After calculating how much the average American has to work to pay for their car (about 2 hours a day), James Schwartz tallied that cost for the bicycle commuter:
Based on an annual average cost of $350 to own a sturdy, quality bicycle, the average American will work 15.98 hours a year to pay for their bicycle, which works out to be 0.063927 hours per day – or 3.84 minutes a day.
Lloyd Alter corrects Schwartz's math because Schwartz doesn't take fuel into account:
Revenue Canada has determined that for bicycle couriers, food is fuel and worth $17 dollars per day. … Add that to James's calculation of $ 350 for owning and operating a bike, and one gets a total annual cost of $ 821.25, or 9.01 minutes per day of work to pay for the bike and its fuel. Sorry, James.
The Dish 