Living Car Free - What came first? The carfree thing or the bike thing?

I've been carfree for a lot of my adult life--longer than I'd care to say. About 3 1/2 years ago, while walking to work, I had an epiphany: I could go a lot farther and a lot faster if I only had a bike.

The rest is history. Carfree first, then a cyclist.

bike, then got rid of car after the car sat idle for months while I continued tp pay for it anyway.......that was almost 5 years ago and at $300/month for the car(insurance and payment plus licensing)-----well worth making it go away for good

I got rid of my car about a year before I got back on a bike. I remember how amazing it felt to travel 3-4 times as fast with so little effort.

simultaneous development, almost. i came of age in a city with decent transit (frankfurt, germany). i started to bike as an adult around the same time, but considered it mainly recreation. it wasn't long before i got hooked on the bike and let transit become a distant backup option. 20 years later i live in a city with OK transit, still no car, bike everywhere, and take transit maybe 1-2 times a year. without biking, i'm pretty sure i'd have been assimilated into the car borg matrix long ago. i hate waiting for busses and trains - reminds me of growing up in the asslands of LA, feeling constantly stranded between car rides i'd need to bum from grownups to get anywhere.

was car-free (not by choice :o ) for a long time before getting back on the bike... then I got the license back and bought a car and noticed that my cycling and mental health suffered tremendously... after a little soul-searching I ditched the car and now I'm car-free again... By Choice!!! :)

I've never had a car. I've been pressured to get one, but the same ppl laying on the peer pressure were griping about the price of gas, insurance, parts, the traffic, ect, practically in the same breath. Logic won out: I said, "If they're that much trouble, then why would anyone with half a brain want the burden? Thanks but no thanks." The oil cartel simply failed to hook me as another gas junkie.

The truck driving thing. After driving an 18 wheeler all over the country, it literally burned out the circuit in my brain that enjoys driving gas-powered vehicles of any kind. So I sold my normal car and moved on. I'm still glad I did it, since I think it's a definite step in walking the walk from an environmental perspective. I sure do spend a lot on bikes, now though.

Quit driving after I fell asleep at the wheel one night after working a double shift. Crashed my car into the rear of a parked truck at 4:00 a.m. and got smacked upside the forehead with an airbag. I decided that since I could have just as easily killed someone (or myself), I didn't want to drive anymore.

The bicycle thing is a rediscovered love, but not of the normal sort - and I did get into it in spades again after that accident. I grew up the son of a bike racer and had a thing for bikes when I was a kid that was out of hand. I never developed the competitive streak though, and was always into the Boy Scout thing, and so became a touring cyclist instead of a racer.

I was motorcycle only for years, for many reasons: it was more fun, cheaper, easier to park, used less gas, etc. I just happened to start bicycling to supplement marathon training, began commuting by bike, and discovered it shared many of the same things I loved about motorcycles -- only to a larger degree, in many ways. Plus the exercise benefits were indeniable.

I owned a car for a while a few years back, but I never drove it then. Sold the motorcycle in March last year.

The bike thing came first for me. I've been riding a bike in some capacity since early childhood, when my friends and I would ride around our suburban neighborhood and parks, exploring our surroundings. Growing up, I never really gave it up for any length of time. In my 20's while in college/grad school I started to realize that not only was cycling fun, but I could also get around town fairly well with them. In my "adulthood" I realized I really didn't need a car as much as I did when I was growing up as a kid in the burbs.

I was motorcycle only for years, for many reasons: it was more fun, cheaper, easier to park, used less gas, etc. I just happened to start bicycling to supplement marathon training, began commuting by bike, and discovered it shared many of the same things I loved about motorcycles -- only to a larger degree, in many ways. Plus the exercise benefits were indeniable.

