Anyone gone car free?

[Electric_Andy]

I gave up my car becasue I was sick of paying through the nose for petrol, and also i did not like the idea of a 2 car family. my wife still needs hers to ferry the kids around (and we have a baby on the way) but I don't miss driving one bit. The only part I miss is having a good sound system, and I don't dare wear headphones whilst riding!

 

[Ian Cooper]

Evil... yeah ok Ian.

They pollute, they make us fat and lazy, they kill hundreds of thousands of people per year worldwide, they make all of our bad but harmless habits (anger, drinking, need for speed, tendency to break inconvenient laws) into deadly habits. I'd say that makes cars about the biggest vector for evil that we have available to us - and they are regarded by most people as essential. If the Devil existed, I reckon he couldn't invent a better way of corrupting people than giving them cars.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I gave up my car becasue I was sick of paying through the nose for petrol, and also i did not like the idea of a 2 car family. my wife still needs hers to ferry the kids around (and we have a baby on the way) but I don't miss driving one bit. The only part I miss is having a good sound system, and I don't dare wear headphones whilst riding!

This. Exactly this.

 

[martint235]

They pollute, they make us fat and lazy, they kill hundreds of thousands of people per year worldwide, they make all of our bad but harmless habits (anger, drinking, need for speed, tendency to break inconvenient laws) into deadly habits. I'd say that makes cars about the biggest vector for evil that we have available to us - and they are regarded by most people as essential. If the Devil existed, I reckon he couldn't invent a better way of corrupting people than giving them cars.

I hate to be picky but surely eating more than we need to makes us fat? As for lazy I think that just comes from the person regardless of whether or not they own a car. I'm one of the laziest people I know and don't have a car.

 

[Ian Cooper]

I hate to be picky but surely eating more than we need to makes us fat? As for lazy I think that just comes from the person regardless of whether or not they own a car. I'm one of the laziest people I know and don't have a car.

Fat comes from eating and a lack of exercise. Car use removes a lot of the need for exercise. Some nutters even drive up to 5 miles to a gym, exercise there for an hour, then drive home, when cycling for an hour could accomplish the same in less time. Laziness may be inherent to certain people, but cycling mitigates it whereas car ownership feeds it. Again, my point was that car ownership feeds our worst habits and turns them deadly - that is the definition of evil.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

They pollute, they make us fat and lazy, they kill hundreds of thousands of people per year worldwide, they make all of our bad but harmless habits (anger, drinking, need for speed, tendency to break inconvenient laws) into deadly habits. I'd say that makes cars about the biggest vector for evil that we have available to us - and they are regarded by most people as essential. If the Devil existed, I reckon he couldn't invent a better way of corrupting people than giving them cars.

Have I:
1. Killed anyone? - No
2. Done Road Rage? - No
3. Driven while drunk? - No
4. Sped? - Not these days, I grew up.
5. Broken a law while driving that I don't agree with? - No
6. Belonged to a satanic cult? - No

Takes all sorts to make a world. Don't label me with the rest please

Although your list could easily be applied to religion too...

 

[Ian Cooper]

Have I:
1. Killed anyone? - No
2. Done Road Rage? - No
3. Driven while drunk? - No
4. Sped? - Not these days, I grew up.
5. Broken a law while driving that I don't agree with? - No
...

So you admit you used to speed. As for killing people, driving drunk and road raging, I never said 'everyone' does it. I said it tended to make bad habits deadly - that isn't accusing you of anything. I think you may be being a bit over-sensitive.

As for breaking laws you don't agree with, maybe you agree with all the laws. But are you seriously suggesting that you 'never' speed - not even a few mph over the limit? You 'never' slowly crawl through a Stop sign rather than coming to a full stop? Never used a cell phone while driving? Never done anything that might distract you from paying full attention to the road? I'm (almost) sure such people exist, but I think they are very rare indeed. My experience here in the US is that no one - NO ONE - drives a motor vehicle under the speed limit. If the limit is 55 on the freeway, all the cars go 65mph. If it's 25, they go 35. They do this because they know police won't stop them for going merely 10mph over the limit. The only thing that actually keeps people to speed limits is speed bumps - you actually have to put stuff in the road that damages someone's car, in order to prevent people from speeding.

 

[400bhp]

They pollute, they make us fat and lazy, they kill hundreds of thousands of people per year worldwide, they make all of our bad but harmless habits (anger, drinking, need for speed, tendency to break inconvenient laws) into deadly habits. I'd say that makes cars about the biggest vector for evil that we have available to us - and they are regarded by most people as essential. If the Devil existed, I reckon he couldn't invent a better way of corrupting people than giving them cars.

Would the western world be where it is today without them?

 

[400bhp]

Fat comes from eating and a lack of exercise. Car use removes a lot of the need for exercise. Some nutters even drive up to 5 miles to a gym, exercise there for an hour, then drive home, when cycling for an hour could accomplish the same in less time. Laziness may be inherent to certain people, but cycling mitigates it whereas car ownership feeds it. Again, my point was that car ownership feeds our worst habits and turns them deadly - that is the definition of evil.

Very small minded opinion.

 

[400bhp]

Anyhow.

I am now [road legal] car free - although we still have a car in the family.

 

[Ian Cooper]

Would the western world be where it is today without them?

Probably not. But would that be a bad thing?

“Man has always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much...the wheel, New York, wars and so on...while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man...for precisely the same reason.”

Very small minded opinion.

I think you should set your ad-hominem arguments aside. I'll wait for a more considered reply.

 

[400bhp]

in one word, yes.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I gave up the car (well, some drunk BMW driver wrote it off when it was parked off road and I was asleep) about 3 years ago. Living in London, it really hasn't been a problem, though I do have access to a car for those picking relatives from the airport kind of journey. There are enough supermarkets and a high street market nearby so I buy a little but often to save having to carry bike, panniers and heavy shopping up the 67 steps to my flat.

 

[Ian Cooper]

in one word, yes.

Okay, but not much there that's convincing. Contradiction, as Michael Palin assured us in The Argument Sketch, is not argument.

 

[fimm]

Another Mancunian...
No need for a car here. Not had one for over 5 years. At first it was busses, later bikes. Brompton + public transport will do for longer journeys, if the times don't work out hire car (long weekends) or City Car Club (shorter trips). We do most shopping either online or at Unicorn for fresh stuff, you can fit a LOT on a bike and we have felt no need for a trailer yet.

Pretty much this - though I don't think it is as long as 5 years since my boyfriend sold his car. We're in Edinburgh. We get our fruit and vegetables delivered through an organic veg box scheme and can walk to the shops for everything else. Last weekend we hired a big estate car because we needed one, most of the time we'll hire something smaller. City Car Club is very useful for shorter trips.

I think it must be a lot harder to go car-free if you have children.