Living Car Free - Lurkers: You people are crazy...

God knows they breed like rabbits in Atlanta(cell-phoning soccermoms)...

Back on subject, I'm a lurker in this forum so I thought I'd comment...

Anyways, I'm a fairly recent convert to bicycle commuting, and my goal is to drive to work less than 10% of the time(so far I'm still batting 1000). I consider myself "car-lite." I use the bike to run errands, buy groceries, etc, etc. During the past month, the times I've used the car has been mainly for driving my bike to a century starting point or a distant group ride. But also stuff like going with the gf to see a movie, or driving out to bars to hang out with the guys or something. But I'm definitely getting better, because the low-fuel light has been on in my car for about 3 or 4 weeks now.

My standards of moral purity??????????????/WTF?
Read your own posts about your active opposition to the lifestyles (to include having children) of all those different than your own.

Ya, its called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CHOICES, I make mine just like anyone else, Im also willing to live with those choices, NOT MAKE EXCUSES about them or my own situation in life, I dont think others doing the same is too much to ask for is it? Few of the best things in life are cheap or easy, car free is no different in many ways. If someone wants to whine and cry cause they dont think they can be car free due to their own decisions then they should either make new decisions to deal with it or expect nothing. If thats your idea of "moral purity" or whatever I find that pretty childish, its called being an adult IMHO. This is a car free bicycling sub-forum. Maybe you should check your own biases at the door and quit putting words and ideas into other people's posts. But since you seemingly are unable to do that I will spell it out for you. Im car free, I have been car free for about 5 years, I like it, it works FOR ME. If others want to do the same im willing to help, if not, then quit trolling. If someone thinks they cant do it, then maybe they either dont realize how easy it really is or never really wanted to in the first place. I did NOT design the way most people live in the US. I did not design its cities or suburbs. I did not create the automobile. I did however go from being an excessive user and abuser of the automobile to someone who doesnt use them at all. I do not think for one second that everyone can make the switch, but I do think an awful lot could if they wanted to. Again, make your own decisions, I make mine, you make yours, but dont make excuses, live with these choices, you only get one life, and if you bring others into the world, be willing to live with the decisons you make for them until they can make their own. Has nothing to do with moral superiority at all. Its more about education and ignorance if anything. Now, once again, this is a car free bike forum, what exactly are you expecting here? I have a feeling you wont get it.

Ya, its called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CHOICES, I make mine just like anyone else, Im also willing to live with those choices, NOT MAKE EXCUSES about them or my own situation in life, I dont think others doing the same is too much to ask for is it? Few of the best things in life are cheap or easy, car free is no different in many ways. If someone wants to whine and cry cause they dont think they can be car free due to their own decisions then they should either make new decisions to deal with it or expect nothing. If thats your idea of "moral purity" or whatever I find that pretty childish, its called being an adult IMHO. This is a car free bicycling sub-forum. Maybe you should check your own biases at the door and quit putting words and ideas into other people's posts. But since you seemingly are unable to do that I will spell it out for you. Im car free, I have been car free for about 5 years, I like it, it works FOR ME. If others want to do the same im willing to help, if not, then quit trolling. If someone thinks they cant do it, then maybe they either dont realize how easy it really is or never really wanted to in the first place. I did NOT design the way most people live in the US. I did not design its cities or suburbs. I did not create the automobile. I did however go from being an excessive user and abuser of the automobile to someone who doesnt use them at all. I do not think for one second that everyone can make the switch, but I do think an awful lot could if they wanted to. Again, make your own decisions, I make mine, you make yours, but dont make excuses, live with these choices, you only get one life, and if you bring others into the world, be willing to live with the decisons you make for them until they can make their own. Has nothing to do with moral superiority at all. Its more about education and ignorance if anything. Now, once again, this is a car free bike forum, what exactly are you expecting here? I have a feeling you wont get it.

"The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall." - Mitch Hedberg

I hope you stick around, pedex.

I'm car-free myself, my wife does not even have a driver license, but my children are not. My youngest daughter is two month old, and she could not make to the doctor even in the trailer. Taxi is still a car, is it not? My son (7) and other daughter (4) walk or ride a bicycle to school, classes, playground, but there are sill 4 classes about 10 miles away. A good Russian teacher is something hard to find here and there is no way I can find a Russian speech therapist anywhere else. My view of a simple life does not include my children being poorly educated. I try to buy as much groceries as my bike can carry, but I can never buy enough for the family, I still have to use my car every other week.

I've been car free for a few years now. Granted because of the cheap public trans here .
BUT
Some of you people here really need to get a better hobby
than trying to piddle in each others Cheerios all the time.

Ya, its called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CHOICES... followed by long diatribe...
Its more about education and ignorance if anything. Now, once again, this is a car free bike forum, what exactly are you expecting here? I have a feeling you wont get it.
I'd expect/like to see intelligent discussion about bicycling for daily transportation and tips on how to use a bicycle to accomplish daily living. Not educational lectures about PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CHOICES or ranting about the ignorant masses and their poor choices.

I agree, I don't expect it from smug self appointed authority on PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY with a self styled mission to condemn the choices of the ignorant public.

