Short Bike Commutes Can Be Costly

Andy Cline, at Carbon Trace, has a short bike commute. He knew where he was going to be working for many years to come and picked a house nearby. I confess that, despite a slight bittersweet taste when ending a memorable commute, I was quite pleased to trade my 20 mile v2 commute for my 7 mile v3 commute. However, I have discovered that there really IS no such thing as a free lunch and that a shorter commute does carry some cost. You might wonder, HOW is anyone worse off in any respect whatsoever by suddenly living closer to work without even having to have moved? Andy Cline might wonder, “Have I missed something?” Well, yes.

I have now made my new v3 commute long enough to project my weekly commute mileage. Conveniently, I also tracked my weekly mileage on both the v1 and v2 commutes. I find it interesting to note that the results do NOT show I double my bike mileage if I double my commute length, but the bike mileage does increase. In the case of a bike, decreased bike commute mileage means decreased calorie burn. Decreased calorie burn means either one must cut down food consumption or make special trips to go work out to maintain equilibrium. Acch. Diet and exercise!

That is bad enough, but it transpires that I can be more specific than that. Since I’ve kept commute logs, I can quantify things and determine precisely the penalty I shall have to pay for my new, short and easy commute.



Published Calorie Expenditure Chart

 To start off, if you look at the published table, riding a bike will cost somewhere between 40 and 50 calories a mile for the vast majority of us. While wind resistance plays a role, going slower doesn’t help much with basic rolling along, and few of us are going to be riding to work at an average speed over 20mph. For purposes of the analysis, energy expenditure on a bike commute is about 45 calories per mile and I use that for the calculations below.

The NEXT table shows how my own, historical daily average mileage related to different commutes. Remember in this table that daily average mileage uses seven days per week while the commute takes place in five (if you work seven days a week, we need to talk). In addition, you don’t commute when sick, on holidays, or vacation. Finally, remember that working at a more remote location means there will be more days in which driving is needed, simply to make it to appointments or other things where the bike simply isn’t fast enough to make it between two distant points in the needed time. The really short commute assumes that I’d be able to ride even a bit more frequently than my new, 7 mile commute. Even if you work at home, there will occasionally be appointments and such that simply mandate a motor vehicle, whether it is an owned car, a taxi, or a rented car.

Bike Commute Cost Comparisons

The table sorts things into increasingly long commutes. As you can see, based on historical numbers, commutes start to require significant payments as they get shorter, and the penalties in weight gain for not making those payments get more severe as well. Of course, there are many ways to vary the payments; for example, I personally could avoid the 17 pound gain by omitting 2 cheese sticks per day. Looking at the table, I thank my lucky stars that I work in an engineering job rather than the barista or Walmart greeter jobs that might fall within the theoretical “very short” commute. I’d be stuck going to the gym twice a day every day or undergoing serious food deprivation. How DO those motorists (and Andy) stay slim and trim? Perhaps they dollarize their time savings and spend it on bariatric surgery and Jenny Craig…

The Cost of a Short Commute - Extra Workouts, Dietary Rationing, or Weight Gain!