Going carless

[Crankarm]

People have many different lifestyles and commitments, live in hugely different areas rural vs urban. If you are free and single then yes it might be possible to live without a car and just rely on your bicycle(s) and public transport or an occasional hire car to get around. Maybe you haven't even got a driving licence. If you don't have much money then perhaps you don't have the freedom to choose so the cheapest option is made for you. Without a car though your freedom to travel is rather more limited. Like or dislike cars they have given every one a much greater freedom of opportunity whether work wise or leisure. Perhaps when posters on CC write with glee that they have not used their cars for months and they are thinking of selling or disposing of them they are really trying to say how much they love cycling which being a cycling forum is like preaching to the converted. I live in a rural area and although love my bikes and cycling I couldn't do without a car. Life and opportunities would be so much more limited. Plus when it was absolutely shedding it down with rain and blowing a howling gale I couldn't take the car instead all the way into work, so would have to ride in all the way, get utterly soaked and be totally miserable and hacked off.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

A white one . Movano or something , high and long so im told by people that charge me money for it .

WVM
When I needed a van for a girls outing with the bikes, I gave the job to a Red Van Man

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Not like that other guy who used to film everything.

Don't be too harsh, he'll be back on his bike when he hits 30.

 

[Sara_H]

Interestin that we forget when the discussion starts about going carless, that some people never drive in the first place.

I grew up in a mostly carless household, as my Mum never learnt to drive and my Dad died when I when I was 10.

I also have two friends who have never learnt to drive and have managed to work, live and bring up children without driving a car.

 

[sazzaa]

Hardly any of the women in my family drive and they're a complete pain in the @rse, always needing lifts or having to plan things around not having a car. Really annoying for hospital visits etc, since there's no direct bus to the local hospital.

 

[Nigeyy]

Ooo that's a good point. Somehow you can survive without a car (still got to say that it makes life far easier and provides more choices though if you do have one!)

Interestin that we forget when the discussion starts about going carless, that some people never drive in the first place.

I grew up in a mostly carless household, as my Mum never learnt to drive and my Dad died when I when I was 10.

I also have two friends who have never learnt to drive and have managed to work, live and bring up children without driving a car.

 

[raleighnut]

Interestin that we forget when the discussion starts about going carless, that some people never drive in the first place.

I grew up in a mostly carless household, as my Mum never learnt to drive and my Dad died when I when I was 10.

I also have two friends who have never learnt to drive and have managed to work, live and bring up children without driving a car.

I too chose not to have a car but only because I've always been far too "lairy". As a child of 4 I learnt how to ride a bike by riding my 20" wheel trike on the drive side wheel and rode like that everywhere til I got a 2 wheeler, on which I terrified everyone. When I worked at the garage I raced "grasstrack" cars with one of the other lads and rode my motorbike on the principle that if you didn't fall off on the last bend you weren't trying hard enough.
Luckily a mortgage intervened so I returned to my Carlton on which my "trick" was "stoppies" until I snapped the forks and had to replace them.
My first Mountain bike coincided with the introduction of speed humps and they were treated as ramps to "catch some air"
So ,me, a car and the road "Too Risky" and I can do anything I need with my bike and trailer so don't have to ask for lifts from friends or relatives when fetching anything that would fit in a car boot

 

[Flying Dodo]

If you'd read my previous posts you'd realise that my car doesn't meaningfully depreciate because I bought it as a fully serviced, fully functional, high mileage 9 year old car - so for £1200 I get a big boot, 40mpg, climate control, comfy seats and a full length sunroof.

As a worse case I can weigh it in for scrap and get £300 back - I think it's fair to assume it willl last at least another 6 months given it passed it's MOT with no advisories and runs very well - so worse case it will depreciate by £900 in 2 years, or £1.23 per day.

I paid cash for it, so there is no loan. It costs me about £300 per year in servicing and bits - wiper blades and so on - another 82p per day.

Car tax is 40p per day, and inusrance is another 96p.

I get that to a fixed cost of £3.41 per day. Diesel for the journey to my parents and back costs a bit over a tenner. Ergo a return trip for up to 5 people in my car to my parents is about £15. In total. Let's be generous and say I spend an extra £1500 a year on car bits that I've forgotten about - it's still less than £20 for that journey.

