Going carless

[L14M]

This is very commendable in my opinion. Most of the teenagers I know get ferried everywhere by thier parents.

Err...

To be fair i always offer to cycle. Recently i've started cycling to school, just as fast as the train but £1.25 a day cheeper. That's a new tyre every 2 weeks or 2 tyre levers a day. Or a innertube every 4 days. Thinking of it like this it always adds up!

Liam

 

[EltonFrog]

Err...

To be fair i always offer to cycle. Recently i've started cycling to school, just as fast as the train but £1.25 a day cheeper. That's a new tyre every 2 weeks or 2 tyre levers a day. Or a innertube every 4 days. Thinking of it like this it always adds up!

Liam

Fair enough.

 

[Cuchilo]

I didn't actually know that - I've had two wonderful vans in the past (long wheelbase white transit minibus with half the seats out and then a really long grey wheelbase Nissan crew van, both for touring theatre but brilliant for many things) and I LOVED driving them. Now no need for one and I split travel between a little car and the bike, though I'm still known to hire a van for moving props/sets/costume occasionally.

Re taxis - the OP could have used one for the party that his son missed, but I bet it would have seemed prohibitively expensive at the time. It's very hard to have a vision in advance of how rarely you will use taxis and I think the fear would be "omg I am going to be spending £50 every week on some trip or other". I'm thinking that you wouldn't be able to see whether it's going to be cheaper over time, compared to a car, until after a few months.

I like driving the van , i just hate driving it around London . Even the parking spaces are getting smaller so once you have spent two hours going five miles you then have to spend another two looking for a space big enough to fit the van in , then you have to move it after two hours and find another space
I do have plans to kit it out and go off with the bike for a few day though . It would convert into a great camper

 

[KneesUp]

We have a car, and as work is in the same direction for the OH and I, we go in together with the bike in the boot (so I get to work clean, dry and sweat-free) and I cycle home.

Supermarket is 5 mins walk or the same time on the bike including locking-up time. I walk unless we need heavy stuff.

The car is invaluable for getting all of us around though, as our daughter is only 4. We walk to school though. I'd like to use the car less, and have in the past not had one and just hired cars when I've needed them, but we need it too often for that to be viable now, and nor do I see it being any less viable as daughter gets older. That said, most days it only does about 6 miles.

We don't have a lot tied up in the car though - it's worth less than a lot of C2W bikes, but is reliable and can easily fit 3 bikes and 3 people inside.

 

[summerdays]

This is very commendable in my opinion. Most of the teenagers I know get ferried everywhere by thier parents.

Not only that but mine get ferried by parents who take pity on them when they have to walk 10 mins from their child's house to mine! Note we don't offer the same service!!

 

[Sara_H]

When I was deciding about going carless I sorn'ed mine for six months first.

I didn't really miss it, so when it was written off a few weeks after putting it back on the road I made the decision not to replace it.

I much prefer life without the car. I live within five miles of work, and have very good amenities available within a couple of miles. I save a vast amount of money, have no hassles with MOT and insurance (the hassles I had with the insurance when I had to claim were one of the things that put me off owning a car again)

My OH does have a car, which I use occasionally (probably about once per fortnight) , so appreciate I'm not rally living the car free dream, but I'm of the mind that I save so much money by not using the car that the occasional taxi/car hire would make better sense to a lifestyle like mine.

The only downside for me is like an occasion in a few weeks time. I have to go to a day conference that's difficult to get to by public transport. I'm cadging a lift with a colleague, but if she wasn't going it'd either be car hire or a hotel the night before.

Getting my son to parties has been difficult at times, the popular party venue ATM is laser quest at the other side of the city in a shopping centre designed to be got to by car. This is one of those occasions where I splash out on a taxi.

The other thing is having to organise holidays and days out that are accessible by public transport. The worlds your oytster, but it does take more planning than just picking a spot on the map and driving straight there.

 

[Octet]

I don't like driving, so I never completed my test when I started to learn. I can't say I have never looked back, there are times when it would be advantageous for me to be able to drive, however in the long run I think I'm better off.

Living where I do, nothing is more than 10-15 miles away and there are plenty of corner shops which allow you to pick up your bread or milk without any fuss. The only disadvantage I would say about cycling is the hills, you either take the coastal road around but be pelted by the North Atlantic winds or you have to go up and over.

I might consider a motorcycle in the future (or if I moved to England), however for now I am more than content with my pushang.

 

[Ganymede]

I save a vast amount of money,

Ain't this the truth. Last year, with a 7-mile round trip commute on 3 or 4 days a week, plus about another couple of 7-mile utility journeys, I saved well over £1000. That's just calculating using mileage (about 42p per mile, or 45, can't remember exactly which measure I used) and parking fees. The amount I saved in parking fees was more than I saved in petrol - daily parking at my commuting railway station costs £5.50 per day for a car. Plus, I have a lot of gaps in my work schedule so that was really only for about 38 weeks in the year.

