Has anyone chosen to be car-less?

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Has anyone chosen to be car-less?

139 posts & 56 voices | Started 1 year ago by GiantJaunt | Latest reply from molgrips

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GiantJaunt - Member

I'm seriously considering getting rid of my car once I've had it MOT'd this month. I live 1 mile from work and do the vast majority of my cycling from home. I can easily get a train into the city for shopping and nights out so I'm thinking the environmental and financial benefits will outweigh having to do without.

My main concern is that I won't be able to organise cycling trips away and visiting friends and family so easily.

It could either be one of the best things I've ever done or a big regret. Someone said that if I want to get another car in the future I'll have to pay loads for insurance but I don't know about that.

Has anyone else tried it and how did things turn out?

Posted 1 year ago #
amplebrew - Member

It could either be one of the best things I've ever done or a big regret. Someone said that if I want to get another car in the future I'll have to pay loads for insurance but I don't know about that.

I think that you get 3 years before you lose your no claims bonus. That's what I was told by Direct Line anyway.

Posted 1 year ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

We decided to go carless a few months back. So far it has turned out that we dont miss it even with three kids. Bus service round here is good and can go anywhere else I want on the train.

Posted 1 year ago #
Onzadog - Member

You know how you can try single speeding by not changing gear? You can do the same thing here. Keep the car for the time being but don't use it. Maybe even leave the keys at work. If you manage for three months, bin the car. For occasional trips, it might be chaper to rent than own.

Posted 1 year ago #
miketually - Member

We've been car-free at various points, both with and without kids. We're car-minimal at the moment.

I don't drive, so never use a car for bike trips, unless I get a lift. But, I don't ride much

Posted 1 year ago #
GiantJaunt - Member

It would be nice to spend some of the money from the car on making my bike super duper!

Posted 1 year ago #
anotherdeadhero - Member

Yup, 12 years and counting. I've been about this close >< to learning for the past year. It is significantly more hassle at times. Trying to resist my lazy side.

Posted 1 year ago #
thisisnotaspoon - Member

I did it for a while after finishing uni.

Trains stop ~11 ish even from big towns, so nights out are more 'late evening' than 'night'.

Walking a mile to the shop is fine, untill it snows and you run out of bog roll.

Riding localy is great, but it does mean you can't ride that trail 10 miles away, well unless you get superfit.

1 mile to work is fine 99 times out of 100, but once in a while it's an utter PITA.

Friends, girlfirends and casual aquaintances eventualy get fed up of you turning up to parties smelling of mature mozzerella, not bringing beer as you couldn't cary it and their having to always be designated driver.

Posted 1 year ago #
toys19 - Member

we went down to one car, which my wife uses mainly for ferrying toddlers and all their paraphanelia to ultra important playdates, and I use for ferrying grown up toddlers and their bikes to ultra important play dates in the hills.. Other than that I cycle to work and ride my bike as much as poss.

Posted 1 year ago #
chewkw - Member

No cars for more 11 years now but then my place of work is within walking distance but I still want to get a car probably next year.

Posted 1 year ago #
amplebrew - Member

I don't have a car at the moment and either cycle, walk or use the bus.

One of the biggest negatives though is that it really limits your available riding locations.

I'm currently trying to sort out a van to just use for trips out as I'm bored riding the local area all the time.

Once I get a van though, I'll still be cycling, walking and using the bus. It will just give me more freedom to go further afield on rideouts.

I'd keep the car and just use it for proper runs out, use your bike, feet and public transport when possible.

Posted 1 year ago #
GiantJaunt - Member

thisisnotaspoon

You have raised some good points there. The social life thing is the biggest draw back. I've been snowed/iced in for weeks on end the last couple of winters and really enjoyed either slithering into town on my bike or walking. I do most of my shopping on my way home from work so that's not a problem. 1 mile to work really isn't any bother regardless of the weather and not having a car will make me walk or cycle.

Posted 1 year ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

I will add that I had no idea how much we were spending on a car each month until we had that money left in our bank account at the end of the month.

Scary amounts. We are a good £500/ month better off if not more.

Posted 1 year ago #
Skoolshoes - Member

Never owned a car and probably never will.
The walk to school is 2 miles each way and my nearest shop is half a mile away.
Every job I've had, I've either biked it or car shared.
If I need to travel further afield, I use a bus or train. Less expensive, less polution AND I'm still fit as **** (for a 34 year old)

Posted 1 year ago #
TandemJeremy - Member

I have not had a car for decades. Spend some of your savings on hire cars and taxis. a thousand a year buys a lot of each.

