are virtually carbon-neutral.
So what have you got to lose? Get on your bike.
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Reasons we don’t cycle
As we finished out homage to the bicycle we figured that we had done all that was needed to convince the entire nation that the future was two-wheeled. But just to be sure, we thought we would get a sense of what others thought about cycling. Specifically, we wanted to hear from people who do not cycle.
So we took to Twitter and posted the following: “Can I ask those of you who never cycle what are the barriers to you getting on a bike ? And what would it take to convince you that two wheels are better than four when it comes to getting from A to B (as long as the distance is not wildly prohibitive)?”
In less than 24 hours we had received hundreds of responses and they were as depressing as they were illuminating. The obstacle can be summed up in a single word: danger.
It is a sad reality that many people are scared of cycling in a world that so often seems to favour the motorist at the expense of almost every other road user.
“Safety,” said motoring journalist Geraldine Herbert. “Rural roads have higher average speeds than urban roads and are often narrower, with sharp corners and blind bends and are generally not safe for cycling.”
Melanie Morris said she had a bike for two weeks but 'nearly lost my teeth with all the potholes'
Doug Leddin echoed her concerns as he pointed to a “lack of cycle lane… I drive an electric moped to and from work and it’s amazing. But the lights and full-size helmet and horn make me feel much safer than when I’m on a push bike.”
Melanie Morris said she had a bike for two weeks but “nearly lost my teeth with all the potholes”, adding that she “defo lost my nerve due to Dublin motorist behaviour”.
“There are a number of reasons but the biggest is that I’m rarely alone in the car,”said Claire Allen. “I often have at least one child with me, usually have a dog too (on our way to walk). School runs etc are not easy cycled.”
Newstalk presenter Kieran Cuddihy said he was “thinking of cycling from the Red Cow Park and Ride into work but I don’t want to have a shower after every trip. So a folding e-bike might be needed. The cost is putting me off.”
Thieves
Journalist Nadine O’Regan said there were a “lot of bike thieves in the area with the result that we have to keep my bike in the shed”. With commendable honesty she added that it was “ such a pain to get the padlock to the shed open that I often find myself just deciding to walk/drive.”
Author Sheila O’Flanagan blamed the weather and said she she would never cycle in the rain or the wind. She also pointed to the clothes needed for cycling. “Appropriate cycling clothes don’t necessarily work with my intended destination.” Then there was comfort. “The saddle isn’t ever comfortable”. And finally she pointed to safety. “Cycling lanes only marked by white line don’t really feel safe.”
“I’m too nervous to cycle in traffic,” said travel writer Melanie May. “It just doesn’t feel safe in Dublin. Bike lanes aren’t secure or wide enough.”
Irish Times parenting columnist Jen Hogan blamed her children – sort of. “Transporting children,” her response began. “Arriving somewhere and having to shower/change. Feeling unsafe if it was late. Aggressive drivers. I mean I’d have no problem, in theory, cycling for fun, but could never see me cycling as a mode of everyday transport.”
Gillian Fitzpatrick said she had “general concerns about being knocked down. Brought the kids out recently on their bikes - I got on one too. We stuck to quiet residential spots but had to go out on to the main Harold’s Cross road at one stage where the bike lane and bus lane are one. Terrifying.”
Jason Ennis said he does cycle but said that “what prevents me from cycling more are d***head drivers who risk lives to save seconds. Which is inevitably pointless as I’m usually faster on a bike. Things like this make me take the car for some journeys. Funnily enough I feel safest in city when it’s gridlocked.”
Eamonn Mitchell pointed to a “lack of safe infrastructure (just as particularly noted on rural roads as much as urban settings). Also, teaching our kids to cycle on rural roads was lethal, considering narrow, bends, motor vehicle speed etc! We often had to drive bikes to the city (ironic eh) to go cycling.”