My view of a simple life does not include my children being poorly educated.
Also a reason why some people choose to live where they do. Apparantly overlooked or considered unimportant by those who think bicycling access to work should be the deciding factor for their home location.

I've been car free for a few years now. Granted because of the cheap public trans here .
BUT
Some of you people here really need to get a better hobby
than trying to piddle in each others Cheerios all the time.

:D :D :D

"The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I'll never be as good as a wall." - Mitch Hedberg

I hope you stick around, pedex.

;)

I'm a lurker. I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from this forum, take what works for me, leave what doesn't, and offer what I may have if someone is looking for it. So far, my effort has been focused on reducing my use of a car, with great progress.

Read your own posts about your active opposition to the lifestyles (to include having children) of all those different than your own.
Hey- your trying to group people who ride bikes into people you morally disagree with. Save it for the voting booth and your daughters dates. We are a group (car-free) who most people equate with hippies, dui tickets and the homeless.
Save the hate, judgement and moral semantics for Foo, or other sub-forums. We are concerned with several issues, such as lane widths, grid based neighborhoods and even consumerism. Different members contribute their opinions based on knowledge and experience, not on a scorecard of beliefs.
I started this thread to encourage people who felt "somewhat car-free" to post. Get with it.

We are concerned with several issues, such as lane widths, grid based neighborhoods and even consumerism. Different members contribute their opinions based on knowledge and experience, not on a scorecard of beliefs.
I started this thread to encourage people who felt "somewhat car-free" to post. Get with it.
Uh huh; so the OP's request to "Post Your Thoughts" about these subjects actually means post your thoughts as long as they are consistent with the CW of "We," the PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY POLICE.

Since when does car lite living i.e. "somewhat car-free" (which no one on this list is about to lecture me about) require following the party line of the counter culture gurus?

car-free? live gear-free! fixies rule!!!:) :) :) :)

car-free? live gear-free! fixies rule!!!:) :) :) :)

I don't use all my derailleur combinations. Is that gear-lite?

I wonder how many lurkers are government spy bots grabbing information to gauge the intesity and direction of the American energy mindset. Perhaps many feel that since they are not car-free they should not post?

The most consistant advice from those posters who actually are car free appears to be: have no dependents and don't venture any further than you can go by bicycle or public transportation. A willingnesss to use other's access to vehicles is a plus.
These are false statements. I'm car free. I've frequently reported my observations about how my car free neighbors with dependents do things and how I do things when I'm caring for a dependent. Last Sunday, I biked to the airport to greet a car free mom who was returning from a several month trip to south east asia with her 4 year old dependent. She didn't ask me to help I just figured with the recent restrictions things might not go smoothly and I was right. Since the distances car free people travel are the same as the distances car dependent people travel, a car free person can't advise others some limit on how far they can venture. We car free people venture as far as we please. Since I've been car free the only vehicle I've asked to borrow is a friend's bicycle. We traded bikes for a weekend for fun. That doesn't translate into me advising people considering car free to cultivate a willingness to use other people's access to vehicles. I've never given such advice. When my car free friends and I need some vehicle that we don't own we rent, we use our own access to vehicles not others. Some of my car owning friends have repeatedly offered the use of their vehicles in gratitude for things I've done for them, but in six years of car free, I've never taken them up on the offer.

We car free people venture as far as we please.
Very true. I think there was an insinuation that carfree people are somehow stuck at home. I've had marvelously enjoyable leisure trips in the last few years to Nantucket, Nebraska, Oklahoma, deep interior Mexico, Mississippi and New Orleans, none of which involved using a car.

I'd expect/like to see intelligent discussion about bicycling for daily transportation and tips on how to use a bicycle to accomplish daily living. . ..
Then why have you NEVER contributed a message that included any of these items? The only time you post on this forum is to make personal flames against those who do not meet your standards. I have NEVER read anything by you about "bicycling for daily transportation and tips on how to use a bicycle to accomplish daily living." NEVER! How do you explain this self-contradiction?

(no current dependents requiring daily reliable transportation)
Lurkers, I didn't see where a car free person corrected the implication that car free people don't have reliable transportation. When you develop alternatives to the car you expand your options so you create redundency in your personal transportation system. Therefore you increase the reliability of the system. Check any reliability engineering text for how the probabilistic algebra works out to make the probability of a redundent system working higher than a single mode system. If you work in a place like I do with a mix of car free and car dependent coworkers you can see for yourself how the car dependent people miss more hours of work due to their car troubles than the car free miss due to their leg,bike,bus, taxi, flexcar redundent system. In six years of car free I came in late once due to a flat. I've spent zero time on the phone talking to mechanics, never cut out early or arrive late because I have to visit the repair shop or get the inspection. My boss even missed a day and a half last year due to "car troubles". Boss could have taken the bus or biked or taxi but the mental dependency is so implanted she and everyone accepts it as a reason not to move yourself 5 miles even when she has the same alternatives I would have if I had
a broken leg.

