Giving up motorised transport in favour of biking it everywhere

[travellingwest]

As the title really. I wondered how many of you have currently, or in the past, or even considering it for the future - retirement maybe - giving up your cars and purely using your bikes as your main transport?

If you have, how has that affected how you live your life; what changes did you have to make, how difficult was it? For those of you considering it for the future, same question really: what life adaptations will you need to make to make it work?

 

[briantrumpet]

I'm really close - past three years I've driven less than 1000 miles per year, and if my 23-year car gives up the ghost, it would bre hard to justify replacing it.

Buying decent waterproofs, buying some extra equipment/stuff I could leave at my regular workplaces were the main things, already being in the fortunate position of having only a short (5-mile) commute (which was horrible in the car, being subject to random traffic jams).

Saved me a fortune, which has allowed me to afford things that would have not been possible otherwise. And I'm fitter than I would have been. So, both have been life-changing.

 

[ColinJ]

I decided as a teenager that I would never learn to drive so I don't have a car to give up!

Over the years, I have made sure that I always live somewhere with good rail and bus links (which currently is a 5 minute walk to Todmorden rail and bus stations).

I can walk to Aldi, Lidl or Morrisons stores in 5-10 minutes. I carry my shopping back in a rucksack. If the shops were further away I would use a bike and panniers. I suggest using a very cheap old bike for shopping trips. That would be less appealing to bike thieves, and just a minor nuisance if it did get stolen anyway. I don't like to leave any of my better bikes outside shops even though I have a very chunky lock - it would probably still only take about 1 minute to cut the lock off with an angle grinder.