Discussion Board

I have been riding my bike more often, toying with the idea of moving to a "car-lite" lifestyle. Well, one of my daughters needs to do a 5 week internship in Denver, and needs a car to do it. She was all set to rent a car, but with the added insurance the cost was prohibitive, so I impulsively told her to take my car to Denver, that I would be fine.

So, she is off to get the headlight replaced, and then takes off to Denver later this morning. Hmmm. I must be nuts. Got to dig out my copy of How to live Well Without a Car. Actually, I am kind of excited. Wouldn't be great to feel like I wasn't a slave to my costly car?

So, we'll see how it goes. Sheesh, I will be so fit by October 20!

fiddler3

Way to go, fiddler3!!!

If you have not perused them and are interested, I can send you a TON of car-free links. Just PM me.

If we decide to have our van repaired (after a moron hit us in traffic a week and a half ago), we'll be on a car-free trial for 2 weeks. It looks like he may be uninsured though, and I really don't want to pony up the deductible for repairs that are only cosmetic.

I just read something about a lady that worked with her insurance and DMV. She dropped both and parked the car in the garage, and is going for car-free life. That and the way you are doing it would give a good lower-risk trial time. Good luck and PLEASE share your adventures with us!

chile,

Thanks for the enthusiatic support. I am at work without a car now...no advance planning for me!...so I think tonight I will walk to the bus station (about 3 blocks away) and wait for a bus home. that will mean about a 1 mile walk home, then, but that is actually no problem. What I am trying to avoid is a call to my dad, or to a friend, whining that I need a ride.

This is interesting because I overplan stuff to death...and jumping in with no big anticipatory buildup is a bit scarey.

I will pm-ing you for links...

fiddler3

I am 63. I have never owned or driven a car (except for two weeks when I was a teenager -- with a parent in the front seat).

I have never regretted my choice. I have saved tens of thousands of dollars and gotten lots of exercise.

Not everyone can have a car-free life because of special requirements. However, a mistake many people make is that they assume that the car-filled life they have now is the arrangement that must be. An alternative is to realize that if you know ahead of time that you won't have a car, you will arrange your life accordingly. For example, it would be a mistake to live way out in a suburb 50 miles from a grocery store or other necessities. Without a car, one would move to a more central location -- which does not need to be a big city. For example, some small towns are county "seats" that have just about everything from grocery store to computer store and doctor. They serve a huge area around the town as well as the town itself.

Keep in mind other alternatives too: e.g., taking a cab once a month is a lot cheaper than owning a car (fuel, insurance, repairs, payments, license, an so forth). Flex-car is a possibility in some areas.

Planning ahead simplifies things in the long-term, but it takes practice.

Besides in the day of UPS and Amazon, or similar outfits, you can get almost everything you want delivered. The extra charge occasionally is still a lot cheaper than owning a car one doesn't really need.

Certainly, the logical conclusion to an adventure like this would be to not maintain a car at all. I have enjoyed How to Live Well Without a Car, and it nicely reviews the money savings possible.

I live in a little city, perhaps 45,000. It really would be possible to live without a car here. We have public transit, but, as a little city, the schedule is sparse if I leave work late (like tonight!). But using the bus is certaily an option for me. I can forsee 2 occasions where I am going to have to find a car to get to continuing education events. I am thinking on that problem...

Riding the bike is nearly a year round possibility. But....change is hard! Like it or not, I won't have a car now for 5 weeks. I hope I am up to the challenge! At 54, part of the hesitation is that I am only just developing my identity as a little old lady who rides her bike everywhere. I am already eccentric enough!

fiddler3

Another good book is Divorce Your Car.

I have been thinking overnight. The trip home last night was a reminder that most people take mass transit (in my area, anyway), because they have to. We really have a class division in terms of car ownership . I live in Ford 150-land, but there are a whole bunch of people who don't drive because they can't...they are too poor or too disabled or too disabled and poor. And riding the bus is a pain if you don't live in a city. I waited about 20 minutesfor the bus to leave the station, and still had to walk a mile to get home once I got off. About an hour, door to door. But the key point I learned is that the bus is an entirely plausible option for me, and would work in any weather.

But this morning, I cut my commute in half, and rode my bike! I am a little weak, and I feel my safety would be better if I was stronger: I was tippy when I stopped at stop signs, I had some trouble getting my right leg to clear the bar when I mounted up after checking my tail light. And I may need to accesorize: I got soaked when I rode through a puddle from the sprinklers near work,(get fenders) and my backpack makes me dangerously top heavy.(get baskets)

This morning, I was feeling quite sanguine about riding to work. No dread, no regrets for my decision to send my DD off with my car. Wouldn't it be great if my bike riding could feel ROUTINE!
So, assuming I make it home, I will have done this 1 1/2 days.

fiddler3

Fiddler3, how far do you have to go? In other words, how long would it take you to walk -- thus cutting out waiting for a bus and the hassles of bike riding in traffic?

The reason I ask is because sometimes walking is almost as fast as a city bus, and it is a whole lot simpler. Just go! Of course, there are a lot of other factors involved.

