A quick note on what I count or don't count towards our total costs for the year: I don't include bike purchases or new helmets because we would likely own them anyway, whether we were using them for transportation or not. I'm not including things like umbrellas, rain coats, or shoes, because though they are definitely part of what makes walking & biking doable for transportation, we would need to own those even if we drove everywhere. Things like extra food to fuel all the active travel is also not included, since I doubt we'd eat any less if we were exercising less. I also don't include things that my employer pays for, like my Mobi membership, or use of Modo vans to transport gear for work.
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| Traffic at a standstill on Highway 5 due to a minor car crash |
We didn't use Modo at all this year, but we did pay a fee to stay in the damage pool. Total cost: $50.00.
By the way, this Modo cost includes gas, insurance, maintenance, parking, membership fees, usage costs--everything. It's really so much cheaper than owning a car if you don't need to drive it daily. It's also much nicer to know how much access to a vehicle will cost you: since maintenance, gas, insurance, & most of the time even parking are included, there are no surprise bills for repairs or maintenance. If you're wondering what Modo costs, you can use their trip calculator here on their website to see what a trip would cost. Simply choose the type of vehicle, the time you want to use it, & how far you're planning to go.
Total cost to drive: $2610.13
Cycling
This year we didn't buy much bike stuff, the bulk of the cost was just maintenance of our workhorse, the Tern GSD. It was the usual things: a few brake pads here & there, a bit of derailleur maintenance, paying the professionals to wrestle with swapping the studded tires for the regular ones. All that came to $716.18.
Electricity costs are a bit harder to calculate, because it's only a few cents each time we charge our bikes. I'd say we spent about $7 on electricity charging my Tern GSD & the Radrunner we are borrowing from a friend. I'm not sure how many times I charged the GSD, & I haven't noticed a significant drop in battery life, but I rode it only about 3000km this year--less than previous years. Oliver rides even less than me, as he mainly works from home, so I doubt he needed a full charge more than once a month.
Total cost to run our bikes: $723.18.
Ferries
We didn't end up doing any family trips by ferry this year, sadly. I went on a bike camping trip to Porpoise Bay with coworkers in July, which included one ferry to & from Langdale. This fare is round trip--you don't pay on the way back.
Cycling
My Tern GSD cargobike parked outside VeloStar
This year we didn't buy much bike stuff, the bulk of the cost was just maintenance of our workhorse, the Tern GSD. It was the usual things: a few brake pads here & there, a bit of derailleur maintenance, paying the professionals to wrestle with swapping the studded tires for the regular ones. All that came to $716.18.
Electricity costs are a bit harder to calculate, because it's only a few cents each time we charge our bikes. I'd say we spent about $7 on electricity charging my Tern GSD & the Radrunner we are borrowing from a friend. I'm not sure how many times I charged the GSD, & I haven't noticed a significant drop in battery life, but I rode it only about 3000km this year--less than previous years. Oliver rides even less than me, as he mainly works from home, so I doubt he needed a full charge more than once a month.
Total cost to run our bikes: $723.18.
Ferries
Most of the HUB crew at Porpoise Bay
We didn't end up doing any family trips by ferry this year, sadly. I went on a bike camping trip to Porpoise Bay with coworkers in July, which included one ferry to & from Langdale. This fare is round trip--you don't pay on the way back. 
Total fares: $15.50.
Transit
This year Linny started taking the bus to get around at bit. He's not as keen on cycling as the rest of us, so I'm glad he's got this option. Oliver didn't take transit at all, Bronte did occasionally, but she's under 12 so her rides are still free. I took transit a handful of times. So, our transit costs were only $53.15.And, that's it for all the categories of transportation we've used, so...
*drum roll please*
This is less than we spent last year, & it still comes in 20% of what the average Canadian spends for owning & operating a car because we don't have payments on it & we just don't use it that much. We mainly get around by bike & walking because 95% of our trips are within 8km & it's usually more of a hassle to get there by car since we'd have to find & maybe pay for parking, plus we'd be stuck in traffic (I know, we're not stuck in traffic, we ARE traffic) often, since the times we need to go places are often rush hour, when everyone else is on the road.
The total transportation costs for our family of four in 2024 was $3,401.96.
This is less than we spent last year, & it still comes in 20% of what the average Canadian spends for owning & operating a car because we don't have payments on it & we just don't use it that much. We mainly get around by bike & walking because 95% of our trips are within 8km & it's usually more of a hassle to get there by car since we'd have to find & maybe pay for parking, plus we'd be stuck in traffic (I know, we're not stuck in traffic, we ARE traffic) often, since the times we need to go places are often rush hour, when everyone else is on the road.
So, how about you? What did you spend on transportation last year? Do you total it up annually? What are the upsides & downsides of how you get around? What do you do to save costs on transportation?
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