I'm taking the plunge

[Cosmoline]

I was car free until 1993, but as that was college it was a lot easier. I started driving more and more over the 90's. Things got outrageous when I was doing a 190 mile PER DAY commute from my homestead into Anchorage and back, every day. I had a bad car crash, went bankrupt and got divorced. Now I'm going to get rid of the beat up old truck and go cold turkey. It's already been a month and a half since I used my truck.

[DavidLee]

Sorry about your unfortunate circumstances. I think it's great that you wanna try the "car-free" life again. Being that it's not new to you it shouldn't be such a shock to the system. How far from your current job, grocery stores, entertainment venues etc etc do you live?

Keep us posted on how your doing. :)

[crypticlineage]

Good decision, keep it up. My situation is not that heartbreaking but it is still tough for me to accept. I was carfree for all of my life. I am 31 now. Last year in December I got a car for the first time. Some crook dealer fooled me into buying a bad car, I invested 6 grand into buying it. Now six months later, things are only getting worse. I have never felt so much stress in my life due to a thing I owned. Now I am letting the car go in a couple of weeks, but I am also taking a huge blow (around 60%) which I will pay for another year and half. It will really hurt, but will also provide motivation to stay car free. The whole car thing in America is highly overrated.

[cerewa]

you used to work in Anchorage, AK?

That's where I grew up, and where I learned to cycle in traffic.

[Guest]

Do you still live in AK?

It's all well and said to start commuting in the summertime- it's great and all you want to commute by bike, but what are your winter plans? If you get rid of the car, realize that you'll have to contend with all the wonders of winter riding- I'd suggest you head into the Winter Cycling Forum and get some ideas for the wintertime so you can stay committed once the weather gets colder. Yeah, I know it's crazy to be talking about winter when it's so hot outside, but it's the perfect time to be talking about winter riding, in my opinion.

Koffee

[Roody]

One terrific side effect about starting to ride instead of drive is that you will have a lot of hard won successes. These succeses will probably help you to heal after all the bad stuff you've been through lately. I was already carfree when I started to ride, but I felt so proud of myself when I learned and persevered through the challenges. Now it's kind of old-hat, but I still get a lot of benefit from just the fun of riding.

I hope it goes well for you and you have a lot of fun riding that bike.

[Roody]

Do you still live in AK?

It's all well and said to start commuting in the summertime- it's great and all you want to commute by bike, but what are your winter plans? If you get rid of the car, realize that you'll have to contend with all the wonders of winter riding- I'd suggest you head into the Winter Cycling Forum and get some ideas for the wintertime so you can stay committed once the weather gets colder. Yeah, I know it's crazy to be talking about winter when it's so hot outside, but it's the perfect time to be talking about winter riding, in my opinion.

Koffee

I can see that at some point we're going to need our own sticky about winter riding tips and inspiration. The issue has been coming up a lot lately--and it's only June. Also, this issue of cold weather riding seems to be the main obstacle for a lot of people considering carfree living.

[Dahon.Steve]

Good decision, keep it up. My situation is not that heartbreaking but it is still tough for me to accept. I was carfree for all of my life. I am 31 now. Last year in December I got a car for the first time. Some crook dealer fooled me into buying a bad car, I invested 6 grand into buying it. Now six months later, things are only getting worse. I have never felt so much stress in my life due to a thing I owned. Now I am letting the car go in a couple of weeks, but I am also taking a huge blow (around 60%) which I will pay for another year and half. It will really hurt, but will also provide motivation to stay car free. The whole car thing in America is highly overrated.

Agreed.

Buying a used car is buying someone else's heartache. It's incredible all the little things that go wrong in a used car and you have to fix most of them or the vehicle won't pass inspection. It's a money trap.

[Michel Gagnon]

Actually, Koffe,, Anchorage is not that bad for year-round cycling. The city is too much "low-density" for me so things are too spread out, and you definitely have to like rain, if not to enjoy it, but January temperatures are fairly good.

Fairbanks, however, is a totally different story. Since it's on the other side of the mountains, they have dry, but bitterly cold winters.

[coney]

I moved to NYC 11 years ago. Sold my truck and haven't had a gasoline vehicle since. I ride my bike, and take the subway. To go out of town, I take busses and planes, maybe once a year will I rent a car.

I love not having a car! NYC is such a walking town anyway, there's no use for a car unless you go out of town a lot on short trips.

[Cosmoline]

I'm still in Anchorage. I had to give up on the remote property for now--it's just too far. My ex got it. My current commute runs from Spenard into downtown and back--a little over 8 miles total. The only hard parts are coming out of Bootlegger cove the way there and back. It would be nice if a bike lane followed Minnesota over the lagoon, but it doesn't. You have to go down into the earthquake pit there and back.

I've been trying to get more info on winter biking on this forum and others. I've got a pretty heavy and solid Rat Rod. With studded tires and a little tweaking of my route I should be OK. The big problem here is that the bike trails turn into ski trails and the roads are either crowded with cars or covered with thick ice. Or both.

The cold itself is not a real problem for me. Anchortown doesn't get much below zero, and I don't go very fast. Where I was living it got forty below several times and hovered in the negative thirties for weeks. Anchorage is closer to the ocean and gets "warm" winds from the water.

[cerewa]

for a winter route in to downtown from your area, I'm thinking taking Arctic blvd. to 17th ave. to E st. (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=W+17th+Ave+%26+E+St,+Anchorage,+AK+99501&ie=UTF8&ll=61.205268,-149.891453&spn=0.010294,0.04622&om=1) would work. As far as roads being crowded with cars or covered with ice, I didn't have too much trouble on the ice. Black ice might be something to worry about but when the whole road was obviously covered with very hard-packed snow, regular stud-less MTB tires worked fine for me. There was nowhere to go except the car tire tracks on a lot of snowy days, so I rode in the right lane's right tire track and everybody that wanted to pass had to use the other lane. People never honked at me then or drove too close-- they would have looked awfully silly telling me to use the sidewalk (covered in several feet of snow) or bike trail (turned ski trail). If the sidewalk was clear enough of snow and ice, (usually wasn't) i'd ride on it.

[smurfy]

I just sold my car today, too!

Actually I've been more or less car free since last Nov. My car got totalled fifteen months ago, but it was still drivable. Since then I drove it less and less and finally when it came time to renew the tags (and get it "E-checked"), I just said forget it and left it in the garage, having had to use it once in an emergency situation. It was needing new tires and an exhaust and I didn't want to put any money into a car that was wrecked, that would be crazy.

Part of me still wants a car, but I don't miss the expensive gas, tires and batteries, repairs, traffic headaches and road rage, and even having to wash and wax the finish and having to vacuum out the interiors and clean the seats and carpeting. What an addiction and time-waster!

[bill2k1]

Cosmoline, do you post on THR also? Sorry to hijack your thread, but its a unique name, not everyone knows what Cosmoline is.

[Cosmoline]

Yeah, I'm the same one from THR. Only *MORE VIOLENT*