Another suggestion: If you can use your transportation time for something else, the slower travel isn't really time consuming. For example, it is easy to plan your next day, if you are riding the bus. The same applies to walking -- assuming the area is safe and you don't have to spend a lot of attention watching out for hazards such as excavations, erratic drivers, and criminals. Bike riding takes a lot more attention unless you can find a safe route, which usually means one with very few intersections and traffic.

When I walk for exercise, I usually use part of that time to think about a problem. I take a pen and paper with me, to take notes.

Different routes and conditions call for different solutions. You are fortunate in having three available: bus, bike, and (maybe) walk.

Be sure and attach a basket on the front for your cats to ride in!! ;-)

More seriously... what a generous gesture, and brave and great adventure.

I lived for 1 1/2 yrs. on a small island in the South Pacific where bike riding was our transportation to meet all our needs. IMAGINE moving there, and to that change of lifestyle, from the heart of Los Angeles, CA. and it's "million miles" of freeways--to get anywhere! During the time on the island, I gave birth to two babies. They went everywhere with us on our bikes. It was one of the best times (of many) of my life.

My 47 yo daughter in FL recently called to tell me that she decided to give up her car. --she lives in Bradenton, FL, and works from noon til 9 pm. She cancelled the ins., removed the plates, etc., and gave the old beater to one of her adult daughters--putting the car in her daughter's name.

She has, so far compiled a program of bike riding and bus riding, and is doing so remarkably great. She is amazing to me, anyway, and is always surprising me!

Good luck to you, Fiddler3!

I admire the carless!!! My grandfather never owned or wanted a car...he considered anything more than 10 miles from his home a foreign thing, and wanted nothing to do with it...they often walked to grocery stores several miles way, etc.

But...well today is today, not back then, and this is one of those things like in my "Trends" post...in which I truly believe most Americans would rather not mess with a car if they could do wihtout. They're dirty, wasteful, expensive, expensive insurance, the interstate are dangerous around here...


But the big thing that bugs me so much is that most of America is very car-dependent. Where we live right now...when we moved here 17 years ago, we could walk to two grocery stores, a K-mart, Radio Shack, Pet food supercenter, and various other little stores and shops. Now...all of those stores are GONE...moved out to the suburbs, where everybody has to drive to them...and what was put in their places are stores like Lowe's, which I like being close to, but how often do you carry your load of drywall home on your back with you???? And the other stores have been replaced with offices of various types...totally useless to us.

I tried riding my bike to work and had lots of scary close calls...no bike trails and I never could get to where I felt I could keep up with traffic withotu possibly getting my neck broken in the process...the day I quit was when some adult on the other side of the road was being packed into an ambulance one morning as I peddled in to work. No more!

If I take the bus...it digs into my time way too much...I can't lose more hours in my day than I've already lost to being at work.

I hear that in New York, most residents do not own cars...they have neighborhoods they can carry out most functions in...walking to everyplace...and they have adequate public transportation.

This is like the recycle bins of my other post...IF we could do it...I think most of us would love to. When it's made ridiculouosly difficult, as it is in most of America, or at least where I've seen, then people just can't do without the cars, and our government tells us we are addicted to oil....yeah, right.

Anyway...I'm so happy for those who CAN manage carless...and even envious!!!

This quote was in today's "New Morning" newsletter:

Technology ... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. —C.P. Snow

So true!

Clary...where're you hidin' yerself these days?

Again, thanks for the encouragement, and I just hope I can stick with it, which is to say, not start calling family or friends to bail me out of a pinch.

It's weird, the safety issue...Chile sent me some great car-free bike links, and the first was the website of bicyclist Ken Kifer, who was, ironically, killed while cycling by a drunk driver on Sept 14, 2003. Sobering.

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/

So, safety issues are very real.

Burgess, I actually would prefer to walk, all things considered. My commute is about 4 miles (or a tiny bit more) one way. I am a good walker, and a 4 mile walk would take me just a bit over an hour. I have no doubt it would be far far safer than biking, although I really like the idea of getting home quickly. Last night I would have walked, but I hadn't realized I wouldn't have the car, and I had "full office gear," including my tote sack and office shoes (tho still pretty comfortable for walking short distances.) It occurs to me to try walking to work some day soon, and I could even walk after dark in my area of town. Most of the danger here is from vehicles and poor pavement, rather than other people.

Does an 8 mile walk a day sound possible?

fiddler3

Clary, I am very interested in your daughter's experiment. At least she has her mother's support! My own dad lives in town and he is just sick at the thought of me on my bike. My friends are a little angry. I think they are worried also, and frustrated as they try to figure out how they will help me

It occurs to me that without the car, I could better afford health insurance! (I'll bet we have a thread on that somewhere!).

fiddler3

groundhogg writes:

If I take the bus...it digs into my time way too much...I can't lose more hours in my day than I've already lost to being at work.

I really resonate with this idea, that is, I am working too much! Do you think about cutting back somehow? I wonder about this alot!!

fiddler3