Living Car Free - peterson family profile

front page news: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003023972_carless28e.html

Great article, thanks!

good article

Great read--JJ

"In my last relationship, [my girlfriend] asked me, 'Are you ever gonna drive?' She was like, 'I don't think I can deal with it.' "

They broke up.

I despair for humans.

Thanks for posting.

I despair for humans.

Hey, at least it was easy to prove that she wasn't a keeper!

Kent Peterson is a great guy. I don't know him personally, but have been following his activities with great interest for the past couple of years. If anyone here isn't familiar with him his website and blog are great reading. He Singlespeeded the GDR last year. Zero Ego.

Do you have a link to his website?

Do you have a link to his website?

Kent IS a Great Guy!

http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/

I despair for humans.

A friend of mine had a girlfriend that didn't drive. It was annoying as hell. Not so much because she didn't drive,but because she ALWAYS needed him to take her somewhere. He would drive over to her place to pick her up to take her to work, then go home, and 8 hours later drive back to her work and pick her up and take her home. She was compeltely reliant on him for transportation.

They broke up.

Personally, I wouldn't care whther or not a girlfriend of mine drove, as long as she was able to be self-reliant, but if she's constantly asking me to take her places, I would get sick of it.

From the article:
>>>>>We spend $7,967 annually on gas, maintenance, tires, insurance, registration fees and loan-finance charges, says the American Automobile Association. And that's just for one person to drive a medium-size sedan 15,000 miles when gas was $2.40 a gallon.<<<<<

This is insanity. I don't know anyone who has an extra 8 thousand dollars a year to burn. Seriously. This is why we recorded a record number of bankrupticies each year. I can assure you those declaring chapter 7 had an extra 8K laying around the house, there would be no need to file in the first place.

From the article:
>>>>The Petersons are part of a much smaller statistic — the 8 percent of U.S. households without a car<<<<

Someone should make a tee shirt that says. "Proud to be 8% of US housolds without a car!"

Someone should make a tee shirt that says. "Proud to be 8% of US housolds without a car!"
See link for some of the Proud 8%. Not everyone has the same easy choice like a healthy bike enthusiast who lives near a convenient and reliable public transportation system.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.php?p=2129401&postcount=171


No, they don't seem to be living simply, they appear to me to simply be living. They're homeless. No one here said they wanted to be homeless. Living simply may not be directly related to bicycling, but it can be closely tied to Living Car Free...hey wait, that's the forum we're in! If you don't want to discuss it, don't come into this subforum. If you don't give a crap about living car-free, don't even come into LCF. At any rate, go troll somewhere else.


I'll keep that in mind the next time someone quotes the total number of "car-free people" who live in the big US cities (IAW the US Census data) and seem to be doing just fine.

ILTB:
do you have any actual statistics on this 8%? or just links to photos? Though I would agree that the car free by choice are a distinct minority in the USA, maybe 1% tops. (other than in big cities, of course)

ILTB:
do you have any actual statistics on this 8%? or just links to photos? Though I would agree that the car free by choice are a distinct minority in the USA, maybe 1% tops. (other than in big cities, of course)
The 8% stat comes from the article cited by the OP as well as being repeated by Steve Dahon who makes the apparant assumption that this is a stat describing the extent of the "live simple and be smugly proud of yourself" slice of the population. I'm sure it includes many, many people living in poverty (especially in big cities) or on the edge who are not so dang happy with their proud situation of being totally dependent on expensive public transportation. Especially if they are responsible for the transportation of someone besides a healthy adult. And of course it would include those proud unemployed/underemployed/low paid car free people who have no means to get to a job that could support a family.

The bottom line: there is a world of difference between healthy single adults or prosperous city dwellers (who can afford cabs and rental cars whenever the mood strikes) voluntarily being car-free, and those who are car free due to unwanted/unpleasant economic necessity.

Especially if they are responsible for the transportation of someone besides a healthy adult.
I saw someone hauling a frail looking woman in a bike trailer last week. The trailer looked built to carry an adult. I can't speak to the woman's pride or smugness but she had a smile on her face. Should she have demanded that her companions only transport her by car just because she can't pedal a bike? It never crossed my mind to ride up beside her and suggest that she should only be transported by car. You tell her. If I'm ever in her condition I'd be so happy if friends or family choose to ignore the car culture idiots and haul me along with them behind their bikes.

