Living Car Free - Need Your Input on Key Issues

Help. I'm going to launch a new biking site, "BikeToledo.net", in the spring. The mission is to get more people out of their cars and onto bikes. One key section will be on going car-free (or at least getting rid of one car). What are the key issues I need to address to persuade riders to do this? What were the things which you needed to know or which motivated you when you went car-free? What are the problems you most needed to overcome?

Also, I'll be looking for testimonials and photos of car-free souls (or those who eliminated a car from their family). Anybody interested in volunteering? Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

Feel free to poach from the getting started biking for transportation section of my blog here: http://austinbikeblog.org/?page_id=352

Also, read “How to Live Well Without Owning a Car” by Chris Balish. This is by far the best book I've read about the practical, better living reasons for going carfree. He uses the American obsession with wealth and thinness to make the case that you'll have way more money and look way better if you don't own a car. He then lays out very practical ways to live car-free.

I would advise people to nail down the work commute first, then shopping, and finally finally more infrequent destinations like recreation destinations, restaurants and doctor appointments.

Carrying stuff on the bike is a major issue (especially pet food :)). Bad weather is another important consideration.

I would advise people to nail down the work commute first, then shopping, and finally finally more infrequent destinations like recreation destinations, restaurants and doctor appointments.

Carrying stuff on the bike is a major issue (especially pet food :)). Bad weather is another important consideration.

I totally agree with this. Getting to work is is most of the travel people do in a week, and once you have that under control, everything else is pretty easy.

I always advice people who are trying to go carless in some way to make a commitment to try it for 2 weeks. This gives a person enough time to develop the habit of biking, transit, carpool, etc with a built in exit strategy if it really doesn't work for them. Otherwise, it's too easy to quit after difficulties encountered in the first day or so.

Focus on the practical rather than the philosophical. Talk about how to carry groceries on a bike, how to properly lock up a bike, what kinds of lights and other accessories are needed, how to ride in winter, how to plan the commute route, etc.

Help. I'm going to launch a new biking site, "BikeToledo.net", in the spring. The mission is to get more people out of their cars and onto bikes. One key section will be on going car-free (or at least getting rid of one car). What are the key issues I need to address to persuade riders to do this? What were the things which you needed to know or which motivated you when you went car-free? What are the problems you most needed to overcome?

Also, I'll be looking for testimonials and photos of car-free souls (or those who eliminated a car from their family). Anybody interested in volunteering? Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

I'm originally from Toledo, and was car free there for many years. Toledo isn't a great city to be car free as there isn't a lot of cycling infrastructure, although city council has (or at least they used to have), a dedicated person for cycling issues.

One great thing about being car free in Toledo is that there is very little bike theft done by professional thieves, it's mostly a crime of opportunity.

As for what motivated me, I simply enjoy cycling and am not that fond of driving. As I lived in the OWE, I was close to just about everything I needed except a decent grocery store which was a PITA to get to. Maybe things have changed and there now is a decent food store near the OWE, but I doubt it.

Another thing I found is that I never had a problem stashing my bike inside at the various places I worked at over the years (most of them in downtown); all my bosses were more than happy to provide a secure indoor place for my bike.

BTW, what shop do you use? I was a longtime customer of Wersell's, in fact I still special order stuff from there from time to time.

The biggest problem people in Toledo will have to overcome is the nasty, gray, and wet weather.

Ziemas...

You've got just about everything right about Toledo except for the weather. Global warming (?) has warmed things up and there's lots more sun than I've ever seen, and I've lived here most of my life. This biking season started early April and is still going strong - 75f out today. Ilived a long time in the OWE also - in the big stone castle on Robinwood. I use mostly Bikeworks, as Wersell's has gotten a little low on the foodchain. Thanks for your input!

I would advise people to nail down the work commute first, then shopping, and finally finally more infrequent destinations like recreation destinations, restaurants and doctor appointments.

Carrying stuff on the bike is a major issue (especially pet food :)). Bad weather is another important consideration.

I'd think just the opposite. Rather than starting them off with the highest mileage aspect wouldnt 'easing' them into it be more encouraging?

Most of the other destinations dont have the time contraints that work arrival does.

On thing that might help Toledo folks is some very pragmatic route advice. Who is your target audience? Personally I think it might be easier to get folks on the East Side (lots of facilities are near such as shops) and South End to hop on a bike for transport than someone in the the west part of town or Sylvania. Are they still afraid of downtown in those parts? If they are, I just can't see getting them on a bike to the 'safety' concerns.....

BTW, great house! I must have spoken to you on several occasions throughout the years.

I would advise people to nail down the work commute first, then shopping, and finally finally more infrequent destinations like recreation destinations, restaurants and doctor appointments

thinking about what miamijim said in post#9, i would still agree with Roody, but add that you should try to succeed as a part time commuter (in fair weather and only when you're not tired) and THEN move on to more challenging types of bicycling - and that if your commute is 10 miles and your favorite recreation destination is 4 miles away, you might want to get used to the short ride before the long ride. Shopping and doctors' appointments can be a little bit challenging because you need to be able to carry a good amount of stuff to shop by bike and becoming familiar with a route is also helpful (I would not become very familiar with bicycling the route to a doctor because I don't go to a doctor often enough.)

Totally different POV here. Car free is easy if you can walk and take public transit for everything. In an environment like that, it's easy to arrange delivery for large items, or even just inconvenient ones. That means most trips need to be a mile walk or less. If public transit doesn't work well, or the person doesn't know how to use it... bad scene. And if it isn't a safe place to walk, often it isn't a safe place to bike either.

Walking is something almost anyone can do, and it doesn't take much in the way of special equipment. A tote bag or backpack helps a lot, and good shoes are a must. But those are things that almost anyone owns already.

Pretty much every problem I've run into on a bike was easy to solve due to all my practice on foot, and some of the everpopular ones just never crossed my mind. On foot, if you can't pack a bag so the load stays put... you're going to be stopping several times to fix it. And you'll learn rapidly that it's a waste of time to do it wrong. Go shopping without a good bag? You'll learn after one walk home not to do *that* again.

For me a bike is mostly a range extender. (also a lot of fun)

Don't gloat in the car free section about high gas prices forcing people to ride bikes being a good thing. Keep the section on the positive side, emphasizing the good things about living without a car or reducing dependence on autos.

Help. I'm going to launch a new biking site, "BikeToledo.net", in the spring. The mission is to get more people out of their cars and onto bikes. One key section will be on going car-free (or at least getting rid of one car). What are the key issues I need to address to persuade riders to do this? What were the things which you needed to know or which motivated you when you went car-free? What are the problems you most needed to overcome?

Also, I'll be looking for testimonials and photos of car-free souls (or those who eliminated a car from their family). Anybody interested in volunteering? Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

I'd focus on:

1. Ways to haul stuff on bikes;
2. Clothing, especially for bad weather;
3. Safe routes for bicycling in your area;
4. Giving people ideas for "plan B": what to do if you can't ride that day;
5. Inspirational stuff. (There's this online magazine called Urban Velo News that has a "Why I Love Bicycling in the City" segment that I particularly like, and you may want to emulate.)

You may want an interactive area where your readers can leave feedback about road conditions and routes, for instance if a street has an ongoing problem with broken glass or if the motoring public is too fast on one road.