I owned a car for a while a few years back, but I never drove it then. Sold the motorcycle in March last year.
I saw on the History Channel once that the first motorcycles were just bicycles with small gas engines bolted to the frame, with a belt that drove the rear wheel. They left the bicycle drivetrain intact on those early machines.
And to think the suspension systems on many an MTB closely resembles motorbike suspension. Not to mention the simularity in hydraulic bike disk brakes.

bike thing, realising it would cost me way too much to own a car at my age. Probably won't own a car for a long time

I saw on the History Channel once that the first motorcycles were just bicycles with small gas engines bolted to the frame, with a belt that drove the rear wheel. They left the bicycle drivetrain intact on those early machines.
And to think the suspension systems on many an MTB closely resembles motorbike suspension. Not to mention the simularity in hydraulic bike disk brakes.

see http://www.blackbirdsf.org/rebour/1948.02.html - french 1950s stuff.

see also http://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/?p=7, http://todd.cleverchimp.com/blog/?p=8

iv never had a car.... so its just cycling... :p

I saw on the History Channel once that the first motorcycles were just bicycles with small gas engines bolted to the frame, with a belt that drove the rear wheel. They left the bicycle drivetrain intact on those early machines.
And to think the suspension systems on many an MTB closely resembles motorbike suspension. Not to mention the simularity in hydraulic bike disk brakes.


A friend of mine has a Campagnolo brake lever -- for a motorcycle. A week or so ago, I saw a Sturmey Archer transmission on a Norton (motorcycle). Many of the French and British bicycle makers were major players in motorcycles too, at least before WWII. (BSA, Raleigh, Peugeot, Motobecane among them.)

Motorcycle riders face similar issues with car drivers that we face, and with the same deadly results.

Of course they rely on internal combustion. I run on peanut butter.

A friend of mine has a Campagnolo brake lever -- for a motorcycle. A week or so ago, I saw a Sturmey Archer transmission on a Norton (motorcycle). Many of the French and British bicycle makers were major players in motorcycles too, at least before WWII. (BSA, Raleigh, Peugeot, Motobecane among them.)

Motorcycle riders face similar issues with car drivers that we face, and with the same deadly results.

Of course they rely on internal combustion. I run on peanut butter.

Ayup, very true.

Funny how the a-hole cagers we read about has the testicular fortitute to mess with spandex clad roadbike club riders, but totally wuss out around a pack of leather clad Hell's Angels. The only difference is the choice of clothing and choice of ride; if they think the Angels would pull them out of the car and smack them around, what makes them think the roadbikers won't? 20 guys on Harleys or 20 guys on Cannondales - it's still 20 guys.

...and we're drifting OT here. I gotta stop that. :o

Bike. I've been riding a bike since I was 8, with only a couple of short, misquided breaks from it in that time.

I'm still car-lite. But love of cycling, combined with concern for the many negative effects of cars and car culture, is leading me in the right direction.

Car-free first - I wanted to live in downtown Toronto and density and cars just seemed wholly incompatible. So I moved to an apartment where I could walk to my job or the subway, and got rid of the car. I had a bike but didn't ride that often. Later when I moved and changed jobs it was taking far too long to get to work on a streetcar, so I decided to try biking every day. At first when I was in bad shape the streetcar I probably would have been on went past me as I sat huffing by the side of the road. After a short time I found it a much easier way to get to work, and I became completely and totally addicted!

Well my story goes like this, got my license, a big old van. I drove for about 3 years no tickets no accadents, then one day, I got hit at about 55mph (it was a 30mph zone). The van was driverable, but my mother wasn't going to fix it, I was still in high school with no job. I got out my old Huffy fix it up and started riding to school everyday, and to my friends too. I trashed the van after graduation, and got a Sun EZ-3 USX. Rode that for four months, broke that frame 2x, then got my Marin. I will never go back to a car, and I am only 20.
Super Geek

iv never had a car.... so its just cycling... :p

Same here. I walked a half mile to and from high school and I've been cycling 3 miles back and forth to college. I'm trying to convince my sister to do the same thing, since she'll be going to the same college.