Living Car Free - Here is another example where car free woulden't work!

Well the thinking here is in the minority, it is how ever fascinating never the less. I choose a big vehicle for safety reasons as riding a bike in my part of the world can be dangerous, if I'm going to risk my life it should be worthwhile. I am one of the ones that have been there done that not going back. I just find the anti car thinking weird.

Well the thinking here is in the minority, it is how ever fascinating never the less. I choose a big vehicle for safety reasons as riding a bike in my part of the world can be dangerous, if I'm going to risk my life it should be worthwhile. I am one of the ones that have been there done that not going back. I just find the anti car thinking weird.

So your response to living in an area that makes you feel unsafe isn't to move away, but just to hide inside a little metal cage every time you leave your home...and you think I'm weird?

I was in the Rita evacuation of Houston, this was before going carfree. I tried driving which was pointless because I could get no gas. After sitting hour and a half in traffic only to move about a 1 mile, I turned around and went home when I heard that most routes were out of gas over the radio. People resorted to pushing their cars. I ended up booking a flight the next day. Airline was the way to go, except I had to illegally park my car at a shopping center, because all airport parking private and public lots were full, luckily it didn’t get towed. If it happens again I would bike to my parent’s new house in a neighboring small town about 40 miles inland from my apartment, they just moved from west texas. I bet anything I could get there as fast, if not faster than a car. Large evacuations are nightmare traffic wise because you are limited to the road and the availability of GAS.

what is continuing to evade me is WHY someone needs to post pro car in here.
It's like steak lovers trolling in vegetarian forums (and I believe I have read god-given right there, too)

If you love your car, fine. drive it. But don't come in here like you are smarter than us, richer than us or whatever is getting you off about being in here.

want to understand? then ask, don't try to start fights.

you have crappy net manners.

see ya at the end of suburbia.

I just find the anti car thinking weird.

Just as most of us find the pro-car thinking weird.

The only difference is most of us don't go trolling car forums advocating bicycles/trains/buses.

Well the thinking here is in the minority, it is how ever fascinating never the less. I choose a big vehicle for safety reasons as riding a bike in my part of the world can be dangerous, if I'm going to risk my life it should be worthwhile. I am one of the ones that have been there done that not going back. I just find the anti car thinking weird.

Well, it's not like riding a bicycle elsewhere doesn't have its risks. Bicycling is worthwhile.

Just because your vehicle is bigger doesn't make it safer. SUVs have tremendous roll-over rates. They are also perilous in ice or snow. My bicycle is much more stable on ice and snow. If a big vehicle for safety is your standard, you should give up that puny SUV for a full-on semi-truck or perhaps a Bradley M3A3. Both would be safer than your SUV.

The oil embargo in the '70s influenced me. I was car-free back then and I saw the impossibly long lines at gas stations that made car ownership ridiculous. I was at community college then, and despite the fact that I traveled farther than anyone else in class to get to class during that time, I was the only one with a perfect attendance record. I know I traveled further, because not only was I out of district, but I was actually two college districts away. Why couldn't the drivers make it to school? Most of them were within walking distance of school.

I was reinforced in that thinking one night in L.A. when driving to my father's house 40 miles away. Traffic was bad enough that I realized that I would have been able to ride my bike there faster. That was over 20 years ago. I don't think that traffic has gotten better in the interim.

Our thinking may be different than yours, but labeling it as weird is pretty ignorant. Don't knock it till you really understand it. The car-free lifestyle is as old as civilization. I think that you are fascinated by us because a little voice inside your head says that we are right. We have the long view, not the wrong view.

You also call it anti-car. It is not. No one is perfectly car-free in their lifetime. But we realize that a car is just a tool. Just a tool with limited use. Just a tool that is radically overused. I have neighbors who will drive from our apartment building to the local convenience store. The local convenience store is catty-corner to the apartments. Others drive from their apartment to the laundry room. A distance of perhaps 20-100 feet.

Living car-free is a goal, a day to day goal. Some days I am car free, all my transportation needs can be met by a bike, bus or train. Other days I must use a car. But I try to avoid it when possible.

I don't get it... Are you trying to brag that you figured out a way to be able to live in a dangerously fire-prone area? Or are you recommending that the rest of us also purchase similar vehicles, so that we can live in unsafe areas? Yeah, I wish I could live there; it sounds great :rolleyes:

I'm not jealous of your "escape vehicle"; just like if you lived in Fallujah I wouldn't be jealous of your flak-vest.

And don't kid yourself, that's not even why you bought it, and we all know it.

:roflmao:

I think everyone should have a military transport vehicle, "just in case". :p

Looks like some people in your area are getting along better with their bikes than the people with cars, SpecFan. I found this on DrunkCyclist:

From today’s Los Angeles Times coverage (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/breakingnews/) of the Southern California wildfires:
Rod Percival, 46, coasted his mountain bike down Las Flores Canyon Road, his dog Ayla skittering behind him. Like many residents, Percival and his wife had refused to leave Malibu. Late Tuesday morning, he used his trusty bike to take stock, as best as he could, of the fire danger.
A neighbor, Bruce Bolander, 43, asked Percival how things looked.
“We’re safe. I’ve just ridden around the entire canyon,” Percival responded. “The fire’s out.”
Bolander asked his friend if he thought there was any way to sneak his wife Bonny passed the sheriff’s barricade. She was at Duke’s, a popular restaurant down on PCH.
“Is she prepared to walk?” Percival asked, not conveying much optimism.
Bolander muttered an expletive.
Percival himself wanted to go down to PCH, but knew that if he did so, he would not be let back in.
“I need some beer. I’m out of beer,” Percival joked. “This is terrible.”

