Going carless

[Easytigers]

This is long but just wanted to share if anyone else is thinking of getting rid of the car:
Around two weeks ago I declared to the staff at work that I was going carless for a few months. I'd discussed it with the wife...we get our shopping delivered, have shops etc in the village and can use the bus if we needed it to get to the local town.
The car is a bit of a money pit...had to spend quite a lot on it over the last few years and the petrol gauge starts to go down as soon as you unlock the doors! MOT was due and there were more squeaks and groans than a .... I'll let you finish the analogy! I knew it was going to cost...a lot!
The car goes to the hubby of the cleaner at work who does MOTs to check it over and see if it's better to scrap it. The theory is that we scrap it, take a few months to save up enough to get a little run-around, and I cycle in everyday. Great theory! Crap execution!
First day without a car...had a meeting at work that finished at 10pm...cycled home then had to get back on the bike at 6.30 the next day...so tired!
Day three...cycled the 10 miles to work then had a meeting at another site that I had to cycle (suited and booted) 8 miles to...arriving sweaty and feeling horrible...the meeting only lasted 30 mins! Then had to cycle back to work, then later back to home
Day four: My son had to miss a birthday party as it was from 7-9pm at a soft play place that is miles from home and is a major faff for anyone to come over to where we live to pick him up...he's still not forgiven me!
Day six (weekend): realised that, although the village is nice, we tend to go out every weekend to stop getting 'cabin fever'....cabin fever sets in!
Day seven (still weekend): Local shop had run out of bread and had to cycle 6 mile round trip just to get a loaf (I actually enjoyed it but realised that that could happen quite a lot)
Over the next few day I had another couple of late meetings and must say that I started to get up really feeling like not cycling (that NEVER happens normally when I've got the option to drive...I'd always choose the bike!)
The car went through the MOT and it only cost £95!!! Result!!!!
Got the car back (there's still a couple of things that need to be sorted but it's roadworthy!)...I hate to say it but it's sooooooooooo nice to be able to drive again.
The great experiment was an eye opener...I can do without a car...but its a real pain in the arse!!!

 

[daSmirnov]

Depends on your usage don't it. :-)

We don't have a car, work couple of miles away, two supermarkets about a mile away, town centre about a mile away. Mrs does the shop on her bike, she commutes a similar distance to her work by bike.

Do have a motorcycle for the odd times (handful of times a year) where I need to work at one of our other locations which can be 20-30 miles away.

Only rarely do we wish we had a car - the odd times when we need to transport a lot of stuff to her parents 50 miles away - but hardly worth the expense keeping it on the road.

 

[sazzaa]

How could you have put such little thought into this? I love the idea of going carless but in reality it's not even remotely possible! Did you really not think about meetings, ferrying kids about etc?

 

[Easytigers]

How could you have put such little thought into this? I love the idea of going carless but in reality it's not even remotely possible! Did you really not think about meetings, ferrying kids about etc?

I know, I know!!! Was easy to decide on, sat on the sofa, romanticising about being fuel free etc! It didn't take long for me to realise though!!!

 

[sazzaa]

I know, I know!!! Was easy to decide on, sat on the sofa, romanticising about being fuel free etc! It didn't take long for me to realise though!!!

It's actually quite funny, like the kind of daft badly thought out plans I make after a few pints :-)

 

[Julia9054]

My car fell to bits about a month ago. I contemplated doing without for about an afternoon. We live in a rural-ish area and whilst it would probably be possible most of the time, it would be the loss of independence and having to ask favours and rely on others that I couldn't cope with.
I reluctantly bought another one.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I know we could not live where we do now (or any of the places we have done in the past) without at least 1 car in the household, but rural life is much more dependant on needing one. Public transport here is 'interesting' and expensive, once you have actually found a bus stop (or walked to the railway station). I have tried using the bus once to get to my doctors when I was unable to cycle there and a round trip of 12.5 miles cost over £6 return and took me more than twice as long. I have long since given up trying to use public transport in the areas I have lived in - its fine in towns, but getting to my parents home some 22 miles away I find it quicker to cycle both ways than try public transport and I am not a fast cyclist.

Whilst I would love to return to not having a car, it is just not feasible where we live, nor with my health problems.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I think to go carless as an individual you have to live within walking distance of everything you need to get to and have an alternative to cycling to work for when it just ain't all that. To do it as a family I think you need to have grown up kids and a partner who is equally willing to do without a car. TLH isn't. I'm carless and it suits me fine. She still has her car though we try to avoid using it at weekends. Some of our friends and family live in places, small villages mainly, that you just can't get to via public transport. So we use TLH's car, though sometimes I cycle there.

 

[sazzaa]

I reckon I could give up my car for a motorbike, does that still count as going carless or is it cheating?

 

[Flying Dodo]

I think it's a question of planning and being prepared to make some sacrifices.

I got rid of my car 3 years ago (and my now ex-wife, but that's another story). Despite having 2 teenagers and living in a small village, I can get a week's shopping for 4 of us on a 6 mile round trip to the supermarket on my cargo bike, and every few months I do a large internet shop for bulky/heavy things like toilet rolls, cat food etc. The garage looks like we're expecting to have to survive a nuclear holocaust with the volume of stuff stockpiled at times!

We probably end up using taxis a few times a month for when the buses don't run, such as after 6 pm, but the amount spent on those is peanuts compared to the approx. £200 pm the car used to cost me in fixed costs such as MoT, insurance, routine servicing, VED etc, simply sat on the drive.

 

[sazzaa]

My car cost less than a grand and seems to run on air, there's no reason to have a car that costs loads!

 

[John the Canuck]

My car cost less than a grand and seems to run on air, there's no reason to have a car that costs loads!

£1000 is ok.....................'air' is not

- in reality
£1000 not saved
insurance
MoT
maintenance
tyres - eventually
breakdowns

I did give up my car in January - bike to village, or buses are free [pensioner]
the ONLY drawback for me is transporting anything big
in a way - that's a cost saving too - canna buy any more bikes.............

 

[screenman]

My car cost less than a grand and seems to run on air, there's no reason to have a car that costs loads!

I would disagree with you on that one. But I see no reason for anyone who needs a bike worth more than £100

 

[mustang1]

My local supermarket is (each way:
8 mins walk away,
3.5 mins on bike inc locking time
1.5 mins on car inc parking time

I take the car every time not due to laziness, but time saved. Occasionally I walk though, but will never take the bike.
16 mins walk
7 mins bike
3 mins car
I live right next to excellent public transport links but won't give up the car. I use it very rarely, but I won't give it up.

 

[screenman]

I do about 100 miles a day in the car, I wish I could do some of them on the bike.