I’m a big fan of saving money in any way I can. And with gas prices at an all time high, one great way to save serious money is by riding my eBike to work. How much money will I really be saving, though? And what other trade-offs will I have to make in order to bike to work? Let’s find out:
At the time this was written (late summer 2022), the average gas price for regular unleaded across the country is at $4.22, with the average gas price here in Utah, where I live at $4.85. My car averages about 32 miles per gallon. The round-trip distance from my house to my office is 48 miles. If we do that math, it costs me about $7.27 everytime I drive to and from the office. If you multiply that by the amount of times I go to the office—about 15-20 times a month—I spend anywhere between $109 to $145 per month on gas.
Now, let’s look at what it would cost me to ride my RUSH/CTY SPEED to work instead of driving my car. The average cost in the US to fully charge a 706Wh battery eBike battery from 0% to 100% is less than 25 cents (!). Even if we assume that I completely drain the battery on each day’s ride, that’s still just $5.00 for a full month’s electricity—a massive savings of $104-$144 compared to gassing up my car!
I can hear what you are saying from here: Who has time for a 90-minute round-trip ride to work (which is roughly how long it would take me to complete my daily commute, assuming an average speed of 18mph)? And that’s fair—pedaling 50 miles a day, everyday, might seem extreme to most people. But that doesn’t mean that bike commuting isn’t an option for you. Consider the solution that I arrived at, which is a hybrid commute using Frontrunner, the Salt Lake City area’s commuter train. It’s about a 10-minute eBike ride from my home to the Frontrunner station, where I am able to easily load my bike on the train before unloading a few minutes later for the final 5-minute ride to the office.
Of course, riding the train isn’t free. An unlimited monthly pass is $75, but this still saves me anywhere between $30 and $70 each month. Even more important to me, however, are the intangible benefits. I actually enjoy riding the train. There’s WiFi on-board so I can catch up on work emails or read for entertainment, instead of battling traffic, and I like the feeling of being a little more green and getting some exercise, too. It seems like a good trade off.
I’ll continue to test it out and see how it goes, maybe I’ll have a follow up blog on my experience of commuting to work.
- Jason Rimando, Lead Content Specialist