No one is perfectly car-free in their lifetime. But we realize that a car is just a tool. Just a tool with limited use. Just a tool that is radically overused. I have neighbors who will drive from our apartment building to the local convenience store. The local convenience store is catty-corner to the apartments. Others drive from their apartment to the laundry room. A distance of perhaps 20-100 feet.

Living car-free is a goal, a day to day goal. Some days I am car free, all my transportation needs can be met by a bike, bus or train. Other days I must use a car. But I try to avoid it when possible.

In other words, progress, not pefection.

Automobiles have been in the mainstream for a little less than 100 years. In that time frame, we've seen drastic changes in our social structure. Today, there are some areas and some conditions where a car is no longer only a convenience but a necessity as well. (Even in those cases, cars are often badly overused.) The conditions that brought about our car culture won't change overnight.

However, if enough of us look for and use car-free and car-light alternatives, we will begin to see some positive changes. And perhaps those changes are beginning to happen.

Yes, well, you're just old-fashioned like that, Sammy. ;)

That I am! Of course, I actually believe that I have a right to own a car, and a right to use one when neccesary, but that I ought to use my bike as much as is practical, which I do, and is a lot. The difference is, I don't neccesarily come to a forum focussing on car-freedom, and preach about why not having a car is stupid. I come here because I want to use my car less, and the people and ideas here can help and inspire me to that. I don't pretend to be car-free, but I also don't try to start a riot with those who are.

That I am! Of course, I actually believe that I have a right to own a car, and a right to use one when neccesary, but that I ought to use my bike as much as is practical, which I do, and is a lot. The difference is, I don't neccesarily come to a forum focussing on car-freedom, and preach about why not having a car is stupid. I come here because I want to use my car less, and the people and ideas here can help and inspire me to that. I don't pretend to be car-free, but I also don't try to start a riot with those who are.

People like you are the backbone of this forum. People like Specialized fan are just a pain in the back!
:D

I hear the moon is like paradise: Good schools (thanks NASA!), plenty of parking, and low precipitation.
:roflmao:

Good golfing too.

Wait until there's a nine pointer and see how well your big SUV copes with roads like this:

http://www.ovimagazine.com/images/alaskaquakefourthave_400.jpg

My bike, trailer and all, would be around that hole no problem. Or even down through it if need be.

I think everyone should have a military transport vehicle, "just in case". :p

I agree! Esp. one that requires no fuel, minimal maintenance and can go over virtually any terrain from mountains to swamps.

http://www.germanwarmachine.com/photogallery/3/carousel_2.jpg

I agree! Esp. one that requires no fuel, minimal maintenance and can go over virtually any terrain from mountains to swamps.



Yesterday my husband and I were out mushroom hunting (hurrah, finally found some chanterelles :D ) on Weyerhaeuser property. This property is gated, due to vandalism. It's open to all non-motorised traffic, just not motor vehicles. On one road we hit, there had been an enormous effort to keep ATVs out. There were FOUR twenty foot deep tank traps in a row, separated by less than fifty feet between them. As we kept going up the road, we discovered that there were NINE tank traps just like the first four, and then an additional nine smaller tank traps. Someone went to a lot of trouble to keep people out of there, but we were able to make it through on the bikes (not saying it was easy, mind you--it was a real slog). Had this been the aftereffects of an earthquake, SpecFan would never make it through.

Oh yeah, we had to wade through a river bottom, too.

East Hill

I don't get it... Are you trying to brag that you figured out a way to be able to live in a dangerously fire-prone area?


:roflmao:

Wait until there's a nine pointer and see how well your big SUV copes with roads like this:

http://www.ovimagazine.com/images/alaskaquakefourthave_400.jpg

My bike, trailer and all, would be around that hole no problem. Or even down through it if need be.

That what the Hummer is for, off roding, of coarse it could be some fun mountain biking too.

That what the Hummer is for, off roding, of coarse it could be some fun mountain biking too.

Hummer is going to be stopped cold at the road block...bicycle will probably be let through. I have been there and seen it happen after a hurricane when the roads were blocked by 100 year old oak trees. Bicycle and foot traffic could pass. I have yet to see a Hummer that could climb over a 6 foot+ diameter log across the road. Motor vehicles are a tool, nothing more, they have their uses, but are not the universal answer. You don't use a 20# sledge hammer to drive trim nails, but in a pinch you could use a trim hammer to break blocks...it would just take you longer:p

Aaron:)

I agree! Esp. one that requires no fuel, minimal maintenance and can go over virtually any terrain from mountains to swamps.

http://www.germanwarmachine.com/photogallery/3/carousel_2.jpg

The history of the military bicycle is quite fascinating. My favourite story is how NZ bicycle troops captured a group of Boers on horseback during the Boer War after a cross country chase.

On one occasion during the war eleven cyclists from New Zealand were on their way with despatches in the vicinity of Eerste Fabrieken, near Hammanskraal, when they came across ten Boers on horseback. After a spirited chase over the veld they captured the Boers and H.W. Wilson maintains that this is the only such feat achieved by cyclists in the war.

Wilson, H.W.: After Pretoria: The Guerilla War, Vol I, p.447.