Motorcycles as a fuel conservation tool

[akmnstr]

My wife is trying to get her employer to designate a motorcycle parking area.  She has done a cost analysis of diving her jeep, her motos,
her bicycle, or the bus.  So far no parking for motos but I thought the group would find her analysis interesting.  It is only a 7 mi commute one way
but riding her bike is a big savings.  Sorry that her excel spreadsheet did not translate well into this formate.  I fixed it up the best I could.

   Commuting Cost/Benefit Calculation                        
                           
                     Raspberry Road - 6.7 miles from Federal Building      


        Gallons used             Cost                   Commute    Calories       
         over                        per week                  Time     Burned       
         13.4 mile                                            Minutes      **      
         Daily Trip   5 Day use                       One Way   One Way      
                                                 price of gas
           mpg                            $3.50   $3.70            
93 Jeep   13.7   0.98       4.89      $17.12     $18.09   25         53      10 minute walk parking to building (.5 mile)
SV 650   44   0.30       1.52        $5.33       $5.63     15            0      (assumes on-site parking, otherwise same as car)
DR 650   50   0.27       1.34        $4.69      $4.96     15            0      (assumes on-site parking, otherwise same as car)
Bicycle   *0    0          0             $0.00           $0.00           5          341      on-site parking
City Bus---     0          0            $24.50         $24.50        50            106      1-way fare = 1.75, 20 minutes walk to busstop & building
                           

   *Bicycle: 5 miles per cookie            
   **Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH) (http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov            
      155 lb woman, brisk walk         
      bicycle speed = 5-10 mph         

   93 Jeep Cherokee - 4WD automatic            13.4 mpg city, 20mpg highway
   SV 650 Suzuki -  sport motorcycle            
   DR 650 Suzuki - dual-sport motorcycle            



   Conclusion - motorcycle use can save both time and money.            
      Only 90K on the Jeep - but look into a higher mpg vehicle         
      Bicycling is also a good choice, on days when there is time.          

   Other Factors -   
      Walking downtown is nice but slightly hazardous - traffic, I pass 3 construction sites, alleys
      Late arrival at home in the afternoon (bicycle, bus) produces marital strife, because of calorie deficit in spouse, worstened by snacking
      Mondays and Thursdays I have aerobics class after work - the bus route could work with this, but I would get home late.
      The feds will pay bus fare.

[akmnstr]

Say, I have a good ending to this story.  My wife won.  Her spreadsheet and arguments were strong enough to convince the Vogons to grant
the MC riders some parking places

[BWClark]

Nice work!   wt:

[Slide Panda]

Nice.  The county I work in has free moto spots in their lots, cars gotta pay and I'e spotted some one street reserved moto spots.  Unfortunetely, the county I live in doesn't share the same views on motos, or parking them for free.  Oh well

But good on you wife for winning that battle.  Maybe I need a little excel action for my home town and get some spots too!

[hankthe8th]

Very cool. I have a similar spreadsheet going. I've been riding my bicycle for the last 10 days to work. 12.5 mile round trip. I may have been on my bicycle for 9.5 hours so far, but compared to saving over 8 gallons of gas for my Silverado, it is starting to be worth it. Of course I'm calculating the worth of my personal time at $0. Compared to my S4R however, 3 gallons in savings isn't all that impressive. I'm using 15mpg for my truck and possibly lowballing the S4R at 40 mpg. No matter what, two wheels seems the way to go.

[mxwinky]

I haven't gone so far as to spreadsheet it out, but I have similar commute distance and my seat-of-the-wallet testing results in a big + for the moto.  Here in my very congested little Northern California hamlet, my F150 pickup will easily blow through $40 or more per week in gas vs. the moto (S4RS, Multistrada or 900SS) at about $14 per week in commuting gas costs.  A definite no-brainer for me.  Luckily my work lets the motorcycles park nice & close to the building.  Heck, the owner here rides so it's all good!  Good job your wife did there, here's hoping more places adopt such forward thinking philosophies.

[c_rex]

Did she have to listen to any Vogon poetry?

[triangleforge]

Another good argument for others in her position to employ is that motorcycle or bicycle parking (along with walking & public transit) saves the company money, if they encourage them sufficiently. Parking lots don't grow on trees, you know! Probably the best time to make the argument is when the company is looking at building or expanding parking; look on sites like the League of American Bicyclists or other bike advocate sites, where you should be able to come up with figures for how much it costs per space to build new parking. Put three motorcycles in that space, and you've just saved a decent chunk of change.

[Vindingo]

Riding a bike in the bay area saves even more time and money if you cross the bridges.  We can split traffic, so if is way faster than sitting in traffic burning fuel.  We also dont have to pay tolls during commute hours.  5 days a week across the Golden Gate bridge will run you $25 in a car.  Add that to your savings in gas milage and that is a lot of money over the corse of a year!  $1300 just in tolls! 

[akmnstr]

Did she have to listen to any Vogon poetry?

Well if what that means is having to hear mid level managers say things like, "we don't have a policy for that"  or "We are concerned what the car poolers
will think about this preference"  or  "We'll need to develop some new forms to cover that." or "We'll have to clear this with purchasing and
safety."  or "I'll have to discuss this with the assistant regional director of parking."   Then yea, she heard lots of that kind of poetry.  Frankly, I am shocked that she
was able to pull this off while she was still young.  I'm damn proud of her

[El Matador]

Did she have to listen to any Vogon poetry?

Gotta love the Hitchhikers Guide reference 

[c_rex]

I listened to the BBC radio production of HHGTTG several times as a kid.  When the movie came out I hadda have it.  Mos Def did an amazing bit of acting- really surprised me.

Anyhoo- as much as I love the fact that I can use my cycle in HOV lanes and we can park 2x-3x as many in a single parking lot, I just realized that my mpg isn't all that great when I'm really enjoying my cycle.  Don't tell Mrs. akmstr's boss that!  I've thought about getting a scooter or something to commute on to make up for it but in the meantime my carbon footprint looks like Paul Bunyon's between my bike and car.   

[Le Pirate]

interesting compilation of data. And congrads to the wife for winning her battle!


this would be interesting for me to look into, though my options are quite limited 

[Henecton]

After some calculations I was disappointed to find out I only save $4 a day commuting on my 695 versus the car, the car gets 30 mpg and the bike 42-45 mpg. The commute to work somedays is an absolute joy, so much so I sometimes ponder what would happen if I missed my exit  . Most of us own motorcycles for the joy they bring us when riding so any cost savings we might get is just a bonus.

[factorPlayer]

only $4 a day - over a month thats like $80 or more.  Not quite chump change to me. 

I don't look at it as saving money - when you factor in tires, 6k service etc.  But you do save gas, and every bit everyone can do to use less is a noble effort.