Posted 1 year ago #
Lawmanmx - Member

im doing away with mine in july when the (ripoff) insurance runs out, i cant wait either, ive been using the car less and less since the Silly fuel price hikes, lets hope more people do the same

Posted 1 year ago #
ourmaninthenorth - Member

We own one car between us. that said, for years I've effectivel been car free for so much of my life - I just ride my bike.

Now, we've moved to a small village with no shops (but an ace pub!) and live up to 40 miles from work. We have a baby.

A car has proved very useful, but I again want to go back to minimal use.

Posted 1 year ago #
mustard - Member

My car, leased through work, has a year to go on the lease and they have stopped the lease scheme. I think I will hand it back at the end of the lease and maybe even get myself a cargo bike.

That'll be the best part of £200/month in my pocket just from the lease and tax.

I'm sure I'll miss it for a while but then again, I do use public transport a lot already and am happy to do so and most of the further afield bike trips are done in friends cars as they're estates and are already set up for 3 or 4 bikes on the roof.

If I really do struggle without it I'll look at getting a van again.

Posted 1 year ago #
coffeeking - Member

I went carless for about 8 or 9 months, got sick of having to beg lifts off people and tie people down on their weekends so I could go out to do my sports, so bought another. Just got my original running again, so got two now

Posted 1 year ago #
RichPenny - Member

I last owned a car 18 months ago. I'd normally ride everywhere but had 2 months of back problems so been using the bus for work, which is fine and £11 a week.

I tend to visit friends and family at weekends. Enterprise deal for a group 1 car long weekend hire is £36, then the 5th hire is free, so less than £30 for friday to monday hire. When I have a car I do tend to cram plenty in to get value out of it. Not used a hire car for biking yet though, I think you'd want a bike bag and to be a little tidier with the mud. Or, as suggested cadge lifts with riding mates.

There are plusses and minuses. Financially you'll benefit because you tend to do less, but then you do less Physically you'll benefit because you'll be have no lazy option and you'll be carrying stuff about a bit more. But you could knacker your back

All in I don't regret it, but I have decent transport links and a short walk for the essentials. I'm also happy to sacrifice convenience for those benefits mentioned, but occasionally it's a pain in the arse. If circumstances changed I'd have no qualms about getting a car if I needed one. If you don't need it just give it a go, it really isn't a massive decision.

Posted 1 year ago #
emsz - Member

Never had a lesson, couldn't afford to run a car even if I could drive. work is bus and train journey, college is bus or ride away. GF drives though, and has access to her mums car if we need one, so that's cheating isn't it.

Posted 1 year ago #
binners - Member

I did without a car for a couple of years until forced back into car ownership by a new job/longer commute.

It makes a hell of a difference to both my wallet and my waistline. When i was riding everywhere, including the school run with the kids in teh Burley Trailer, I was a damn site fitter than i am now. And I was lucky I live in the city, with great public transport.

Financially I still resent every £60 tankful. But as I'd been carless for a while I've not defaulted to automatic car use. I'm still commuting by bike 2 or 3 days a week

Posted 1 year ago #
BigDummy - Member

I've never learned to drive. I have a Surly Big Dummy, which does all the logistical heavy load things (big shops, garden centre, tip etc) that it'd be handy to have a car for, and I can give people lifts quite plausibly.

Weekends away are just different. Taking the train etc takes planning and a certain amount of organisation. You can't get away as much, for sure. It's possible friends resent my not driving, but I try to compensate by putting my hand in my pocket for fuel, food and things and I think it's OK.

Lived in London for a while, now central Bristol, so social isn't really a problem. I'll ride the dummy gently to and ffrom parrties and the pub as long as it's no more than about 7 miles I guess.

Commutes have never been longer than 11 miles each way and I always had the option of the train. That sort of distance is fine though.

Tend to feel that a car would be massive wasted expense, although doubtless I'd find ways to use it.

Posted 1 year ago #
miketually - Member

Weekends away are just different. Taking the train etc takes planning and a certain amount of organisation.

Last summer we (me, wife and two kids, who were 4 and 6 at the time) got the had a day in London, then went to Slough where we overnighted in a Travelodge. We then decamped to a nice hotel in Windsor, had two days in Legoland, another day trip into London and then went home. The car stayed on the drive at home the whole time.

Conversely, we went to Scotland for a week at Easter and I'd not have fancied that without the car; as the place we were staying was pretty remote.

