Living Car Free - What's your major hurdle in becoming car-free?

1) How would I get her to the ER if something terrible happened?
2) How will I get her to school in bad weather? (I live in Michigan - SNOW)
3) How cold will she get when I haul her around on a bike in winter?
4) How wet will she get when i haul her around on a bike in the rain?\

I'm not a parent, but I did grow up without a car in the family. I am confused... when did schools in the US stop provided school busses? It seems every parent in the US drives their kids to school?!?

As for ERs, that's what 911 and ambulances are for.

Hey patc,

I live outside of my daughters schools bus route. That is why I have to drive her. As far as 911 and ambulances go... you have a good point... but would I be comfortable using that point at the Friend of the Court if my custody was on the line?.... Nope. Everything in my life is secondary to my little girl. I am hoping someone here on BF may have some experience with living car free and shared child custody. I would love to hear their experiences.
My experience was that it depended more on the ex complaining to the court. The ex made snide remarks but didn't really take the drive vs bike issue in the direction of the the court. If your ex takes it to child protection that might be healthier than getting the daughter in the middle by making remarks about your abilities in front of the kid. I went car lighter and lighter while she grew up and for the last few years was car free. I did like Roody advises some people and went at car free gradually. I would have embraced it sooner if I had something like this sub forum and if the ex had been supportive. (If the ex had been supportive, it wouldn't be ex would it?)

Hey patc,

I live outside of my daughters schools bus route. That is why I have to drive her. As far as 911 and ambulances go... you have a good point... but would I be comfortable using that point at the Friend of the Court if my custody was on the line?.... Nope. Everything in my life is secondary to my little girl. I am hoping someone here on BF may have some experience with living car free and shared child custody. I would love to hear their experiences.
My experience was that it depended more on the ex complaining to the court. The ex made snide remarks but didn't really take the drive vs bike issue in the direction of the the court. If your ex takes it to child protection that might be healthier than getting the daughter in the middle by making remarks about your abilities in front of the kid. I went car lighter and lighter while she grew up and for the last few years was car free. I did like Roody advises some people and went at car free gradually. I would have embraced it sooner if I had something like this sub forum and if the ex had been supportive. (If the ex had been supportive, it wouldn't be ex would it?)

An ambulance ride will cost you over $400 here I think, more if they do anything other than transport. That almost pays a year's worth of car insurance for me (it'd pay more than a year for someone older), and definitely makes it less likely you'll have problems with the ex over it.

A kid showing up at school with chapped skin because her father was too cheap to buy a car is the quickest way for your wife to get the child and all your money.

An ambulance ride will cost you over $400 here I think, more if they do anything other than transport. That almost pays a year's worth of car insurance for me (it'd pay more than a year for someone older), and definitely makes it less likely you'll have problems with the ex over it.

A kid showing up at school with chapped skin because her father was too cheap to buy a car is the quickest way for your wife to get the child and all your money.
In 18 years my kid never had a problem that warrented an ambulance ride. The one emergency room visit, when she was in the car of the ex could've been handled with a cab ride. No way is it $400. My one expeience with an ambulance ride I didn't get charged. ???? I can't explain it. The hospital tried to double bill some of the emergency room charges too.

How can one associate chapped skin with car free and make that into a quicker way to lose visitation than sexual or physical abuse, or abduction? I think you've posted nonsense to the forum this time. The ex tried to associate poor performance in soccer matches with our biking there but the coach thought it was a good idea to arrive all warmed up and ready to run. So Lauren did you or someone you know lose custody because of car free living? Give us the actual details. What was the facet of car free living that caused the state to jump in? Was it only car free or something else too?

I hate kids and don't want any of my own. However, with an ex you are not talking about the state taking the kid away. You are talking about the ex convincing a judge they are a better parents which isn't hard when you don't have a car. My skin can get dry and uncomfortable during the winter, and a kid's is more sensitive and Lance lives in a colder climate.

Ambulances are indeed expensive. Call and ask. If you make a kid with a broken arm or an open wound wait for a cab to show up if the ex finds out you are screwed. I've seen ugly divorces go down and people loosing their kids and their money to the ex for far less. In Lance's case the judge will probably favor the mother to begin with, so he can't afford to put himself at more of a disadvantage.

An ambulance ride will cost you over $400 here I think, more if they do anything other than transport.

Having to pay for essential medical services is just barbaric.

Having to pay for essential medical services is just barbaric.
My parents were covered by their uninsured motorist coverage. Had they been on bicycles, they would have had to pay deductibles and co-pays on their health insurance.

Whether you have a car or not, a life-threatening emergency is likely to warrant an ambulance ride. But for most other tense situations, a taxi cab does wonders.

I have a two month old, and I can tell you that cars don't solve everything. He was born at home, in our in our bathtub, because he came so fast that we did not have time to get her dressed and into the car.

The day before, she was experiencing labor pains, so we took her to the hospital. Her contractions were still spaced out so they observed her for a while, and sent her home. She was in pain, and she did not want to go right back to the hospital, just so they could send her home again. So she sat in the tub to ease the pain. We only had about 7 or 8 min between her water breaking and the baby coming out. She pushed twice. The first time the head came out, on the second his entire body shot out. I called 911 and the ambulance came and took them to the hospital. We have medical coverage, so I only had a small co-pay. The baby is healthy.

I am car lite, my wife will keep a car, because she is just not into biking. I am waiting for the day she goes back to work, because then I won't have to pay for her car anymore. The good side of being car lite, is that if we both had cars, then she would have to go back to work now so we could pay for both of them. But now she can wait as long as she wants.

I am waiting to transport my son on the bike, until he turns 9 months old, since we do have a car. If that were not the case, I don't think the expense is justified, for a few trips to the hospital. Either its an emergency or its not.

