Living Car Free - How was your carfree/car-lite day?

I asked my SO (significant other) if we needed anything from the grocery store today. I got a short shopping list, got my backpack & headed out.

I stopped at Son's apartment on the way and added some things he needed to my list. (Son is also carfree.) I shopped until I had a full load for my pack. On the way back I noticed that a Grande size coffee from Starbucks sits nicely in my downtube bottle cage and doesn't spill much out of the sipper lid.

A couple of days ago a 92 year old cousin in California emailed me that he'd decided to give up driving. He's in good health and he still gets around the neighborhood on his trike. He's put 1200 miles on it the last year and a half.

Typical day, about 8am the phone started ringing, already had a couple 9am runs to do from friday. Also being first monday of the month its billing day, which can make for lots of stops. Managed to get the mornings work done and hand out all the central downtown bills, collect a couple debts, and leave the south land for the afternoon. Spent about an hour around lunchtime in the courthouse taking care of some entries which vanished into the twilight zone. With 100,000 plus court cases flowing thru there each year stuff does get lost, it happens. Afternoon rush started at about 2:15pm, and I stayed busy till about 4:50pm. That left me 3 miles from home and the grocery store on the way. Grabbed up some breakfast type food and a 10lb sack of taters and about 6 lbs of various meats and stopped at the bank ATM a mile away next. After that it was home. Daytime temp was 20 something with wind, not like friday but enough to make it interesting, put 48 more fixed gear miles on the clock. I could swear I saw snow a few times today but I may have been seeing things.

just another day at the office

1. I rode B.O.B. (bike on Bus) to South Mountain and went hiking.

rode to work
rode for work
rode home from work

drank beer

just one more day; but at least it's not so cold...

Up at 5 to cycle to work for 6 - it was neither wet nor cold which is unusual for the time of year.
Spent 11 dull hours in the office.
Cycled home in full waterproofs which, in the course of 25 mins, were vital and completely unnecessary.
Made dinner and a loaf of bread with my 3 y.o. daughter which we both enjoyed very much.

A couple of days ago a 92 year old cousin in California emailed me that he'd decided to give up driving. He's in good health and he still gets around the neighborhood on his trike. He's put 1200 miles on it the last year and a half.

92 and still riding! I can only hope to be so healthy when I reach that age.

1. I rode B.O.B. (bike on Bus) to South Mountain and went hiking.
Do you find it secure to leave bike locked all/half day at south mountain?
Al

I had ridden my chopper in the Big Jingle Jubilee Holiday Parade on Saturday. Then I went home by way of the River Trail and had a lovely and solitary ride in the sunset. So Monday I had to ride it back to work where I keep it. It's not a good hill-climbing bike (though great at descending). I pushed it up most of the hills and coasted with glee down them. It was a different experience commuting at the drivers' height rather than at a bicyclist height.

On the way home I went by the grocery store and bought $40.00 of groceries and had no problem fitting them on my commuting bike or in my backpack(sad isn't it. ;o) ) Chatted with a neighbor at the grocery store while loading my bike, and the Salvation Army bell-ringer was quite amused at the Santa hat attached to my helmet. He said that the Salvation Army had helped him a lot after Katrina and this was his way of paying them back.

I under dressed so rode faster. For some reason the cold 30 some degree F wind stung my eyes and made my nose emit excess snot.

My father gave me his old schwinn 3-speed utility bike but its still boxed up waiting patiently for my time.

I am driving 6-800 miles this week w/ company car that I can take home on nights I get home too late or leave too early the next day to deal w/ biking home or in so I would say that my week is going pretty well for not owning a car, although my job is making me spend a lot of time driving. I am still going to have some amount of biking on 3 of 5 days this week. Maybe 4 if I am going to be so late getting in Thurs that it won't matter if I'm a half hour later (i.e. kids in bed already).

Biked to school ~12F got there about 10:40 a.m.
School from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Biked home ~7F got there about 10:50 p.m.

Do you find it secure to leave bike locked all/half day at south mountain?
Al Lock it up at the ranger station if you want 100 percent safe.

Use a u lock and a crappy bike if you have bus money or a pass.



A ride to college today with a full moon canal ride back.

:( Not carfree today. I drove my dad out to do his Christmas shopping, and drove with my sister to Sam's Club for vitamins. This is the only driving I'll do for the entire month. Even worse--no riding today, or for the whole four days I've been up north visiting dad. :( :( I did get to take some nice walks--tons of snow here in Traverse City! :)

Spent much of yesterday and today trying to "dial in" a DIY halogen light described in the Total Geekiness sticky thread on the Commuting forum http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=42629&page=58. I also added an amber strobe light on the rear rack. All for about $70.

I had to apply some duct-tape for my test run in the morning, but everything worked fine when I rode home from work this evening. It was totally dark on a 5-mile section of MUP, but I felt a lot safer than when I tried it with my Cateye light.

Weather was great too. Suddenly it was 48F after a weekend of 18F.

I'm glad your halogen worked, gerv. Was it a lot of work?

This thread is fun. I think I cheated by posting twice in the same day.