Posted 1 year ago #
Gary_C - Member

I've been car-less since the end of January.

Been on drastically reduced hours at work, so needed to take measures to economise. Thing is, I was only using the car at weekends as bike transport to trails a bit further afield, I live within a mile of work, so walk there, so the car was an expensive luxury that i've learned to live without. Financially, i'm about £300 a month better off.

Posted 1 year ago #
meehaja - Member

I'm reasonably carless, in that i have a 30 year old camper van, but it does 18mpg, so i avoid driving it for anything less than a holiday!

A fella at work is carless and he ws telling me that at first its annoying as you can't "just do things". Like when you "need" a case of beer you can't just drive to the supermarket etc, but with a bit of organisation he manages fine (and he has 2 kids). Its a bit like cycling to work i guess, a bit of a drag at first, but soon becomes second nature, ust takes some organisation!

Posted 1 year ago #
coffeeking - Member

I do genuinely think that life would be, for me, a lot poorer without it. Not financially, but experience-wise. There's so many times when the best weekends have been split-second decisions with no planning, or I've chosen to drive from scotland to mid wales to meet some old friends for rides after deciding on the friday lunch. I'd never have taken up kitesurfing, which is great fun.

While I appreciate it is possible if your life choices are to go to the pub or only travel to places next to public transport, but for those who choose to regularly venture into the wilderness a long way from home or to do sports that require piles of equipment, there's just no alternative.

If you can do, go for it. But don't expect to be financially better off unless you're currently unaware of the cheapest methods of your usual travel or choose convenience over cash to a large degree.

Posted 1 year ago #
keefus - Member

Sold my car last November just before tax and mot were due. My insurance was £240 a year, car tax £200 (jap 2 ltr import) and I had to pay £60 pa to park outside my flat. From Nov 2009 to Nov 2010 I did less than 5 thousand miles so thought bollocks get rid, so I did and bought a road bike. I live just off the quay in poole town and shopping is a doddle with an asda and a sainsburys close by. Walk or bike the 4 miles to work. The only thing I miss about not having a car is not being able to get to dalby forest to ride the trails there (but I'm working on that by using a bike bag, public transport and my over 60's bus pass!)

Posted 1 year ago #
Pickers - Member

I asked a similar question a little while ago..
No car - how do you cope
And got loads of useful info and suggestions.
As a result of this (and a few other things) I've changed jobs and given up my car. We still have a car between us but I now have a short commute by bike and a local car rental place that can accommodate me at short notice.

Posted 1 year ago #
coffeeking - Member

We still have a car between us

I'd consider that cheating personally!

Posted 1 year ago #
Pickers - Member

I'd consider that cheating personally!

Sorry

My wife doesn't quite share my enthusiasm for this. Bus service is very good, if you're going where the bus is going... and you're still stuck somebody elses routes and times

Posted 1 year ago #
miketually - Member

While I appreciate it is possible if your life choices are to go to the pub or only travel to places next to public transport

Ouch! Condescending much?

Posted 1 year ago #
GlitterGary - Member

I've never had a car and hope never to have one.

It's easy. Just sell your car and get the train/bus if you need to go far.

What's the problem?

Posted 1 year ago #
bagpuss72 - Member

I'm giving it serious consideration. I live 7 miles from work there's 2 routes and both have a hill start but then a nice ride after and are easier after the first ten mins or so. My insurance is £64 a month I spend £150 on petrol and then there's tax, mot's etc and the ba**ard thing has cost me over £2k in repairs this last year.

I was thinking about 'nipping' here and there and actually when I go to a hen do next weekend I've bought a train ticket for £43 return it would have cost me £60 in petrol so its cheaper for some runs......

But having a car since I was 17 I may feel like my legs have been cut off!!!????

Posted 1 year ago #
thebunk - Member

We've had phases of being carless, due to city living / no parking. It was great, no hassles and we could rent a car if we wanted to go further afield, or a van for bike weeks, so in a way it's more flexible.

Ironically as we got more into mountain biking, the more we wanted a car to go away at weekends, so we have a Zafira currently, and it's nice having the freedom, and not have to worry about the Avis office opening times. It's a luxury item though and definitely first on the list of things that would go if we needed to tighten our belts.

For us, it got to about 2.5 weekends per month hiring a car before it made sense to buy one instead, but I could do with out having to shell out a couple of hundred quid every few months for tyres / exhaust / tax / mot / whatever.

Posted 1 year ago #

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