I use the bike for some shopping but we do a supermarket shop in the car about every two weeks and my husband isn't a cyclist so he uses his car a lot more than I use mine. We live in a rural area and have elderly parents so there is always the threat of an emergency needing a car.

 

[Sara_H]

Ain't this the truth. Last year, with a 7-mile round trip commute on 3 or 4 days a week, plus about another couple of 7-mile utility journeys, I saved well over £1000. That's just calculating using mileage (about 42p per mile, or 45, can't remember exactly which measure I used) and parking fees. The amount I saved in parking fees was more than I saved in petrol - daily parking at my commuting railway station costs £5.50 per day for a car. Plus, I have a lot of gaps in my work schedule so that was really only for about 38 weeks in the year.

I use the bike for some shopping but we do a supermarket shop in the car about every two weeks and my husband isn't a cyclist so he uses his car a lot more than I use mine. We live in a rural area and have elderly parents so there is always the threat of an emergency needing a car.

I think I read somewhere that it costs about £15 per day on average to run a car. So if I have to spend £15 to get my son home from a birthday party occasionally, I don't really care!

As there's only 3 of us at home, I can more or less do a weeks grocery shopping on my bike. I have two large panniers, a big front basket and bungees on the rack. The only time I use the car is when I need to buy dog food, he has the 20kg sacks of dry food, though I have brought this home by bus and trolley on occasion.

I've also recently got a second hand single seat child trailer to use as a cargo trailer. So far it's been used to tow my sons speedway bike to the track. Guess I could use this for the dog food.

 

[screenman]

Is it really only about saving money? Today I am taking rubbish to the skip 16 miles each way, picking up paint 10 miles other direction. Plus whatever else pops up, I would have to make a very large lifestyle change to go car less, including work.

 

[Ganymede]

I think I read somewhere that it costs about £15 per day on average to run a car. So if I have to spend £15 to get my son home from a birthday party occasionally, I don't really care!

As there's only 3 of us at home, I can more or less do a weeks grocery shopping on my bike. I have two large panniers, a big front basket and bungees on the rack. The only time I use the car is when I need to buy dog food, he has the 20kg sacks of dry food, though I have brought this home by bus and trolley on occasion.

I've also recently got a second hand single seat child trailer to use as a cargo trailer. So far it's been used to tow my sons speedway bike to the track. Guess I could use this for the dog food.

I have just remembered my nephew used to have a Mule trailer and I bet he doesn't use it now...

I do think it's easier for me because I'm in a two-person household, so we simply don't have that much shopping most of the time, apart from animal feed and bedding (chickens and sheep). We also have good farm shops, a little local shop and a large village with everything about 3.5 miles away. No buses means that most people here drive absolutely everywhere though I am seeing an increase in leisure cycling. People love that I ride around with a big wicker basket strapped to my rack, filled with potatoes etc. but they don't do it themselves!

btw A huge number of long-distance leisure cyclists drive down our lane - I'm always convinced there's a high percentage of CC-ers going past!

 

[Ganymede]

Is it really only about saving money? Today I am taking rubbish to the skip 16 miles each way, picking up paint 10 miles other direction. Plus whatever else pops up, I would have to make a very large lifestyle change to go car less, including work.

Oh no! Never ONLY about saving money. But it can be surprising how much you save (and can therefore use on hire cars or taxis). LOVE the cycling!

 

[Ganymede]

Is it really only about saving money? Today I am taking rubbish to the skip 16 miles each way, picking up paint 10 miles other direction. Plus whatever else pops up, I would have to make a very large lifestyle change to go car less, including work.

And soz, yes, realise what you're saying there - I wouldn't be able to go carless where I live, and there are always things you need motorised transport for I'm afraid. I mean, the carless take buses, taxis and trains and eat food delivered by lorries so we all need it in some way.

 

[Sara_H]

Is it really only about saving money? Today I am taking rubbish to the skip 16 miles each way, picking up paint 10 miles other direction. Plus whatever else pops up, I would have to make a very large lifestyle change to go car less, including work.

No, not really.

I first started riding years ago because parking at my workplace wasn't possible and public transport was very difficult, impossible on a weekend, riding was the easiest option.

I actually don't like driving, especially on motorways and would always prefer to ride or take the train if I can. I got to a point where I so rarely used the car that it just seemed daft to keep it.

I acknowledge that this presented situations where it would just be easier to hop into a car, but with a bit of planning and investment in suitable equipment I've found a solution to most of the barriers.

 

[KneesUp]

The £15 per day cost of a car must include depreciation on the 'average' new car. Ours costs nothing like that - I get tax, insurance and depreciation to less than £2 per day, and then about 13p per mile in fuel. I guess you can add on a pound a day for servicing and repairs. Given that minimum bus fare for 1 person is £1.70 it's actually cheaper than public transport - which is absolutely ridiculous.