HOusehold with no car-past 30 yrs.

[shootingstar]

Is there anyone here, who is as strange as I? Living in a household that doesn't have a car for past ....30 years?

Yes, I have made conscious life choices to live in urban areas close to public transit. I've lived in 3 different cities during the carless years.

[EDHGirl]

What do you do if you need to go somewhere outside the city? For instance, my mom lives 80 miles away and nowhere near public transit. How would you get there?

I think it's an interesting, and much cheaper way to live, but I could never do it. I just love the freedom of driving too much.

[OakLeaf]

There's always car rental for occasional trips.

Star, I really admire you. At this point in my life I'm too selfish to give up my home in the country. :( I love having a garden, hunting mushrooms, seeing deer and turkey and snakes in my backyard, being able to go to sleep at night and wake in the morning with only the sun, moon and stars for light.

I know perfectly well that the driving, driving, driving that attaches to my love of the outdoors, is killing it too. I just haven't found the willingness in myself to give it up. Yet.

[jesvetmed]

Today it sounds wonderful to me... just filled up my tank and spent $54.00. I live 40 miles from work (change in work without a change in living :(), and have no transportation in between. I have my old Camry which still gets about 33 miles to the gallon despite having 210k miles on it. Don't know how you do it. I'm lucky to only work 3 nights a week on avg (I just work 2x a normal shift), so don't have to get in the car the other days most of the time. Good for you -- this is a great example of what we can strive to be like. Depending on our situations, we may not ever be able to do the exact same, but learning from the ideas can only help. Small changes!

[shootingstar]

[QUOTE=EDHGirl;295918]What do you do if you need to go somewhere outside the city? For instance, my mom lives 80 miles away and nowhere near public transit. How would you get there? QUOTE]

I took/take bus, train. But now...I bike. :D

I don't drive, but he has his driver's license. he also has a sleep disorder where he cannot drive beyond 200 kms. daily. It's a huge struggle for him to stay awake behind the steering wheel. He is also cyclist.

It doesn't bother me. Riding a bike also made me realize how much I was missing out on my own region.

You have to realize I grew up poor..5 children in a 1-bedroom apt. in Ontario. ..before parents bought an old house for growing family. My father was a restaurant cook. We couldn't afford a car until I was 15 yrs. old. So really, I lived in a household with a car for only 6 yrs. of my 49 yrs. in life.

We rent a car..um..1-3 times annually.

Believe me, I've saved enough money over the years. Actually abit shocking when I make conservative estimate.

[shootingstar]

What do you do if you need to go somewhere outside the city? For instance, my mom lives 80 miles away and nowhere near public transit. How would you get there?

I took/take bus, train. But now...I bike. :D

I don't drive, but he has his driver's license. he also has a sleep disorder where he cannot drive beyond 200 kms. daily. It's a huge struggle for him to stay awake behind the steering wheel. He is also cyclist.

It doesn't bother me. Riding a bike also made me realize how much I was missing out on my own region.

You have to realize I grew up poor..5 children in a 1-bedroom apt. in Ontario. ..before parents bought an old house for growing family. My father was a restaurant cook. We couldn't afford a car until I was 15 yrs. old. So really, I lived in a household with a car for only 6 yrs. of my 49 yrs. in life.

We rent a car..um..1-3 times annually.

Believe me, I've saved enough money over the years. Actually abit shocking when I make conservative estimate

[DebW]

In some urban areas, you can buy into the Zipcar (http://www.zipcar.com/) program. It's like shared cars sited around town with self-serve access.

[Triskeliongirl]

i think if I lived in an urban center I would do the same thing as you. Even now, we recently went from being a 2 car family to a 1 car family, with 1 VERY OLD car at that. Our car is too old to make long trips anymore, has no heat or AC, etc. but I was surprised to learn how inexpensive it is to rent a car. We are taking a trip to New Orleans in April, and rented a full size car for only $20 a day. We bike to work, but then use our car on the weekend to drive out to the country for our club bike rides. I used to work in Woods Hole every summer, and for about 10 years we'd live car free in the summer. Its great when the weather is great, but it is tough when its raining a lot, or if someone is sick or injured.

