Kai’s first UK trip on his Artisan January 8th 2016
Since arriving back in the UK I have been using an Artisan EV1200 for my daily commute from home to Artisan HQ on the Wirral peninsula, roughly a 12 mile round trip. I have found it incredibly useful and a perfect way to avoid the invariable morning commuter traffic that typically plagues such a journey.
So, today I had an appointment in Liverpool, a trip that usually takes much longer than it should due to the bottlenecks in the traffic that occur at the tunnels under the Mersey, so I decided to take the EV1200 and compare it to other options available.
As I set off for the Birkenhead tunnel to cross under the river Mersey, I easily worked my way through the busy commuter traffic. I entered the tunnel (saving £1.70 each way, due to the Artisan qualifying for exemption from the toll) and even despite nearly half of the tunnels two-mile length being a steep climb, the scooter, complete with pillion passenger, barely batted an eyelid and effortlessly kept up with the flow of traffic.
Upon emerging on the Liverpool side, I rode past the iconic Liver Buildings and Albert Dock, before heading to Victoria Street car park, one of the many free options for parking your scooter within the city centre.
Having finished my appointment, and having not been here in a number of years, I decided to explore of the city. I headed to the Albert docks and to St. Georges hall to see the poppies memorial, before stopping to grab some lunch on Exchange Passage West where I took advantage of the free on-street parking for scooters.
Having ridden a good couple of miles around the city centre, it was time to return to the Wirral. I headed back through the tunnel, again by-passing the usual inevitable traffic, before getting back in a swift 17 minutes door-to-door.
Upon arriving back and having been impressed at the speed and ease of my journey, I decided to run some calculations and compare my journey to the other options available.
Stats
Firstly, there are substantial savings when comparing to driving a car for this commute, these saving come from a number of areas, in particular fuel, parking and tolls.
For an average car doing 35mpg, the cost of fuel (at 108.9 per Litre) for the round trip would be £1.73, tolls £3.40 and parking £3.60 (two hours), this means that my trip would have cost £8.73 and taken about 15-30 minutes each way, traffic dependent. This would have been considerably more if I worked in Liverpool for example, as to park for nine hours would have cost me £16.20 for the day, bringing the total cost of the commute to £21.33.
A taxi would have cost considerably more at £19-22 each way, meaning a total expense of between £38 and £44!
The cheapest way to have made the journey with public transport would have been to purchase a ‘day saver’ ticket, which costs £5.10 and would have taken 50 minutes each way, consisting of a considerable walk to and from the local bus stop as well as interchanging busses on both legs of the journey.
I also could have actually made the journey on foot in a little over an hour and a half each way, however, even this option would be more expensive then riding, as I would have to pay the £3 return fair for the ferry across the Mersey!
So, in conclusion, I think it’s fair to say that at half-a-penny per mile and no additional toll, fare or parking costs making the journey circa 3p, yes that’s correct, 3p each way, the scooter was without doubt, both the cheapest and quickest way to get there and back.