In addition the car dependent people in my office miss more work due to being physically out of shape- even the ones who are younger than I am. Bad back, bad feet etc. They are not reliable and if they have dependents they can't give them quality care during the periods when they are physically incapacitated.

What non car free people may not realize is that unlike the engine in an automobile your bodies reliability goes up with use. As long as you don't damage it, it works better when it gets regular work. This is a significant difference between human and mechanical transportation modes. As we age this becomes more noticeable. I think Roody mentioned that he walks errands on weekends to maintain his walking mode. I've taken his advice and walk my groceries more often now. Anyway for our bodies as prime movers, useage and preventive maintenance are the same thing. With a car, preventive maintenance is a separate activity from useage and it increases in frequency with increased useage . When you move with a bike in addition to your muscles, the bike component has the same need for increased maintenance with increased useage of course. However, with a utility bike the maintenance down time is less than what a non car free person spends pumping gas.

I thought this correction might need to be spelled out for non car free people who don't yet know how easy car free is.

Very true. I think there was an insinuation that carfree people are somehow stuck at home. I've had marvelously enjoyable leisure trips in the last few years to Nantucket, Nebraska, Oklahoma, deep interior Mexico, Mississippi and New Orleans, none of which involved using a car.
I travel 200 miles carfree to visit my elderly father every month. I'm not liminting my travels to bike range, and I am not demonstrating an irresponsible attitude toward my family.

I have NEVER read anything by you about "bicycling for daily transportation and tips on how to use a bicycle to accomplish daily living." NEVER! How do you explain this self-contradiction?
No contradiction at all. You boast about how you have me on your ignore list. You jump on parsed/misquoted snippets taken out of context; Figure it out.

I wonder how many lurkers are government spy bots grabbing information to gauge the intesity and direction of the American energy mindset. Perhaps many feel that since they are not car-free they should not post?
Better add a few more layers of tin foil to your collander helmet.

Lurkers, I didn't see where a car free person corrected the implication that car free people don't have reliable transportation. When you develop alternatives to the car you expand your options so you create redundency in your personal transportation system.

Interesting observation. I don't know how often I hear people say they are late, couldn't get to something, etc. because of car problems. Meanwhile, before I was self-employed, I was never late. Even before I started cycling I could walk, take the bus, or call a cab. I was used to thinking in terms of multiple transportations methods. Most car users get so used to the car that they don't even have the cab company's phone number handy, much less know how to use the local transit system.

Then why have you NEVER contributed a message that included any of these items? The only time you post on this forum is to make personal flames against those who do not meet your standards....I have to disagree. Your observation is too narrow; he does the same on every forum he posts on. :D

Often, some variation of this post:


Better add a few more layers of tin foil to your collander helmet.

A couple people only come to this subforum to troll. If everyone would just ignore them, it wouldn't derail threads so badly. Just as I have a right to go to the Fixed Gear forum and poste hateful, broad generalization about them in an effort to make them mad, those who for whatever reason dislike the nation of living without a car are free to do the same to us. That doesn't mean we have to respond to them.

Look, I think everyone here knows who I'm talking about. Bikeforums members have wasted far too much bandwidth on this guy, and if you attempt to make a negative post in his direction, he'll immediately cry to the mods, apparently. This is a subforum for car-free people and those who are interested in being car-free, explaining our way of life is fine, but feeling obligated to defend it against an overtly antagonistic, bitter old man is not. This troll's probably the most negative poster on Bikeforums, and hasn't even contributed his $25 to offset the cost of how much crap he stirs up, so he goes on my ignore list. He doesn't fulfill any useful function on this subforum, so maybe he'll go on yours, too.
:D

Ya, its called PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CHOICES, I make mine just like anyone else, Im also willing to live with those choices, NOT MAKE EXCUSES about them or my own situation in life, I dont think others doing the same is too much to ask for is it? Few of the best things in life are cheap or easy, car free is no different in many ways. If someone wants to whine and cry cause they dont think they can be car free due to their own decisions then they should either make new decisions to deal with it or expect nothing. If thats your idea of "moral purity" or whatever I find that pretty childish, its called being an adult IMHO. This is a car free bicycling sub-forum. Maybe you should check your own biases at the door and quit putting words and ideas into other people's posts. But since you seemingly are unable to do that I will spell it out for you. Im car free, I have been car free for about 5 years, I like it, it works FOR ME. If others want to do the same im willing to help, if not, then quit trolling. If someone thinks they cant do it, then maybe they either dont realize how easy it really is or never really wanted to in the first place. I did NOT design the way most people live in the US. I did not design its cities or suburbs. I did not create the automobile. I did however go from being an excessive user and abuser of the automobile to someone who doesnt use them at all. I do not think for one second that everyone can make the switch, but I do think an awful lot could if they wanted to. Again, make your own decisions, I make mine, you make yours, but dont make excuses, live with these choices, you only get one life, and if you bring others into the world, be willing to live with the decisons you make for them until they can make their own. Has nothing to do with moral superiority at all. Its more about education and ignorance if anything. Now, once again, this is a car free bike forum, what exactly are you expecting here? I have a feeling you wont get it.

Bravo! (Applauds enthusiastically)