Fiona Moriarty said she would “love to cycle and leave car at home.” She lives in Cork on the north side of the city and works on the southside “It is an easy 5.5km distance but no safe cycle lanes for a lot of the route, lots of cyclists having to mount pathways etc or risk getting squashed.”
Speed limits
Catriona Reid said it “would take a reduction in speed limits in suburban areas and a huge increase in segregated cycle lanes to convince me to leave my car at home. I do walk when I can though because most things I need are in walking distance, but there’s just not enough cycle lanes in my area.”
Gráinne Faller said she cycles “all the time, but safety still gives me pause. It’s not safe. No infrastructure at all in Galway and some driver behaviour is terrible, especially SUV driver behaviour unfortunately.”
And then there was Jessica Shine.. “The weather, sweatiness (for going out/work) and the condition of the roads all make me not want to use bikes as a commute.”
Barbara O’Donnell said simply: “It is s too dangerous to cycle on my road that was made before there were motor vehicles and now is classed as a regional road. I’m 15 km from Galway and the road is extremely busy.”
Turlough Downes was once a cyclist but was driven off the roads in more ways than one. “I always commuted by bicycle until about 10 years ago, when I moved house. The commute now is not too long for me, but there are narrow roads used by HGVs (avoiding tolls) which make cycling impossible to consider.”
While Pricewatch reckons many of those who responded to our question perhaps have yet to notice or factor in the significant improvements in Ireland’s cycling infrastructure since the start of the pandemic, their concerns are valid. And they should been heeded by those in power and used as an incentive to do more and to do it faster.
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A formal survey
In recent months a company with the self-explanatory name Bike to Work – an offshoot of HubEx – has been gauging the mood of Ireland’s cycling community to find out what they think and how they use their bikes.
When asked why they cycled, improved fitness was cited as the top reason, with 67 per cent saying that was why they hopped on their bike. A further 65 per cent cited the mood boost they got from it while 58 per cent said they cycled because they enjoyed it. Commuting was highlighted by 43 per cent followed by the reduction of carbon emissions, the avoidance of public transport, getting through lockdown and the avoidance of parking charges.
The research also found that 45.5 per cent cycle in mostly urban areas, with 24 per cent cycling in mostly rural areas and 29 per cent in a mixture of both.
Out of the close to 1,400 responses received, the most popular style of bicycle was a road bike, while one in 10 people said they now had an e-bike.
The vast majority of participants own a bike valued in the region of €500 to €1,500, with 9.4 per cent owning bikes valued in the €3,000-plus category
In terms of distance travelled, 35.6 per cent said they cycled 5km to 10km in a single journey, which is the average length of a commute to work, while a pretty hefty 18 per cent said they cycle over 20km on their commute.
One in four people aid there were no available cycle lanes on their usual route
When asked about the availability of Cycle Lanes on their regular route, only 3.1 per cent said dedicated cycle lanes were available on 100 per cent of their usual routes, while one in four people aid there were no available cycle lanes on their usual route.
Very few people said they felt completely safe on the roads but 70 per cent said they felt moderately safe.
When asked how their safety could be improved, 56 per cent said better infrastructure was needed while 14 per cent said better education for motorists would help. There were also calls for lower car speeds, technology that stops motorists texting while driving and better laws to protect cyclists.
Environmental concerns
And when asked what would persuade them to cycle more and drive less, the price of fuel was cited by 11 per cent of respondents, someway adrift of the 21 per cent who said environmental concerns would most likely reshape their habits.
If the Cycle to Work Scheme upper limits (€1,250 for standard bike and €1,500 for e-bike) were increased to enable the purchase of pricier bikes, 21.3 per cent said they would be more inclined to take to the road while 13 per cent called for bike lockers or bike lock-up cages to be available at train and/or Luas stations.
A further 17 per cent called for grants to be made available for e-bikes, while 7.5 per cent said they would cycle more if Low Emission Zones) were introduced into cities, where larger vehicles that don’t meet emissions regulations have to pay to drive in certain areas of the city.
