living without a car

[eofelis]

We are not car free, but are car-lite.

We deliberately moved to a neighborhood that is close to many things that we could walk or bike to.

I have a 1991 Subaru and it hasn't been expensive or a problem to keep running, so I'm loathe to get rid of it entirely. Insurance is $250/yr and it hasn't needed many repairs. Currently I try to run it once a week so it doesn't die of neglect. It is still reliable enough for long road trips too, and not bad on gas.

My SO sort of inherited a 1994 Toyota 4wd truck. We do like to use it for camping trips, but only drive it about once a week otherwise. Tomorrow we are going to go spend a few days in the San Juan mtns looking at old mines and driving on the 4wd roads.

Sometimes I think of getting a newer Subaru (one that's only 10 yrs old) and my SO thinks of getting a different Toyota truck (he'd like an extra cab, the one he has is a regular cab and is not very comfortable), but then we think that we really don't drive enough to spend money on changing the cars.

[light_sabe_r]

We are not car free, but are car-lite.

I love that line!

That describes us too. We can go weeks without using the car.

I need one for Tri season though. ^_^

[shootingstar]

I've been to Kelowna several times..and we are always struck by how sprawly the city is, given the reality that the population isn't huge.

I know several people who as a result of city wide transit strikes, rode their bike....and enjoyed it enough that they commuted to work by bike regularily / dropped ownership of their 2nd car.

And these are people with very healthy incomes.

My partner actually has a sleep disorder where he tends to fall asleep if his body is still..ie. driving a car. He finds driving beyond 250 kms. daily a strain..in concentration. So cycling seriously keeps his whole body awake and alive. His sleep disorder has been tested at a teaching hospital sleep lab.

[indigoiis]

Ugh. We have four cars, two drivers.
We live on a farm, so one of the trucks is an un-plated farm truck for plowing, trucking manure, and hauling stuff.
The other truck is my husband's. He is using it to commute to work. It is a toyota, though, so the mileage is pretty good. And when I change jobs, he'll be commuting with the Prius. But we will still need a pickup for going to get hay, hauling the trailer, or when he needs a truck for his job.

We have a minivan for transporting animals.

And we have the Prius, which I currently use to commute (but come December, will be biking to the bus to commute.)

One of our problems is that I have joint custody of my daughter, which means that some nights, I have her, some I don't. This requires transportation and, as another poster mentioned, she is not interested in biking the eleven hilly and not bike-friendly miles to her Dad's. She'll be sixteen in two years, and very likely we will have to get her some economical beater in order for her to go back and forth between houses.

This also affects my bike commute, because I have to make sure on my days with her that she gets to the bus, which is five miles from our house. I have thought it up, down, sideways and backwards... I thought of getting a tandum but then, how do I get it home at night if she goes to her Dad's that night? So I am resigned to the fact that, for now, the days I have her, I will have to drive to the bus. At least it is shorter to the bus than it is to my current job... I will be saving some gas and carbon points.

[Geonz]

Yesterday I saw a fellow riding a tandem solo. Might be worth trying.

[Melalvai]

my daughter...is not interested in biking the eleven hilly and not bike-friendly miles to her Dad's.

My daughter is 12 and not overly enthusiastic about long (>3 miles) hilly rides. Other people have actually said things like "Just make her do it"!! Obviously these people do not have children. We pick our battles, and if a ride in a car means we don't live in a war zone, so be it!

[Tuckervill]

You need a scooter! SHE needs a scooter! Very economical.

Karen

Ugh. We have four cars, two drivers.
We live on a farm, so one of the trucks is an un-plated farm truck for plowing, trucking manure, and hauling stuff.
The other truck is my husband's. He is using it to commute to work. It is a toyota, though, so the mileage is pretty good. And when I change jobs, he'll be commuting with the Prius. But we will still need a pickup for going to get hay, hauling the trailer, or when he needs a truck for his job.

We have a minivan for transporting animals.

And we have the Prius, which I currently use to commute (but come December, will be biking to the bus to commute.)

One of our problems is that I have joint custody of my daughter, which means that some nights, I have her, some I don't. This requires transportation and, as another poster mentioned, she is not interested in biking the eleven hilly and not bike-friendly miles to her Dad's. She'll be sixteen in two years, and very likely we will have to get her some economical beater in order for her to go back and forth between houses.

This also affects my bike commute, because I have to make sure on my days with her that she gets to the bus, which is five miles from our house. I have thought it up, down, sideways and backwards... I thought of getting a tandum but then, how do I get it home at night if she goes to her Dad's that night? So I am resigned to the fact that, for now, the days I have her, I will have to drive to the bus. At least it is shorter to the bus than it is to my current job... I will be saving some gas and carbon points.

[shootingstar]

I should add that only the last 5 years, I've been living in Vancouver to enjoy milder weather as a non-car resident.