[kat_h]

I didn't have a car when I lived in England or Germany or Montreal, but whenever I'm home I have one. I find it amusing that I bike to work (10 k) whenever the wind isn't too bad but my husband always drives to where he works (2 k.)

[Triskeliongirl]

I don't know much about zipcar, but for you students out there I know many college campuses have car rental programs. This both discourages students from having cars on campus (and saves on parking problems), and makes it easy for them to rent when they need to. At Wellesley, there is a parking lot full of these vehicles, and for a modest annual fee students can buy into a program that lets them use these vehicles for routine errands, etc. At MIT, my son's fraternity needed to drive to a retreat in Canada, and the school also arranged vehicles for them to use. This is very impt. for younger students that often have difficulty renting from commerical vendors, and something both my kids have taken advantage of (cuz there is no way we can buy them both cars and send them to MIT and Wellesley, heck that is why we also have to drive one broken down old car.......).

I did live car free for many years as a student in Cambridge MA as well, just cuz it cost so damn much even for a parking space. I lived in an apt. complex where the you had to pay almost as much to rent a parking space as an entire apt, so I bought my first nice touring bike instead......... In a city with good public transportation, it can work fine, even in bad weather. THe problem is cities without good publ. transp.

[KnottedYet]

If someone can figure out how to be a single mom and share carpool duties, take injured and sick children and dogs to the doctors, rush from work to school/hospital when child is in trouble, haul child and suitcases to grandma's, etc without a car or good taxi system, I'd love to know.

Sometimes I really miss the years I didn't have a car and did everything by bike and bus. (but I don't miss the way I had to impose on my friends to help me move or take me places when I couldn't manage by bike or bus. it's nice to be able to return the favors now)

[mimitabby]

Knot, it won't be long!

but living where you live it would be very hard to be car free! our metropolitan areas are not set up for car free living. And every time they start to plan something (for a few lucky and elite) it gets dropped.

Where we live it will be marginal being car free. It means you have to depend on stores that are nearby instead of stores you like the produce at.
I loved my time staying in Italian cities, where you could find anything you needed within walking distance of your house. and every day; all the women go out and go shopping; and therefore have fresh produce every single day.
even obscure things, like watch batteries; there were little stores nearby that carried them.

at least at my house there is a nearby bus line.
I'm still chained to my car; i'm afraid.

[Triskeliongirl]

I will add that even for us to make the transition from 2 to 1 car required becoming empty nesters. Indeed, its hard to be a parent without a car....... But again venue matters. If everything you need is in walking distance or you live in a city with great mass transit (like NYC or Boston) I can see doing it.

[shootingstar]

Should add that I've lived in 4 cities, not 3 of all my car-less years. I forgot my childhood city..Waterloo (part of Kitchener-Waterloo). Population at that time was 30,000. Now it's more. We lived close to downtown core.

Growing up without a car for awhile did mean accompanying mother to help her carry groceries or pull the grocery buggy along. It wasn't the best thing for a kid since they want to be "cool" but it does teach a child alot about food and food buying..and realities of getting food to table.

I'm not concerned. ..since there are taxis in most cities. So combined with bike, public transit, taxis (about 3 times annually) and walking , we are just fine.

Most of the food shops we like are within a 8 kms. bike ride. I live downtown. In a previous city, Toronto I lived 1 block away from a subway station in the suburbs and had the choice of 2 bike routes to cycle into downtown Toronto where I worked. 1 way it was only 16 kms.

[Melalvai]

I will add that even for us to make the transition from 2 to 1 car required becoming empty nesters. Indeed, its hard to be a parent without a car....... But again venue matters. If everything you need is in walking distance or you live in a city with great mass transit (like NYC or Boston) I can see doing it.
It's also about choices. I think I could provide a great lifestyle for my daughter without the car even in our small town. We'd have made some sacrifices, like swim team would have been out of the question. It would have been easy if we'd done it from the beginning or very early in her life. It wouldn't be impossible now, we could talk her into it. The key words here is "we". Mine is the only vote for no car. This sort of thing has to be family-unanimous!

