MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Me and the other half are considering selling our car and not replacing it. The idea is that we will save money by not having a car but will rent one when we need to make long trips.
In my head this means that, as well as not paying car expenses, worrying about maintenance, etc. we will save money in other ways because we won't be able to drive places on a whim and spend money. It will also mean that we won't be able to chicken out of cycling places we need to go if the weather is nasty and will therefore harden up a bit and both be fitter as a consequence.
One of the down sides will be the inability to transport things easily, like if we wanted to go to the tip or Ikea or similar. On the other hand, I think we will end up planning ahead for that sort of thing.
Has anyone else tried this? How did you find it? Did it work?
Tell me you experiences!
--Twirlip
I lost my licence for 1 month. Wife doesn't drive. It was sh1t.
Perhaps not long enough to adjust properly and my 40 minute commute became a 2-2.5hour train journey and it rained every time I opened the front door for the entire month.
On the bright side, I now drive everywhere at below 100mph and get better fuel economy so it has saved me money, sort of.
I've never had a car (live in outer London), but have been playing around with an Xtracycle and a Surly Big Dummy for a fair while now. In my view, the Dummy will do pretty much anything you want a car for within maybe 10 miles of the house, albeit slowly and sometimes rather sweatily. It's about adapting the way you ride and really having a think about how to do jobs on the bike. Of course you're not going to match the convenience of having a car available, but you can do a surprising amount. Pictures from my flickr below. A furniture-buying run, a trip to the garden centre, my occasional practice of gathering horse manure fro the garden and an unflattering picture of my lady wife outside an off-licence. 😀
[url= http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2926748656_52db04a92f.jpg [/img][img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3565/3376744474_d6d7a4604d.jpg [/img][img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3623/3376760764_d02ff5e20a.jpg [/img][img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3446/3353260117_2bf9aae82f.jpg [/img][img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3024/2977972378_232f0e4240.jpg [/img][img] http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3598/3313278841_01b6ae08fe.jp g" target="_blank">
As [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/cargonistas/sets/72157610314134551/ ]The Dylster[/url] once said:
[i]“The Dummy actually comes with an invisible box of Joy. Once you start riding a Dummy, the box opens and you get this perpetual grin across your face.”[/i]
I love that pic with the chair, I remember you posting it before and it really makes me smile 🙂
❓ :roll:[img] 
[/img]
Does the woman have really long arms to reach the bars?
Have been carless for about a month after mine got written off. So far I haven't really missed it. Commute is about 10K either on or off-road on the bike and the supermarket is a 10 minute walk away.
The only major downside is that trips to the north downs and other riding areas need a bit more planning and maybe a hire car rather than just being an hour away in the car when you fancy it.
-ve's
- you have to walk/ride to the supermarket, and carry a weeks shopping back
- minor injuries never heal, if you pull a muscle you've still got to commute to work all week on it!
- bus'es are full of interesting characters
- trains smell of wee and week old shit and worst of all, 'freshyl prepared' microwaved bacon and cheese panina
- you'll get through a 500g bag of pasta between 2 every day!
+ve's
+ you get very very fit
+ you can maintain bikes impecably, even DA cassettes are good value when compared against petrol.
+ no more designated driver
+ forces you to eat well, pizza or chips in the evening just makes comuting horrible, stick to pasta/rice/potatoes
I'm buying a MG midget, its not realy a car in terms of practicality, but will take the pressure off and allow me to get to the other side of town without turning into a sweaty puddle on the floor.
I lived without a car for years.
Even now, with wifey using one, I rarely use it for anything other than family trips with the kids, and will be car-free for 3 weeks as wifey is away 🙂
I found it relatively easy to live car-free but it does involve some investment to start with.
- Good waterproofs - top, legs, head, gloves, shoes,
- Brompton - opens up public transport, car lifts etc,
- Trailer - for supermarket shops,
- hack bike - full length mudguards, dynamo lights etc.
For trips to the tip etc you can use a trailer or there will be a local odd-job man who offers an uplift service. It costs £300+ a month to run a typical family car, with depreciation etc, and that's an awful lot of taxi fares.
Good luck!
Crispin raises a very, very good point.
