Your car-free yrs.

[shootingstar]

Suddenly realized I've been giving the wrong statistic about total no. of my car-free years. (Car-free, meaning living in a home where not I nor other occupant(s) had a car.)

Today earlier on TE elsewhere, I said I've been car-free for past 29 yrs.

Well, only partially true. From babyhood to age 15 yrs., our family had no car. Then parents scraped together enough money to buy car. Between ages 15-21 yrs., I did live a household with a car.


Hence, I've been car-free 44 yrs. (out of 50).
I feel ancient. But not quite horse 'n buggy.

Anyone else, besides Beth H (who mentioned 20 car-free yrs.).?

[alpinerabbit]

I guess since I moved out from my parents? But we are in a car-sharing scheme. We use it about 2-3 times a year max.

Car Sharing, launched in 1987 in Switzerland and later in 1988 in Germany, came to North America via Quebec City in 1993. As of January 1, 2009 - based on data provided by Susan Shaheen, University of California, Berkeley - 24 U.S. car sharing programs claimed 309,437 members sharing 6,093 vehicles; and 46,802 members shared 1,758 vehicles among 15 car sharing organizations in Canada.

http://www.carsharing.net/where.html

[shootingstar]

Interesting, alpine. So how many years have you been in this car-sharing arrangement? Somehow I'm not surprised about inroads made into the Quebec City area in that year.

One of my single friends does drive but doesn't have a car (though she could afford a car by now), does belong to car-sharing company/network. I think she "rents" a car to drive for a couple of hrs. usually to get her home reno supplies from Home Depot and gardening supplies since she is a serious gardener.

She does cycle and is quite competent. Done touring solo, etc.
She's probably been car-free for past 20 years at least. (Instead she bought her own home.)

[Cataboo]

Hrm. I'm in the US. I've never been car free. I walked to grad school for 6 years - but still needed a car to get groceries, or go away for the weekend (often had to go back & forth about 180 miles to do things for family). I bike to work & shops now, but still do a fair amount by car. I haven't figured out how to load my kayak on my bike and drive to the coast yet.

The public transportation system isn't all that developed in most of the US.

[PamNY]

I haven't had a car in 20+ years, but it's not because I'm virtuous. It's because I live in New York City.

Pam

[Karma007]

I'm not car free now, but I was my my daughter was small. In fact, I think I'm was one of the first people to strap a carseat in a Burley, and at 4 months she had a helmet! I didn't mind it, it is just the way life was. I try to be car free as much as possible now, but it's not so easy; we live in the 'burbs, and have to drive 20 minutes to get anywhere.

[Biciclista]

I was car free for only 1 year, when i was a freshman in college. pretty pathetic, isn't it?

[ny biker]

I was car-free when I lived in Philadelphia, Chicago and NYC. I lasted a year in DC before I gave up and got a car.

[GLC1968]

I was car-free for one year when I was a freshman at college. Actually, now that I look back, that was a pretty big deal considering that we had nothing within walking distance except campus - and no public transportation where I went to school. But I did have a car on campus for my sophomore year and beyond (though I did bike to campus the one year I lived off-campus).

Now I don't see how my current lifestyle would allow me to be truly car-free. We live 10 miles from the nearest hospital, have no public transportation near our home, and 20 miles from the nearest vet and from my work (though I am getting better about commuting by bike). We try to be 'car-light' as much as possible...

Maybe someday!

[Tri Girl]

I was car free for only 1 year, when i was a freshman in college. pretty pathetic, isn't it?

Not pathetic. I was car free from 17-20 (out of poverty while in college).

I will go car-light soon, but can't go car-free. My city is too spread out with poor public transportation offerings.

[PamNY]

I was car free for only 1 year, when i was a freshman in college. pretty pathetic, isn't it?

No, it's not pathetic. It's just the way things are in many places.

I tried to figure out how to do without a rental car when my mother went through a long illness in another city. I could have bought quite a nice bike for what I paid Avis. But there was simply no way. Most cities and suburbs are built for cars, and public transportation, if it exists at all, is a joke.

Pam

[shootingstar]

I haven't had a car in 20+ years, but it's not because I'm virtuous. It's because I live in New York City.

Pam

Well, being car-free for a long time, doesn't feel so lonely here in TE, after all.

During the years when I was an older teen and before I left home after transferring to another university, I never really had much access to drive the family car much at all. By evening, my father had to have the car for his work commute. His work included most evenings. He didn't get home until 1:00 am. regularily. And I was too busy with my studies.

So about 40% of time, I walked to university in my home town..which was close to 8 kms. 1 way. Or took 1 bus. Boggles my mind, when looking back to my innocent youth, that I did slog at that distance, through a snow blizzard with winds 40+ kms./hr. and a backpack full of 4 thick hardcover texts. Wearing a long, heavy wool coat, at mid-calf.

I don't do my lifestyle for environmental reasons: a) I had problems learning to drive a car and never felt comfortable. b) save money.

My partner has been car-free for last 19 yrs. of his 66 yrs. After his divorce, he never bought a car. On the days, he had custody of his children, the children took streetcar/bus to school. The stop was outside his home. They were already in their teens.

So we rent cars occasionally and use taxis several times a yr. Really the whole cost of these 2 car-based modes ..works out probably um....less than $300.00 CAN/annually.

[MartianDestiny]

I've been car free for about the last 2 or 3 years. 6 if you count college, but I was close to home so there was a lot of back and forth.

I've never owned a car and only driven enough to get a license (required to prove residency for grad school *hrrrumph*)

I do occasionally take advantage of friends who are going hiking or to the store or whatever when rides are offered, but that's the extent of it. Riding in cars now makes me extremely nervous, especially when I go home and we have to go through downtown traffic.

[Biciclista]

I have car free days. Like today.

[Crankin]

I have never been car free, but in the last two years, I realized how much less I drive than most of my friends and it is intentional, too. I fill my car up once every 10 days to two weeks. Of course, some of this is because on the weekends, if we go out, we usually do not take my car, but still... it's made a significant drop in my gas expenses. This week I have to drive to Newton, twice (suburb next to the city), so there goes my budget for this week. I plan my errands and everything is done within a five-seven mile radius. In the summer, I go to a lot of appointments and some small shopping by bike. I could do more here. In the last four years that I worked, I rode my bike to work twice a week, for the last two months of the school year and in September. It's not really feasible for me to do a full grocery shopping trip on a bike; the closest one is 3.5 miles, but it's up a big hill on the way there and on the way back. My commuting bike only has one pannier, not really meant for shopping. I do go to Trader Joe's, farms for produce, etc. on it.
I couldn't live without a car, but I have lessened my dependence.