I saw someone hauling a frail looking woman in a bike trailer last week. The trailer looked built to carry an adult. I can't speak to the woman's pride or smugness but she had a smile on her face. Should she have demanded that her companions only transport her by car just because she can't pedal a bike? It never crossed my mind to ride up beside her and suggest that she should only be transported by car. You tell her. If I'm ever in her condition I'd be so happy if friends or family choose to ignore the car culture idiots and haul me along with them behind their bikes.


I'd love to be pulled behind someone's bike. I've been out on rainy or cold days and seen the little kids in the trailers behind another cyclist and felt a strong pang of envy for the dry warmth that those little carriers seem to have.
:)

-sv

Easy choice ILTB? Not hardly, I think for many it was/is quite difficult. It takes quite a bit or work and some trial and error, then again most worthwhile things in life do. We all make our choices about where and how we live, there still is quite a bit of freedom in this country. Part of being an adult is living with those choices, youve made yours evidently, live with it, but dont disparage those that have made theirs and are happy with them and happen to be car free. Who are you to judge?

ILTB has a point, but his inherent dislike for the smug big city folks and thier "expensive" public transportation system is a bit grating. Nobody is stopping the poor city folks from moving away from city centers so they dont have to rely solely on "expensive" public transit. Nobody is forcing them to stay there, apart from thier economic conditions. The suburban and rural poor tend to manage, but they spend a disproportionate percentage of thier income on cars. And they are in worse shape because they have no chocie but to HAVE a car and consequently have less disposeable income! How come you're not hating the rural and suburban infrastructure more? The reality is that bigger cities tend to accomodate the poor better than any suburbs ever could. There is a reason why they live there in the first place.

well the funny thing about this is, as a car free person and someone who knows many others who are car free, I could care a less about public transport, I dont use it or need it.........I have a bike, it works just fine, but I do recognize that it is indeed part of what makes a functional city work, because it gives car owners a choice that can often be better than commuting into a downtown area by car if its set up properly

ILTB has a point, but his inherent dislike for the smug big city folks and thier "expensive" public transportation system is a bit grating. Nobody is stopping the poor city folks from moving away from city centers so they dont have to rely solely on "expensive" public transit. Nobody is forcing them to stay there, apart from thier economic conditions. The suburban and rural poor tend to manage, but they spend a disproportionate percentage of thier income on cars. And they are in worse shape because they have no chocie but to HAVE a car and consequently have less disposeable income! How come you're not hating the rural and suburban infrastructure more? The reality is that bigger cities tend to accomodate the poor better than any suburbs ever could. There is a reason why they live there in the first place.
I'm all for good public transportation systems but I don't fool myself with the illusion that it exists everywhere or is a functional substitute for the family car for the typical family

Don't you think that "economic conditions" is quite a big factor in determining freedom of choice for people who have not taken a vow of poverty nor choosen to live the life of an ascetic monk?

Reasons for the cities being magnets for the poor and especially unemployeable long term (permanent?)welfare cases are numerous and beyond the scope of this forum.

I saw someone hauling a frail looking woman in a bike trailer last week. The trailer looked built to carry an adult. I can't speak to the woman's pride or smugness but she had a smile on her face.
Are you serious?

The 8% stat comes from the article cited by the OP as well as being repeated by Steve Dahon who makes the apparant assumption that this is a stat describing the extent of the "live simple and be smugly proud of yourself" slice of the population.

Let me put it this way. Why can't we who are part of the 8% who are car free be proud of our lifestyles? All I said is that someone should make a shirt proclaiming our accomplishment. There is nothing to be smugly about it at all. In fact, we are constantly bombarded by the motorist commericals and how proud they are in being able to drive luxury vehicles. Why can't we be proud in living a simple lifestyle? Quite frankly, not only am I proud but living car free was the best decision in my life.

Why must the transportation cyclists be seen as some homeless vagrant, welfare recepient or low paid worker? A good reason why millions won't commute is the fear of looking poor.

