Living without a car

Where I live, there are quite a bit of regulations on what can be on the roads.

Unfortunately, only so many things other than cars/trucks/vans can share the road when the local speed limits increase above residential area speeds which limit routes alternative transportation can take.

Bikes are a common alternative but present some risk on old narrow roads. We have an increase in horse and buggy traffic which has increased local discussions on safety for these places which is helping. I'd love nothing more than to have a cargo trike that I can ride around on getting chores done.

For people who live without a car, how do you guys manage things like grocery shopping or taking longer trips? Any tips to make it easier?

Hi Nirmal,

There is an older gentleman living near me who gets a ride to green city once in a while. …maybe 1x or 2x a year.   He asks me to tell him when my next trip will be.  That covers his major shopping.  

Nirmal Vidura wrote:For people who live without a car, how do you guys manage things like grocery shopping or taking longer trips? Any tips to make it easier?

I can not give you tips. Probably you are used to your car. I am used to my bicycle, for everything (I don't even have a driver's license).
OK, one tip: practice! (I mean: just try it)
I can give you a photo of one of my bicycle-camping trips, to encourage you:

Timothy Norton wrote:Where I live, there are quite a bit of regulations on what can be on the roads.

Unfortunately, only so many things other than cars/trucks/vans can share the road when the local speed limits increase above residential area speeds which limit routes alternative transportation can take.

Bikes are a common alternative but present some risk on old narrow roads. We have an increase in horse and buggy traffic which has increased local discussions on safety for these places which is helping. I'd love nothing more than to have a cargo trike that I can ride around on getting chores done.

I am glad I live in the Netherlands! We have bicycle paths everywhere where they're needed.

I have been without a car for two or perhaps two and a half years now.  Even in BC (before cancer) when I had a car, I only drove hundreds of miles per year!   I gave up driving due to yet another heart attack plus during my treatment I was unable to drive.  Sold the car, offered it to several people that provided the driving for the five day per week treatments but they all declined. They are my true family!!!

I have friends that provide rides to the grocery store (about every six weeks on avg.) and any other place I might need to go.  The insurance agent for auto coverage, I think may have cried a little.  And my county tax office was near tears!!!

Peace

 

No car owned here.

I have access to the community car, have an ebike and an analogue bike for the 2 minute commute.

Nearest train (and used book shop!) is a couple of hours away by bike. There is a bus service but the timings are rubbish.

Kevin Wilson wrote:We’ve been car free since 2012...  However we are now 61 and 68 and seeing a need for a car on the horizon for medical runs.

Good to see this thread active again! I posted 5 years ago, so thought I'd update.

We are still car-free (at ages 66 and 74, with a genetic heart condition for me that's reduced my physical capacity by about 50%, plus only having one good eye, and a heart attack for him 2 years ago). Still thinking a used EV is in our future sometime, but we're not there yet. We have several kind neighbours and friends who will give us rides at strange times in emergencies, or lend us a vehicle.

Husbear doesn't ride a bike any more, both of us walk or bus most places. Shopping still mostly happens using the cart, but since COVID we have options for grocery delivery which we use every 2 months or so for big heavy items.

I do get a lot more rides from friends nowadays, for a specific activity: I helped start a community orchestra here in Sep 2021 and ended up conducting it (as well as playing in a quintet, and playing in another orchestra one-ferry-down-coast!). It means a lot of local travel with instruments, music stands, multiple music scores etc which are heavy enough that I have given in and get rides for almost everything to do with it. Luckily, with a 35+ person group, plenty of people are happy to feel better about their own vehicle use by carrying me and my stuff as well. Mentally, I trade off the downsides of vehicle use with the upsides of building community through music, and making a lot of people very happy. Including me.

Kevin

As a kid, my transpo was my bicycle or my feet.  I walked up to 3 miles to school when a bus wasn't available, and biked everywhere to visit friends or with friends just to hang out somewhere other than home.  I could easily bike 20 miles in a day.  That continued until my mid-20s when I finally got a professional job that required dressing for business, being on time and being clean and not sweaty, LOL!  After that my bike became a leisure activity and only got used occasionally.

Fast forward to my 50s, living in Hawaii where gas (as well as everything else that comes from off-island) is way more expensive, and needing to save money for sky-high rent.  I thought, I'll just buy a bicycle and ride to work and back, easy-peasy!  The day job didn't require dressing professionally, so no issue there.  Well, I got the bike, which, like everything else on the island, was way more expensive than on the mainland (US).  I calculated how long it should take me to ride the 13 miles to work, and left a little early the first day.  OMG!!!  I had no idea how out of shape my leg muscles were!  That came as quite a shock since I walked quite a bit at work and on beaches!  Those small hills in a car were mountains on a bike.  I got to work out of breath, exhaused and sweaty.  I cleaned up as best I could, and put on the clean top I had packed just in case.   Then came the first day I got rained on while riding.  In Hawaii temperatures, wearing a rain suit is out of the question; I would have arrived at work just as soaked (from sweat) as without the suit.  Then I had to figure out how to get from my day job to my second job on the days I worked both.  That just didn't work out logistically, there wasn't enough time to bike that distance.  So, yes, I did save on gas, but ended up driving to work about half the time anyway due to the second job schedule, and rain days.  