:o

I rode to work, from work walked 2mi RT for lunch, then rode home, then walked to the barber from home and later walked to the store to buy some milk. 17mi cyclling, 4mi walking, 0mi motoring. The most stressful part was not the cycling in traffic, but twice walking across a 7 lane arterial at an unmarked crosswalk during rush hour.
Al

I'm glad your halogen worked, gerv. Was it a lot of work?

Most of the work was shopping. I will start a thread with some pictures and a parts list.

I rode to a big box shopping area this morning to pick up a fleece ear band at REI. Bike access to that area is possible only by riding over a stretch of abandoned road that's now used by the highway department to store equipment. I cross my fingers every time I go over it because I've flatted three times there and once had some bailing wire wrap up into my rear derailer. My specific gripe is that bonds were issued in 2000 for a paved bike path there and the project was approved, but somehow the bike path never gets built.

Lots of Christmas shoppers out today!

I rode to a big box shopping area this morning to pick up a fleece ear band at REI. Bike access to that area is possible only by riding over a stretch of abandoned road that's now used by the highway department to store equipment. I cross my fingers every time I go over it because I've flatted three times there and once had some bailing wire wrap up into my rear derailer. My specific gripe is that bonds were issued in 2000 for a paved bike path there and the project was approved, but somehow the bike path never gets built.

Lots of Christmas shoppers out today!

yeah, holiday car madness is in full swing out here too...i'm happy to be on my bike, but i stay way the f away from big box, mega-consumption, bike deadly ares

A couple of days ago a 92 year old cousin in California emailed me that he'd decided to give up driving. He's in good health and he still gets around the neighborhood on his trike. He's put 1200 miles on it the last year and a half. Nah, man. You gotta be pulling our collective leg!

If you're not... I want the guy's phone number! Or e-mail address! (He is tech-savvy enough to e-mail too...) ;) :D

As for the day, no biking for me today. Just a little bit of subway and a little bit of walking. Cold like &*(#! out there. Not that it would deter me from riding, I just didn't have any rideable destination. Biking and walking was to meet and go out with my boyfriend who doesn't like to bike in the cold.

Yesterday was great. Rode to work, then home, had dinner, then rode to yoga, did a 1.5 hour class, then rode home. Today I rode to work, then I'll probably ride to the climbing gym after work, climb for a few hours, then ride home. I have 75 km on my cycle computer so far this week. I've been car free for a long time, but I have to say it's a lot more fun with a bike. :)

I want the guy's phone number!
Yow, looks like all I have to do is keep riding for 38 more years, then all the ladies will be wanting my phone number too!

yesterday was cold..very cold high 28 degrees..had to do two runs..about 21 miles total.
The great thing was one run was a nite and seen all the house Christmas lights..so much better when youre going 8 mph..you get the real feel of the holiday.
Still trying to get use to everyone looking at me when it so cold out and I am riding a bike to the store!
Not looking foward to snow however..tommorw thursday the high is forcaste about 23 and windchills in the single digits for the am..

I've stopped riding on the main arteries at night after one too many near-misses. There is no real traffic enforcement around here & too many vicious, intoxicated, or distracted drivers who can speed with impunity. Just not worth it. Probably under-30 males should not be allowed on the road without extensive psychological testing. That demograpic is generally the problem.

But then, we don't want to infringe on people's liberty to drive, even with some 50,000 highway deaths a year - about twenty-five 9/11s every year. (That doesn't count the severely injured & maimed.)

Yesterday was a transition day back to my usual carfree lifestyle. I walked from my dad's house in Traverse City to the bus station, dragging my heavy suitcase over the snow banks. (Somebody should make a suitcase with skis instead of wheels for the northern markets.) I rode the Indian Trails/Greyhound buses 200 miles through Grand Rapids to Lansing. It was an uneventful trip. The bus was not crowded, and we were on time all the way--even though the highway was icy on the last leg.

I usually walk home from the bus station, but in light of the snow banks I called my best friend Tony for a ride. Luckily they had an appointment at the hospital a block from my house, so this worked out perfectly. They took me home in their minivan, and also took me to the supermarket for a few items after their appointment. (Hey, I never claimed to be a carfree martyr! ;))


Today I'm back to the carfree life totally. Wind chill temp is single digits, but I overheated riding just a couple miles to the library, where I'm typing this. I find it's a common problem early in the winter--I tend to overdress until I get back into the swing of cold weather cycling. Cold temps are actually MUCH less of a problem than people think they are!

In a short time I'll do the last 8 minute leg of my commute to work. Carfree is really easy if you live in a sensible location.

Hi Roody, glad you're back from your trip. Buses are certainly better when they're not crowded, that's for sure. I used to ride the Hound quite a bit to visit my SO, before we moved in together. I packed all my stuff into a single backpack instead of a suitcase. That simplified the travelling. That might not be a practical idea for packing several changes of winter clothes, though.

The weekend has been glorious with full sun and warmer temps around 30 F. I've been riding my mountain bike in the woods and around some lakes near my house. I can't wait until there's safe ice and I can ride across the lakes! I had to work all weekend, but since I work second shift, I always have the best part of the day free for riding.

I cycled to a Christmas party last night. It was a covered dish dinner with some old friends. My contribution was a batch of cole slaw. I've biked to so many gatherings with these folks that no one even mentioned the bike, except for one guy who rarely attends.