Gasoline is expensive, at a current price of about 1.50 EUR/L it costs me
currently 950 EUR/year. Especially now that I live closer to work, the
consumption is higher because the trip is so short.
The previous plan was to get an electric car, but it would cost a lot and need
to keep the old car for longer trips (for example I wouldn't trust the e-car
to take us to Tampere, wait 4 weeks on the airport's long-term parking lot and
drive us back home). That means more insurance costs, parking space worries
and so on.
The current plan is to build a recumbent trike
based on one (or two?) old (or new) bycicles. Ready-made devices cost about
2,500 EUR (with one exception at 900 EUR, that's suspicious), home-made may
take years to build (I have to learn welding first, but Reijo would probably
be happy to teach me) but it may cost less than 500 EUR. Such a trike would be
perfect for going to work daily, although coming back from work maybe
difficult without electrical assistance (the hill back home is definitely steep).
Another requirement would be to have a protection from rain and snow, and
ready-made such trikes cost 4500 EUR (5500 EUR with electrical assistance,
that's over 5 years of gasoline at current rate). I have no idea how to build
a hull for a trike (most people building trikes seem to live in countries
where snow and cold is something that happens to other people). Also, it needs
to support an extra seat for a child (this one could be mounted over the back
wheel, but getting it below the hull will be difficult.