As I was preparing my bike yesterday evening, my wife asked me Are you again riding to the office tomorrow? I really wonder why you bought this car... I confess that I did buy 6 months ago a new, (too) large and (too) expensive German car. I have come to realize how ridiculous this was and only motivated by vanity. Consider these simple stats over the past 2 months: - 500 km with the car. Average speed: 26.4 km/h. Time to come back from the office (Suntec) to home (bukit Timah) on Friday evening: 38 minutes. Average trip length: 9 km. Cost of these 500 km: around 600 SGD of petrol, parking and ERP, excluding car amortization (price, COE, road tax and insurance, yes, thousands and more) - 500 km with the bike. Average speed: 26.7 km/h. Yes, faster. Time to come back from the office (Suntec) to home (bukit Timah) on Friday evening: 17 minutes. Average trip length: 32 km (week-end rides to Changi and Kranji). Cost of these 500 km: 160 SGD for 2 months of fitness subscription, as Suntec offices do not have showers, excluding bike amortization (a couple of thousands less than the car). So yes, I still need the car to carry people, dog and things once in a while. But what is the use of an outrageously priced, 5-meter long sedan? Not to mention supercars capable of 300 km/h, which Singapore has the highest concentration in the world? Singapore will become a truly bike-friendly city only when people will understand that ones honorability is not defined by their car, its size and price. As for myself, I will use my nice German tank no more than 2 years and will downgrade to something definitely smaller. And to the guy with the yellow McLaren in the Tower 3 parking: Ill always be faster than you (on my bike)
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 06:16:01 +0000
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