I don't like living urban or suburban anymore, so going car-free while civilization is intact is not something I would consider now that I'm in my mid-60s.  If everything fell apart, there wouldn't be anywhere left to go anyway, plus we'd be growing most of what we eat out of necessity, only trading with neighbors close enough to walk, bike, or ride a horse to.  We don't have horses but a neighbor does, so I'm sure we could buy one or two if that need arose, and graze them rotationally, stockpiling pasture for mid to late winter and trading for some hay with other neighbors to fill in any time gaps.  I loved riding horses as a kid, so I'd have no problem switching to that for local travel.

So I guess the moral of the story is... if you plan to go car-less, get yo-self in shape first!  

i own no motorized vehicle whatsoever, now;

after living nomadically out of a solar electrical powered RV travel trailer towed by a waste vegetable-oil fueled diesel pickup truck, back and forth between the East and West coasts of The United States — North American Continent for several years starting about 15 years ago, with stays on north carolina, florida, georgia, utah, kansas, nevada, and my natural-born-on california, my nomadic sojourning took me across the pond to live on the African and European Continents, for a couple of years, before returning stateside with no vehicle, so i acquired a skateboard and a bicycle to get me to and between bus stops, friend/relative’s homes, and airports;

i, now, feel most free, as i continue to sojourn back and forth between california/mexico and central and south american countries utilizing my bare feet/legs and commercial airlines and/or local public transportation “buses” and/or private “taxi” drivers;  i do my best to avoid UBER and/or LIFT or any incorporated TAXI COMPANY.

¡no problemo! 💪

I go car-free in a place that everyone tells me it is not possible to be car-free. Yet I've done it successfully for 2+ years. There are definitely limitations on my ability to move around, but so far those limitations have not dwarfed the significant expense of owning and maintaining a car for me to justify buying one. I currently work remotely, which helps a lot, and I was very intentional about living someplace where I could easily get around by foot or bike (analog). Almost all errands I need to run are within seven miles or less, so I can easily get by with walking or biking in most instances. Grocery shopping is no problem. There is a grocery store around the corner, another slightly nicer one that is 1.5 miles away, and some specialty health food stores that are a little farther. I enjoy walking, so I usually walk to the one that is a mile and a half away, carrying a backpack and a couple tote bags (sometimes insulated ones in the summer). Yes, it takes a little more time and effort than driving to the store, but it is worth it to me because I see it as an investment in my health and fitness. I get exercise, fresh air, sunlight, and a chance to listen to a podcast or catch up with a friend. If I want to save time, I can bike instead. I have hauled some large and heavy items as well by attaching a trailer to my bike. Very seldomly I have gotten rides from neighbors when I couldn't manage a load on my bike.

I've been able to accomplish about 90% of my wants and needs with walking, biking, and public transportation, and I think people vastly overestimate how hard it is to get around without a car. But there are some real limitations. While I can get around town easily enough, it is difficult to get out of town in this rural area to visit nearby attractions, most of which are only accessible by car. I don't enjoy biking after dark, which limits my options for socializing. But I don't have a strong desire to go out these days, and I am not into nightlife much, so it does not really bother me.

What I was not prepared for was the sense of alienation. I don't know anyone else locally who is intentionally car-free, and I think people see it as weird or tragic. Additionally, the judgment and pressure I get from family to get a car has been disappointing. They told me at the outset that it would not be possible for me to survive without a car, and I thought after showing them that I was able to do it for a couple of years that my family would concede. Instead, they have become more insistent that it is impossible to survive without a car and increased their pressure on me to buy a car. They cannot see the contentment, financial savings, environmental advantages, and health benefits that going car-free affords me. All they can see is how frustrated they believe they would be in my shoes, and so they try to project that frustration onto me.

Sometimes I think I will buy a cheap used car in the future. But whenever I think about how much of my precious time and money would have to go into maintaining a vehicle, I balk. I think car owners vastly underestimate how much of their time and money goes into owning a car.

Guadagno Attilio-Cesare wrote:i own no motorized vehicle whatsoever, now;

after living nomadically out of a solar electrical powered RV travel trailer towed by a waste vegetable-oil fueled diesel pickup truck, back and forth between the East and West coasts of The United States — North American Continent for several years starting about 15 years ago, with stays on north carolina, florida, georgia, utah, kansas, nevada, and my natural-born-on california, my nomadic sojourning took me across the pond to live on the African and European Continents, for a couple of years, before returning stateside with no vehicle, so i acquired a skateboard and a bicycle to get me to and between bus stops, friend/relative’s homes, and airports;

i, now, feel most free, as i continue to sojourn back and forth between california/mexico and central and south american countries utilizing my bare feet/legs and commercial airlines and/or local public transportation “buses” and/or private “taxi” drivers;  i do my best to avoid UBER and/or LIFT or any incorporated TAXI COMPANY.

¡no problemo! 💪

Wow, I was just thinking of you the other day Attilio, Hey brother! I just happened to get on here and see this in recent posts ...  Glad to see your back in the states you were in Spain last I remember! Let me know if you ever come back through NFla!