Biking Hype & Car Fuel Reduction Ideas

After the purchase of my bicycle a few months ago, with the weather picking up, and myself into a normal sleep routine, I now bike to work every morning, and home every afternoon. As yet I have not been arrested for furious cycling or blatant abuses of the highway code just yet, I try to remain as legal as possible.

The bike ride is one of the fun parts of my day, and now I am completing the task in less than five minutes in the morning, faster than driving and a third of the time taken to walk. Each day saving about 400g CO2 from the environment, (really I should have converted much sooner).

Other friends have also now bought bikes, and with the recent rise in oil prices to a record $135 a barrel, and analyst expectations that will continue to rise to $200 in the next 18 months, petrol prices are surely going to remain constant or rise considerably for the foreseeable future. This morning I had the pleasure to meet a manager at the local independent bike shop in work, and from his comments, bike sales are on the up, however based on seasonality and natural increases in prices across the board he is unable to give a detailed increase figure.

Now signals the time to either reduce your fuel consumption, through better driving technique, car sharing, park & ride schemes, public transport, alternative cars or converting to bike.

Here's a few ideas.

Better Driving Technique

Already on this blog we have published ten tips that could save you £120 (probably about £200 a year now, in our article, Drive Efficiency ... Drive Efficiently.

Car Sharing

If you drive to work from the same location as other from your work, or would like to start car sharing with randomers.

National Carsharing Network
Lift Share
Travel Wise Northern Ireland

These links can give you advice on car sharing.

Park & Ride Schemes

These are schemes where you drive to a point and make use of public transport for the remainder of the journey. These often operate from locations outside major cities. A flat rate fee offers a return bus / train service and parking, and could work out substantially cheaper than parking in the city centre. Often services offer bus / trains every ten minutes to ensure the service is easy, frequent and feasible for the majority. More info on specific schemes can be found at Park & Ride. However this is not a definitive guide.