But I would never say that we "couldn't" do it. If we wanted to, or if we had to, we could do it.

[shootingstar]

But I would never say that we "couldn't" do it. If we wanted to, or if we had to, we could do it.

Certainly I can vouch our family did it..and keep in mind when my father could afford to buy 1 family car (mother was housewife), his job was further away and on night shift...so he wasn't around during the week when I was 15-17 yrs.

But then the family budget was such that there was no money send of us 6 kids to any fee-based post-school activity/sport. So the car-chauffeuring just never existed. But ensuring the child/teenager was safely alone riding bus or accompanied by a sibling walking to and from home was put into place.

When I see parents plunk their 6-8 yrs. old child in a stroller, I am filled with wonder. I had ..to walk beside mama with other little ones...no choice. Only 1 stroller in family and I was the eldest child.

There may be a reason why I have maintained a healthy weight. It has been.. partially...a lifestyle of which a huge part..economics...there was no choice...but go car-free. There have been times in life, especially growing up where it was abit boring to trudge home in the snow with groceries from store...but ...all good in the end. No traumas. :o

I know several highly paid lawyers.who cycle-commute.. (salaries probably for each lawyer over $200,000 annualy).. gave up their 2nd family car.

[limewave]

I just wanted to comment on the 6-8 year olds in the strollers. That's crazy! I've seen it too. We have a 2 yo and she HATES riding in the stroller. She'll do okay in it if I take her for a run, but otherwise she wants to walk. Even when we take a long family stroll of 4 to 5 miles, she'll walk about a mile of it herself before she rides.


I am envious of those who can live without a car or just one family car. I wish we could do it, but I haven't quite figured out how it would work. I only go into the office 2 days a week, but it's a 60 minute commute each way--too far to ride a bike and no public transportation. And DH needs his car for work--he does service and has a big work truck with all of his supplies. Maybe someday I'll find a job closer to home and we can give up that second vehicle . . .

[smilingcat]

I would love to be car free. Another huge expense gone...

But I live in Southern California where walking is equated to being homeless of sort. I walk to my grocery store and the stares I get when I'm walking home with bags of grocery... :( I drive to Trader Joes. It's tad too far and public transportation is iffy at best.
This place is car-centric and just no other way.

yes I would prefer to use less car. less polution, less noise, chance to get acquainted with my neighbors, less stress (highway rage)...

Speaking of which, I saw an electric moped the other day. the rider claimed no hills on his electric moped. How cool is that!!! And you can go farther out and back. Ran errands without getting too exhausted.

smilingcat

[kat_h]

I'm spending this morning rebuilding the wiper motor on my car. Lately whenever it snows I have to bike.

[Brandi]

We have a truck. And a scooter. I take the scooter to the store etc.. I don't like to use the truck if I don't have to. We also have our bikes but don't really use those for tranportation to the store or anything. I wish we didn't have to use a car, but for our work we do.

[Jolt]

I just wanted to comment on the 6-8 year olds in the strollers. That's crazy! I've seen it too. We have a 2 yo and she HATES riding in the stroller. She'll do okay in it if I take her for a run, but otherwise she wants to walk. Even when we take a long family stroll of 4 to 5 miles, she'll walk about a mile of it herself before she rides.


6-8 year olds in strollers??? How ridiculous! At that age kids should definitely be expected to walk--they should be capable of keeping up with the adults reasonably well so there's no reason to have them ride. Talk about starting them off with bad habits...

As for the car-free thing, I'd have to agree with those who have said it depends on where you live and what stage of life you're in (young kids etc.). Unfortunately most of the USA is just not set up for being able to do what you need to do without a car, unless you're in a big city like Boston or NYC where things are close together and there's good public transportation. That said, I think we can all find ways to reduce our driving by using our bikes or walking for shorter trips, taking public transportation into major cities rather than driving in (if your area has commuter rail service, that is) and linking trips when we do need to drive. The Zipcar type services seem like a good solution for people who do live in major cities but need to get out of the city every so often to do certain things (or just for their mental health...).