- mudguards
- chainguard
- dynamo
- rack
- kickstand
are all things you don't have on your sport bike but you find are a good thing if you're using a bike for transport. 🙂
My commute is about 2.5 miles. The SO's is more like 11. I'm much more bike fit than she is at the moment. Losing the car was her idea but it's growing on me as a concept.
The injury thing is a good point though. I can't see there being many busses that go from the west side of southampton alllll the way to her work way beyond on the east side.
I am spoilt for public transport where we live admittedly, but once you get your head around bus timetables and routes I think it's less of a problem than you might think. A folding bike is a marvellous thing too.
- bus'es are full of interesting characters
that's a + surely? I love chatting to random strangers on the bus.
that's a + surely? I love chatting to random strangers on the bus.
Doesn't that make you one of the interesting characters? 😉
Yes I expect it does 😆
If every talkative nutter on the bus was more like mrsflash then buses would be altogether more popular. 🙂
My car was off the road for 4-6 weeks recently and its surprising how quickly you adapt to trains, buses and bikes. However there were things I could not do very easily, such as evening cinema trips or moving items/bikes.
Most interesting was how lots of social invitations quickly dropped right off - if people needed to drive a bit further to pick you up(ironic and irritating given I am often the same peoples designated driver when my car is on the road and they want to drink!).
As winter is coming up, most of your trips will be after dark, which is less fun if in a busy area.
I would suggest you put a voluntary ban on using your car for at least a month.
Give the keys to a friend to look after. See how it goes. It will save you money just on petrol, cut down on your shopping and its less effort than looking for a new car if you find you still need one.
I had a lovely chat once with a lady who got on at the stop after mine and was going all the way to where I get off (the end of the line). She was a very sweet middle aged spinster type who was off to visit a friend, and was very talkative. Unfortunately she was so softly spoken that I could only understand one word in 5. It made for quite an entertaining conversation 😆
I come from a long line of bus talkers though. My auntie made a life long friend on the bus. A lady called Damson Joan. They used to make jam together in the end (hence the Damson part of her name).
Erm, yes, you can see right there, I am one of those nutters aren't I???
do it for six months and save the fuel money in a box under the bed. if you decide you can't do it then get the box out and you have the start of a deposit for a car.
we were carless for a while, it died and we didn't need to get another, public transport for the wife who doesn't drive and i rode to work or cadged lifts. it was great to be honest. the only problem was as the wife family live in wales, we're in sheffield, hiring a car was ok but not ideal.
we now have kids and the need to get them to various places make having a car not essential but very useful.
having said that while i'm on chemo i'm not driving much and we're surviving without using the car as much. if car hire was easier and cheaper then i'd be tempted in the next couple of years when the kids are bigger (able to ride further) to try living without a car again. having said that i'd love to buy a van brew my own diesel and convert it to a camper style thing.
I seem to be doing quite well without access to a car. I've not owned one of my own for years but helped pay toward my wifes so I got to use that if I wanted to. I hate driving so I didn't use it much anyway. I no longer have access to the car and even though I still don't much [b]want[/b] to use it, being told I [b]can't[/b] is doing my head in. It's funny how having the choice taken away amplifies the desire.
Ps. Kick it's arse nickhart.
ok so you've got me going now found [url= http://www.xtracycle.com/cargo-utility-bicycles.html ]this[/url]
It depends on your lifestyle - if you have a crazy car centric lifestyle where you live 50 miles away from work, then it'd be a hassle.
If (like most people) you live less than about 10 miles from work (more if you're a keen cyclist), then work is pretty easy to do without a car.
Other stuff, there are often people you can pay to do it for you. Like long distance journeys = train, short distance journeys where you need to carry loads = taxi, trips to the dump = white van man, buying furniture etc. = pay £10-20 for delivery (although round near us, most independent furniture etc. shops seem to do free delivery, which is nice).
I grew up in a carless family, in a strong Tory area of Surrey, which meant basically no public transport locally (trains into London which was nice, but buses were for poor people, so they didn't really care about them) and have never had one since. Right now I live in a small town in Derbyshire, near a train station and with good buses (way better public transport here), although I don't use them massively what with having the bike.
I do get lifts off people to events / to go riding sometimes (offering petrol money obviously), although local riding here is pretty good, and we have easy train access to parts of the Peak District which is nice too, and I organise quite a few of our local rides, meaning I can choose them to be handy for me.
