cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26368144
Anons argue in comments
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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I don’t know about inexpensive. The bike I want is approaching a grand and my last car was $5500. I would be crushed losing that amount.
The bike I use daily was $300. The car that we drive costs $30000. You know that bringing up anecdotes goes 2 ways?
My daily rider set me back 75€. A second hand omafiets, very well built by a local company, aluminum frame, a super comfy seat, hub dynamo, a rear wheel lock built into the frame + a fairly good chain, fresh-ish tires, a spacious basket at the front and an attachment point for another basket at the back. Perfect city bike. And it was such in great shape that all I had to do was make some adjustments to its shifter and that was basically all the maintenance it required for a good while.
Obviously I count myself EXTREMELY lucky for having stumbled upon this listing at my local second hand marketplace, but my point stands. There are a ton of very reasonably priced second hand bikes that are perfect for daily use as primary transports.
Merely owning a car has cost me an average of $2000 a year. Insurance, tires, oil and other maintenance costs brings that up to $3000. Just to own the car, that doesn't include gas to actually use it
What car costs you $2000 a year to sit in the driveway doing nothing? That's $167/mo before any expenses? Sounds like a really cheap car payment.
I mean insurance? You can easily spend 167 a month just on insurance And if you have a car payment then you're definitely spending over that
Whether you drive it or not those fees are still there
They said it was $2000/yr, then mentioned insurance and other things on top of that. And then mentioned that cost also didn't include gas. I'm guessing car payment.
I have four paid-off vehicles (minivan, crossover, and two motorcycles), and full coverage insurance for all of them is ~$152/mo. Granted, I have a large family and, outside of school busses, there is zero public transportation and no way to ride a bike to and from work.
This did get me thinking though. One of my motorcycles is only 49cc, so I have to find alternative routes sometimes, which really shows the inadequacy of our road system. If a fully-licensed, registered, and insured motorcycle can't get me to work and back without taking back roads that increase my commute time from 12 minutes (car) to almost 30 minutes - what good is it to have at all, you know?
So that would be their car payment then if it's pre insurance. That also tracks.
I pay 165 a month for one car and I haven't had any tickets or accidents in over 7 years so might depend where you live as well
But now imagine if that 12 min car ride was easily bikeable or had public transport. You'd get to places far easier and you would have shops etc around you so you didn't have to drive 20 min to get to a grocery store.
Oh absolutely. My commute is essentially a straight shot from my house, but it's a 55mph rural highway where everyone does 60+. My little bike can hit 52mph on a good day, but there's very little shoulder to use when others want to pass, so it's either hang on tight in traffic or take the longer backroads 🫤
I'm working on getting my other motorcycle (1980 XR500) ready for street use, that one handles even freeway traffic just fine.