1. It’s cheaper. After commuting to work by bike for five weeks, I am estimating that I have saved around $150 in gas costs. This is how I’ve come up with that:

• I checked my bank statement and found that I had been filling up every week. For the last five, that’s 12 gallons x $4.50/gallon x 5 weeks = $270.
• I’ve only filled up twice in the last two weeks for a total of $100
• $270 estimated gas costs – $100 total gas costs = $170

2. It’s healthier. Assume you burn .28 calories per mile per pound… that means riding 2.5 miles to work and 2.5 miles home, I burn .28 x 5 miles total x 200 pounds = 280 calories. (The only downside to this is that I end up really hungry when I get to work and when I get home. I recommend healthy snacks at work.)

3. It’s good for climate change. The less time you spend in your car, the less CO2 you burn. Check out this cool little calculator from thebikegeek.com. This is what it says about my commute to work only:

Your daily gas savings is $0.80 dollars and 3.54 lbs of CO2 will NOT be added to the atmosphere
Your weekly gas savings would be $4.02 dollars and 17.68 lbs of CO2 will NOT be added to the atmosphere
Your monthly gas savings would be $16.07 dollars and 70.71 lbs of CO2 will NOT be added to the atmosphere
Your yearly gas savings would be $208.93 dollars and 919.29 lbs of CO2 will NOT be added to the atmosphere