Joe
No car here either. I think the best bit are the subtle changes it causes to your lifestyle - e.g. you can nip out on the bike and run errands at lunchtime, rather than going to the supermarket after work. Travel by bike in the UK tends to be a bit sprinty and lycra-clad, and I have to admit I've sort of fallen for that and tend to arrive at work a sweaty mess. However it can be a very gentle form of exercise too.
Having a dedicated hack bike with rack, guards and puncture resistant tyres helps a lot, and using a different saddle and riding position to your "fun" bike means you are less likely to be niggled by things like tired hands, saddle carbuncles, etc.
No car here - but I live and work in a city. Car free all my adult life - 30 yrs
Running a car costs you at least £2000 a year - I mentally put that money aside to use on hire cars and taxis. I don't think I have ever used it all.
Money spent on transport becomes more obvious. For some reason a £50 taxi fare ( and I have had a few) hurts far more than filling the car with £50 worth of petrol.
You have to plan things a bit more and be inventive. Carrying stuff on your bike becomes an invention test. I have carried 27m of copper pipe and on a separate occasion 5 rolls of fibreglass loft insulation
You can get your supermarket shop delivered and only top it up from the local shops
Is there a city car club where you live? I am going to join this scheme
sometimes you just have to compromise. For example earlier this year me and t'missus wanted to go hillwalking. rather than drive up in the morning and climb the mountain we got the train up one evening, walked into the hills and camped, did the mountain the next day and walked back to the train station.
There is something very nice about being car free tho - and you do save money over the year but also lose some of the ability to travel spontaneously
I think it's all about getting your head around the change in your well established routines. I went from commuting three and half hours daily to being able to walk to work and it took me a while to kick the bad car habits.
For example I have a Sainsbury's on one of my routes to work and for about a year I continued to drive there for my weekly shop. But with some planning I now do the shopping on the way home from work, I buy less during each shop but have fresher food at home as a result.
I have kept my car though as I own it outright and I only really use it for seeing family and for getting to some rides. But between car tax, insurance, fuel and maintenance I reckon the car is still costing me over a Grand a year.
The comment about injuries is valid but I've found them only to be a niggle. The body adapts incredibly well and even when I broke a small bone in my foot last year I carried on walking to work.
However, living without a car is not an option for me. Aside from enabling me to get to rides in Wales, it's there if a friend or relative need me in an emergency.....
nickhart-all the best to you and your family.
I agree with everything barca said.
I've been without a car for a few months now.
Bought a bike trailer (Carry Freedom City) which is great for big supermarket shops, taking stuff to the dump, even carting camping stuff up to the bottom of remote Munros on roughish tracks (incidentally a CF city makes a great doggie ambulance as we discovered on our last trip to Ben Alder, the dog hurt his paws badly on the run in and had to be trailered out...)
Having good access to public transport helps a lot and we joined the City Car Club (which we use surprisingly little). We also have access to my Dad's old car which saves on hiring one for trips away.
I would say, go for it, what's the worst that can happen?
My girlfriend and I live without a car, with a work commute of about 2.5 miles. We are close to bus routes into Edinburgh though, and have plenty of small local shops plus a good supermarket about 10 minutes away.
We use the [url= http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/ ]City Car Club[/url], which works superbly. There are several cars within a 5 minute walk. You could take a look at [url= http://www.whizzgo.co.uk/Southampton_Location.htm ]Whizzgo[/url] for something similar in Southampton, although I have absolutely no idea if it's any good.
You could get supermarket deliveries to save you needing to cart big loads of shopping, or even better, visit your local shops and buy local. Therefore not owning a car will make you lots of new friends, and not just on the bus. 😉
I've been car free for almost all of the time I've lived in London, 7 years now. I was given a car by friends and while I used t for the odd MTB trip away, the rest of the time it sat there rusting and costing money. Gave it away in the end.
Have since signed up for 'Zipcar', in part so I continue to have an insurance history, but have used one of their cars 3 times in the last year, and the first time was out of novelty value.
Whether you can do it or not depends on your journey to/from work and how wedded you are to a car now.
My wife and I will be moving to Australia in October, which is a very car-centric country. However, I'm determined to try and do as much as posisble by bike so that we only need to buy one car, rather than two. Will it work, I don't know, but I'm going to give it a damn good try. A Surly Big Dummy or a Yuba Mundo is on the shopping list.