Desire

Big barrier: weekend trips either to hiking trails or to drag our recumbents down to Ventura to ride with other recumbent riders.

Also, sometimes I'm just tired.

someday i'd like to be extremely car-lite (with my diesel stowed in the garage, Just In Case), but i'm not ready yet.

i live in a rapidly suburb-izing rural area, and i'm 20-30 miles away from needed resources. my healthcare center is too far for me to ride there (in time for an appointment anyway), especially if i'm sick. there is no closer center for my insurance.

my employment requires that i have a car (or maybe it's "use of a car") with insurance and current driver's license. i've only had to drive my car for work 4 times (3 of those were to a 3-day training event), but having a car to use is technically a requirement. i'm not sure how strict they are about it.

i have family and friends all over, from one county to another, and i am too tired after work to be able to ride out to them. i find if i "have" to ride someplace, i just won't go anywhere at all. i'm a low-energy kind of person--even if i want to go to a movie or something fun, i usually procrastinate until i can't make it at all. if i had to, i could get rid of my car, but it's highly unlikely that i would leave my house after that point.

i always seem to have to do stuff at the last minute (even apart from my own procrastination), and with the distances involved in this town, i couldn't make it on time riding a bike.

there isn't any real transit here. there is a bus but you have to sign up for it ahead of time, as i understand it. if there were a problem, i'd have to take a cab, but that isn't practical because i have no money.

someday i'll move back to portland, or move to a small city that is replete with all of the services and resources a person needs, but unfortunately that isn't an option right now. so i'm working on bike commuting at first, and eventually i'll set something up so i can carry home more than one thing from the store (or buy a 13-lb box of kitty litter from the town 10 miles over). in the summer i'll try riding out to my best friend's house in portland (14 miles away? i think). during the work year i'm too tired to ride out on weeknights, and there isn't enough time after work anyway. (for me--someone else could probably do it with time to spare.)

Has anybody actually heard of a case where a parent lost custody of a child because they didn't have a car? No, of course not! What a total crock this whole argument is--a figment of somebody's imagination.

Sometimes you have to use your brain and not just accept everything you read on the internet!

a negative issue of it. Furthermore he suggested that going car light would probably be absolutely OK. As long as a vehicle was available for any circumstances that the FOC deemed worthy of the need of a vehicle. (Michigan winter weather, emergency medical issues, etc.) It comes down to that same point I made before. Do I want to take a chance with my daughters custody on this issue? Nope... But would I be willing to try and go car light?... Quite possible so.
Lancerbob, I just put the quote up so readers know where I jumped in again. I reads like you have several interrelated issues going on in your life. I know from my experience and that of my car free neighbors that you can raise a healthy well adjusted kid and be car free. I also know from experience that a crazy ex can make your life miserable whether you are car free or car dependent. Your posts bring back memories of a time when the breakup was still painful and I was all anxious about doing the best thing for the kid. If that is the case with you then it probably isn't a good time to make another radical lifestyle change. As you go about adjusting to being a part time parent you'll have many oportunities to arrange things so you are less car dependent, if that is what you want. If you keep making decisions in the car lite direction you might end up car free like we did. In my case the crazy ex had so many opportunities to harass me that walking to school in the snow or biking for transportation never became an issue. We also eased into it. If I had ditched the car in the first year it might have gotten on the ex's radar screen. Oh, typing this makes me remember an incident involving car free stuff. I forgot what the issue was but the ex thought that driving the kid somewhere was appropriate and I didn't. Rather than argue I offered to pay cab fare so a taxi would pick the kid up and take her somewhere. Worked like a charm.

There are alot of good things about not using the car for transportation with the kid. Whether you walk or bike the kid is an active participant in the activity, after she learns to walk or bike. The kid is also moving and exercising. They seem to need a certain amount of cardovascular activity every day. Also they get some idea of self reliance. My daughter knows for a fact that she can get anywhere in the city by bike or walking because she did it with me. She also knows that it is easy. There are many adults who think it is impossible or hard. This is empowerment. I could go on and on about all the fun times we had biking and walking places, fun things that never happen to car dependent kids. Plus, when we got to our destination, we did the things the car dependent families did.

I hope your attorney friend is telling you what my attorney told me: "Stay out of court. You both know what is in the court order so live up to it and work things out without lawyers and judges." He said from his experience that if the ex doesn't live up to the court order, the ex is trying to harass you and getting the court involved won't stop the harassment. The ex will comply and promptly find another way to harass you and in the end nothing is accomplished except the lawyers make money. Does that make sense?

Can't bicycle to the Courthouse for a hearing (Miami in the summer it can get into the low 90's with 80% humidity by 9 o'clock in the morning) or travel to outlying sparsly populated counties for court appearances without a car.

Otherwise, on days I don't have to go somewhere, I commute to work and I run 99% of my errands by bicycle.

Otherwise, on days I don't have to go somewhere, I commute to work and I run 99% of my errands by bicycle.
Sounds pretty good to me. I commute to work about 90%, but only do about 40% of my errands by bicycle. One thing I do notice about commuting this time of the year: there are very few folks around here who are willing to brave the cold weather. Sometimes, I never see another bike on the bike trail.

Alot!

kids
wife
weather
dark
small roads
time

I like antique and classic cars.

Paul

I like antique and classic cars.

Paul
So? You could be carfree by one common definition of a car as "a motor vehicle used for personal transportation." You probably collect classic cars mainly to restore them and show them-- not to run out and pick up your dry cleaning and drive to work. So use your bike for personal transportation, and continue to collect cars as a hobby or sideline.

I hope that some day all cars will be in museums. :)