Car-free living

[mjr]

Walked or cycled. Just checked and secondary school was 1.1 miles away. Perfect for walking or cycling distance as a kid. Any kid less than 3 miles away walked it cycled beyond that you qualified for the bus.

3.2 miles for me, so there was a bus. It was pretty crap (15-year-old buses, often late from being stuck in traffic, overcrowded, lots of anti-social behaviour), so I cycled as soon as I was allowed, which wasn't immediately as there was 1.1 miles of trunk A road on the quickest route and two A road crossings on any route.

I don't remember being driven in by a parent but it might have happened. I almost certainly was driven by a friend at some point in my last year or two. I don't think I liked it much because I was then reliant on them for getting back (or it was an hour's walk) and couldn't easily go to a shop or visit family on the way home.

 

[presta]

I was hopping mad when the DVLA medical centre had my licence, even though it was only going a couple of miles to Tesco once a week, but by the time I got it back 5 months later I'd grown used to it, and never put it back on the road. I carry all my groceries home on foot. Back in my commuting days I used to drive, because both walking to the station, and fitting in with the train timetable add time to the working day.

 

[MontyVeda]

Never had a car and never felt the need for one. Fortunately, many people i know do have a car so can always borrow a car & driver when i do need motor transport.

I live in town so even if i did drive, I'd still be walking to the shops and to work. I'd also be getting constantly frustrated trying the park the sodding thing (Lots of student houses round here so some households can have 5 or 6 cars, and we're all terraced, so it's all on-street)

It's probably easier to not have a car in my circumstances. It's certainly cheaper.

 

[matticus]

Yeah, but i got fat decades later... It wouldn't feel right accepting your trophy.

BTW: Is there a monetary prize?

Im thinking of Amazon vouchers now - you still in?

 

[cyberknight]

I was carless. Period, as the Americans say.

Mrs D has her own car, but seeing as shes at work all week I never get the opportunity to drive it. Indeed, shes had this current car since September and other than shuffling it about on the driveway i have yet to get behind the wheel.

Mrs D is a wheelchair user, so if you know of another realistic way of her getting about then feel free to advise. What she needs to do to remain mobile is not impacted by my own mobility choices, or vice versa.

i wasnt saying that though all i said was if i remembered rightly there was a car in the household so technically as a family unit your not car less .I could near enough say the same as although we have a car mrs ck has it for her health and mobility issues as well as mini ck1 frequent hospital appointments .No need to get snippy when i ask a perfectly valid question .

 

[Electric_Andy]

I cycled 2 miles to school a few times when we had cycling proficiency after school. The rest of the time we had a minibus. Secondary school we had a mini bus into town and then got on a coach for 4 miles to the next town. I walked home a few times after the pub when I was older, but it was pitch black and very scary. I was once chased by a fox!

 

[Drago]

i wasnt saying that though all i said was if i remembered rightly there was a car in the household so technically as a family unit your not car less .I could near enough say the same as although we have a car mrs ck has it for her health and mobility issues as well as mini ck1 frequent hospital appointments .No need to get snippy when i ask a perfectly valid question .

One could argue the very nature of the questionm having already stated that I had gone car free, was rather smug and unnecessarily pernickity, but lets put all this down to a misunderstanding and I will clarify very simply.

The simple answer - Mrs D is disabled and cannot travel by bicycle or public transport. She has a car with which to lug her wheelchair.

Her car is her car, and hers alone.

Her car is nothing to do with me, and I do not use it.

5 out of 7 days I couldn't use it if I wanted to because it is not even here.

When I - all too briefly, as explained above - went car free, I went car free. No cadging lifts, no borrowing, no dropping her off and work and keeping the car myself all day. Indeed, during that time I oft mentioned on the Retirement Thread about catching the bus. I would have had more convenient access to a hire car had i needed one during that time, and that could be said of anyone who does jot own a car but who possesses a licence to drive one.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Our remaining car links to a phone app which records all trips. So far, in the 1,173 days we have owned it, it has been used on only 97 days.

Interesting stat. I've owned mine thirteen months and back of the envelope calculations work out that I have used it 346 days out of 399, or somewhere not far from there. Mind you, I do need it to actually work six mornings a week.

 

[Boopop]

Admittedly, car free living is an extreme for some people and not possible given the circumstances...I just wish these stats for the UK looked a lot better, as I'm sure we all do:

(Source: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmtrans/1487/148705.htm)

 

[cougie uk]

Car free existence was all the rage a few decades ago. People adapted to having cars and if the will is strong enough they can adapt to living without them.

The way the country is going anyway it'll be back to the 70s in a year or two and cars were much less common then. So long as they don't reintroduce the Allegro we will cope.

 

[steveindenmark]

Even being in Denmark. Being car free is not an option. I live out in the sticks and the nearest town is 8km away. That is not a problem, we cycle in most of the time. But my work is 20km away and I start at 5am. I do cycle most days. But when it is lashing down or minus 5, as it was this morning, I prefer to drive.

 

[Drago]

Perhaps this is the wrong place for this, I suspect the people who fall under this category never even view this sub-forum!

Obviously not everyone is able to make the switch based on location or personal circumstances, but with the increase in family friendly e-cargo bikes, more people are considering it as an option, especially those living in sub-urban or urban areas who can access work easily too. I accept it's very easy for me - I can work from home, but even if that was not the case, I can also cycle the 9~ miles to work, and catch a train from the station that's a two minute walk away, which is thirty minutes from London and less than three hours from all my relatives.

Talk about your experiences living car free and how it's affected your lives when you made the change...or if like me you've never owned a car to begin with.

Everyone should own a car, and drive it as much as possible. You would greatly enjoy a Hummer H2, and a Perkins engine cknversion would have you apopleptic with joy.

The planet is borked, so why not just enjoy it anyway? Even of those who have gone car free the bulk will still be resource wastrels, ordering prolific amounts of useless consumer tat which gets driven to vast warehouses on diesel lorries, and then to their door in diesel vans, so its really an exercise in transferrence rather than virtue.

 

[cougie uk]

Even being in Denmark. Being car free is not an option. I live out in the sticks and the nearest town is 8km away. That is not a problem, we cycle in most of the time. But my work is 20km away and I start at 5am. I do cycle most days. But when it is lashing down or minus 5, as it was this morning, I prefer to drive.

Car free living would be an option for you but you just prefer to have a car like most people.
If you lost your licence you'd just have to man up and get on with it even in crap weather ?

 

[Electric_Andy]

It's a bit like owning a house; I'm sure many of you would survive in a 1 or 2 bedroom bedsit, but you choose to have a larger house because it's nice and convenient. A bedsit on a busy high street would be cheaper, and would take less energy to heat, but most of us choose to live in the largest house we can afford even if it means consuming more energy as a result

 

[Blue Hills]

It's a bit like owning a house; I'm sure many of you would survive in a 1 or 2 bedroom bedsit, but you choose to have a larger house because it's nice and convenient. A bedsit on a busy high street would be cheaper, and would take less energy to heat, but most of us choose to live in the largest house we can afford even if it means consuming more energy as a result

er, it's not like a house/living accommodation at all unless I've missed something.
How many bedrooms does your car have?
How many toilets?