Prior to that I lived several decades in southern Ontario, where winters are like upper New York State,...colder, more snow/slush. During the winters in that province, I did not cycle through snow. It was subway, bus and walking. For a few years, I used to walk almost 1 hr. one way to university every day with at least 4-5 heavy texts in my backpack.

But true, if car-free becomes part of your lifestyle, your whole body becomes adjusted to it.

One good thing being on bus, train or subway, is you can snooze/rest /veg out before or after work. Something you can't do when driving a car.

[smilingcat]

My desire is to be lite on car but in Los Angeles area, you are considered insane to be walking. bike has to be either a beach cruiser or racing bike. Everything is about the looks. You can't ignore it cause if you do, ...

I hate driving over an hour each way on my commute. I don't want to be part of the global problem. Besides every week there are horrific accidents on my commute. I think I drive by a fatality every year. last year, this year... Its just amazing ... to see car pieces in a "debris field" bigger than a football size. How fast do they have to be travelling??

I can only afford one car. My partner has a ten year old pkup, bashed in a few places to add character. Thought about commuting by bike part ways. Not sure what I'm going to do when gas hits $4.00 or $5.00/gallon.

smilingcat

[KnottedYet]

I've been thinking about the part-way commute using bike and car, too.

Been doing it bus-n-bike, but I've been looking at car-n-bike as a safer way to go. (I could drive through the entire hairy-traffic part at one end of my route.) Besides, then my bike would be safely in the back of my station wagon while I drove, rather than a precarious figurehead on the bus rack! (my bus driver almost smooshed my bike into a car once. he was very apologetic. no harm done, but my heartrate went up a little! )

I guess that's kind of car lite, but I do feel a little guilty about trading the bus for the car...

[shootingstar]

I have several good female cycling friends who do have a driver's license but none of them own a car. I'm pretty certain 1 of them has never owned a car while the other gave up her car probably 2 decades ago.

Each of these women, are single, don't have children but they each own their own home (house, not a condo). Not owning a car over a long time period means saving serious $$$$$

I'm pretty certain I couldn't have bought my own home and paid it off myself, if I owned a car on top of all that too.

Getting around by taxi several times per year (ie. for a huge load of groceries)....is still a saving over a car.

I also know a retired woman, a non-cyclist, who sold her car about 4 years ago. She lives near the subway in the downtown core of a big city, near amenities and services. In her late 60's. It's working out very well for her.

[KnottedYet]

I didn't buy a car until I had the kiddo.

Man, taking a puking hallucinating febrile toddler to the ER by bike would be a toughie! And participating in the school band carpool with 3 adolescents, a bassoon, a french horn, and a clarinet would definitely strain my granny gear!

Someday I'd really like to just do the bike/bus/occaisional car rental thing. Sometimes I look back on my car-less bike-n-bus life and get wistful and melancholy. Cars are expensive, no doubt about it. And stressful.

(and as my nearest and dearest can attest, I'm much calmer on a bike than driving a car!)

[Melalvai]

[QUOTE=KnottedYet;264173]I didn't buy a car until I had the kiddo.[QUOTE]
I agree, as long as we have a kid at home we will keep the car. We *could* get by without it but it would be at the expense of her swimming practices & swim meets.

But we can bike a lot of places and leave the car in the garage. One school in town has their own "bike brigade", just a bunch of parents who meet up & bike in to school together. I bike with my daughter to school once or twice a week, three miles, and sometimes one of her friends joins us. I wish there were someone to handle the afternoon trip because then we could do that a lot more often, right now we depend on someone with a bike rack to pick the kids up.

[MM_QFC!]

I've been thinking about the part-way commute using bike and car, too.

Been doing it bus-n-bike, but I've been looking at car-n-bike as a safer way to go. (I could drive through the entire hairy-traffic part at one end of my route.) Besides, then my bike would be safely in the back of my station wagon while I drove, rather than a precarious figurehead on the bus rack! (my bus driver almost smooshed my bike into a car once. he was very apologetic. no harm done, but my heartrate went up a little! )

I guess that's kind of car lite, but I do feel a little guilty about trading the bus for the car...

Hey Knot,
Just saw your posts re: riding in to Marymoor area and wanted to share that a few years ago, I had a similar commute. I did the drive and bike bit quite a bit, driving from downtown Edmonds to Kenmore P&R, then rode the trail down to RTC for one job and in the other direction when my main office location was on Eastlake. It was well-lit at the P&R, so I'd park right under a light and have good visibility for seeing all that I needed to as I got ready to ride, and all in reverse at the end of the day.
It worked really well for me to do that, as the bus routes and schedules were not sync'ing up with what I needed.

[KnottedYet]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I didn't end up riding to Redmond this go-round, but I'll be doing stuff in Redmond again in March.

But I was thinking riding to downtown Seattle from a PandR near the trail would be spiffy, too.

Where is the Kenmore P&R? I found the one in Bothell at Kaysten and 522 (or is it 527?) but is there one closer to Lake Forest Park?