ILTB has a point, but his inherent dislike for the smug big city folks and thier "expensive" public transportation system is a bit grating. Nobody is stopping the poor city folks from moving away from city centers so they dont have to rely solely on "expensive" public transit. Nobody is forcing them to stay there, apart from thier economic conditions. The suburban and rural poor tend to manage, but they spend a disproportionate percentage of thier income on cars. And they are in worse shape because they have no chocie but to HAVE a car and consequently have less disposeable income! How come you're not hating the rural and suburban infrastructure more? The reality is that bigger cities tend to accomodate the poor better than any suburbs ever could. There is a reason why they live there in the first place.

Agreed.

I cannot live in suburban community because this lifestyle is EXPENSIVE. The high price of fuel is going to break the back of the poor living in the burbs including the middle class. We are seeing it right now as people are having to decide between food and gas for their cars.

Transportation by motorcar is getting very expensive and those who want to hold onto this lifestyle will need to make huge sacrifices to support that engine. Those of us who are carfree on this forum have figured out a way and we are not rocket scientists. The solutions were simple. We changed jobs, homes or just dusted off that old Schwinn cruiser.

Are you serious?
Yes.

http://www.wicycle.com/xspecial.htm

Shows a trailer that would hold someone 5'10" and 150 lbs. but does not look like
the trailer I saw. So there are at least two manufacturers of trailers that hold adults. The trailer the woman was in looked like a Burley d'Lite in general outline with the bars that wrap outside the wheels.

Yes.

http://www.wicycle.com/xspecial.htm

Shows a trailer that would hold someone 5'10" and 150 lbs. but does not look like
the trailer I saw. So there are at least two manufacturers of trailers that hold adults. The trailer the woman was in looked like a Burley d'Lite in general outline with the bars that wrap outside the wheels.
I don't doubt that grandma can be hauled around on a bicycle-rickshaw on sunny days in the park for recreational purposes in the US. Are you serious at proposing that families handle their typical transportation requirements with this "solution"?

I don't doubt that grandma can be hauled around on a bicycle-rickshaw on sunny days in the park for recreational purposes in the US.

We had scattered showers that day.


Are you serious at proposing that families handle their typical transportation requirements with this "solution"?

I didn't propose anything. I stated a some facts about what I have witnessed that contradict your false characterization of car free living. Then you questioned my veracity, so I provided corroborating evidence.

The problem is car culture apologists spreading misinformation on a car-free bike forum, the solution is repeating the facts so casual visitors aren't misled.

There are obviously many ways to transport "someone besides a healthy adult" without buying a car. My less than healthy car-free neighbors choose the usual walk, wheelchair and use public transport. Bike rickshaws like at this site:
http://www.bikesatwork.com/pedicabs/
might be a fun way to haul a friend who can't walk.

I'm all for good public transportation systems but I don't fool myself with the illusion that it exists everywhere or is a functional substitute for the family car for the typical family

Don't you think that "economic conditions" is quite a big factor in determining freedom of choice for people who have not taken a vow of poverty nor choosen to live the life of an ascetic monk?

Personal choices, again. Poor people can choose where they live, so they choose the most practicable way that is within thier means. Economic conditions don't matter, again, personal choices. Even if you're dirt poor, chances are very good that you won't stay that way for the rest of your life with a bit of an elbow grease. I didnt say itt would be easy nor fair, but chances are in your favor. You just gotta deal for the moment. I would think that even the poorest of the poor would like nothing more than to live more comfortably, and are more than capable of doing that, and indeed the majority of them do.

. . .Why must the transportation cyclists be seen as some homeless vagrant, welfare recepient or low paid worker? A good reason why millions won't commute is the fear of looking poor.

Because most trans cyclists are one of the above. As I have written numerous times before, I have come to believe that I am the only trans cyclist in my city--not town, village, community--that cycles by choice. Heck, we trans cyclists are so few and far between we have to have online forums to find a sense of community. Does the perception that you stated bother you? My career isn't influenced in the least by how successful or lack there of I appear as a trans cyclist. Furthermore, the more I read/see in the various media, I find less and less in common with my fellow citizens so what do I care what they think.