I've just checked on the trainline and the cheapest return rail fare (for 2 adults and a child) is £45.75. And we'd need bus tickets each end - another £10 - total cost of a slower, less convenient, less flexible and in my experience less reliable mode of transport = £55.75.

You will also note that I didn't say we would die without the car. I said it would make life less enjoyable and/or more expensive.

Clearly you're lucky in having such a reliable car. I'm asuming you're not bothering about factoring in a cost of a replacement.

My ex-car, despite being a Honda, in its last 2 years started to have some serious mechanical issues.

I'll freely admit that going car free has caused more physical pain and effort, as I live on top of a hill! However, from a personal point of view, I just started to feel more guilty about running a car, and the wider damage it causes, plus I wouldn't have got the Circe Helios which I normally use as a my cargo bike, which is such fun to ride. Three years on, I'm about 10kg lighter and much fitter.

 

[Sara_H]

Clearly you're lucky in having such a reliable car. I'm asuming you're not bothering about factoring in a cost of a replacement.

My ex-car, despite being a Honda, in its last 2 years started to have some serious mechanical issues.

I'll freely admit that going car free has caused more physical pain and effort, as I live on top of a hill! However, from a personal point of view, I just started to feel more guilty about running a car, and the wider damage it causes, plus I wouldn't have got the Circe Helios which I normally use as a my cargo bike, which is such fun to ride. Three years on, I'm about 10kg lighter and much fitter.

We live at the top of a hill. We have a cunning plan to move to the bottom of the hill when my son has left school.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We live at the top of a hill. We have a cunning plan to move to the bottom of the hill when my son has left school.

The only issue with moving to the bottom of a hill is that before you have warmed up, you get a steep climb if there is no flat available in the other direction - don't ask me how I know this...

 

[biking_fox]

Have never owned a car, nor has OtherHalf. The only real limiting issue is spontinaity. With a car you can always just jump in it and go. Without one you do have to think a bit in advance. But it doens't limit anything about travel. there are always taxis. Or even a hire car, although we haven't needed that yet. It is more a mindset than anything else, think about alternatives before deciding oh I need to do this by car. As above 'need' is such a varaible world.

That said. We did choose where to live based on the availability of public transport links, and ditto work. And don't have kids which would make it trickier. But there are a lot of options available.

 

[Sara_H]

The only issue with moving to the bottom of a hill is that before you have warmed up, you get a steep climb if there is no flat available in the other direction - don't ask me how I know this...

At the minute I have one mile steep downhill at the start of my ride to work. In winter I sometimes think I might freeze to death, have tears streaming down my face, fingers like ice cubes. I have to wear a load of layers, which I inevitably have to peel off when I get to the flat/uphill section! (this is why I like a basket, for the easy throwing in of hats, coats, gloves etc as I go along).
My problem is, my house is at the top of a hill, my work is at the top of a hill and in between lies a valley!

 

[Sara_H]

Have never owned a car, nor has OtherHalf. The only real limiting issue is spontinaity. With a car you can always just jump in it and go. Without one you do have to think a bit in advance. But it doens't limit anything about travel. there are always taxis. Or even a hire car, although we haven't needed that yet. It is more a mindset than anything else, think about alternatives before deciding oh I need to do this by car. As above 'need' is such a varaible world.

That said. We did choose where to live based on the availability of public transport links, and ditto work. And don't have kids which would make it trickier. But there are a lot of options available.

This is my plan. We know the area we're moving to, good public transport links, good access to one of the cities major cycle routes that accesses the city centre, train station etc, good local amenities. Work will still be uphill, but coming home will be downhill and I'll eliminate the killer hill back to my current home every day.
Only problem I foresee is that my Mum will still be living at the top of the hill, but then there'll be a bus up with the Brompton on those days!

 

[Nigeyy]

Interesting link here:

https://autos.yahoo.com/news/how-this-woman-saved--3000-a-year-by-ditching-her-car-170435412.html

I was reading it and remembered this thread. Of course, some of it is funny (read the "cutting out the cost of gas was also huge").

 

[mustang1]

What do you do with the time you save?

Watch Breaking Bad.