Living Car Free - Where have you lived Car-free?

I'd like to get a running tally of where folks here have lived car-free as adults. I'll try to keep the list continually updated in this post.

I'll start:

CANADA

Winnipeg, MB - Machka (6 years)
Red Deer, AB - Machka (1.5 years)
Calgary, AB - Buglady (1 year)
Victoria, BC - Buglady (7 years)
St. Catharines, ON - ryanz4 (5 years)


CHINA

Xinyang, Henen, P.R. - Robert C (3 years)


GERMANY

Munich - djwid (1 year)
Bamburg - benajah (2 years)


IRELAND

Carrickmacross - benajah (1 year)


ITALY

Vicenza - benajah (2 years)


MEXICO

Tijuana, BCN - Ekdog (2 years)
Cd. Juárez, Chih - Ekdog (1year)


SPAIN

Seville - Ekdog (20 years)


SWITZERLAND

St. Gallen, CH - chrisch (8.5 years)


U.K.

York - benajah (2 years)
Hampshire - rbrian (5 years)
Aberdeenshire - rbrian (1 year)


U.S.

Cambridge, MA - uke (4 years)
Boston, MA - Jim from Boston (20 years)
North Attleboro, MA - DX Rider (12 years)

Seattle, WA - bragi (5 years), daxr (1 year)
Bremerton, WA - bmclaughlin807 (2 years)
Kirkland, WA - djwid (2 years)

Columbus, OH - pedex (8.5 years), politicalgeek (3 mo)

Denver Metro, CO - bmclaughlin807 ( 5 years), ban guzzi (2 years)

Lakeside, AZ - bmclaughlin807 (1 year)
Phoenix, AZ - DanMach (1 year)

Alameda, CA - bmclaughlin807 (1 year)
San Diego, CA - Ekdog (20 years), dingster41 (1 year), Roody (1 year)
Glendale, CA - Ekdog (2 years)
San Francisco, CA - Ekdog (1 year)
Los Angeles, CA - Artkansas (? years), booger1 (32 years)
Santa Barbara, CA - Artkansas (? years)
Chico, CA - Robert C (2 years)
Tustin, CA - DX Rider (3 years)
Inland Empire, CA - mijome07 (6 years)
Irvine, CA - Zian (3 years)
Santa Cruz, CA - daxr (.5 year)

Hampton, VA - bmclaughlin807 (1 year)
Reston, VA - BretM (1 year)
Blacksburg, VA - djwid (3 years)

Orlando, FL - bmclaughlin807 (1 year)

El Paso, TX - Ekdog (1 year)
Dallas, TX - platy (2 years)
Austin, TX - platy (6 years)
Fort Worth, TX - urban_assault (2 years)

Little Rock, AR - Artkansas (? years)

Starkville, MS - toThinkistoBe (2 years)
Gautier, MS - toThinkistoBe (2 years)

Iowa City, IA - mesasone (1.5 years)

Highland Park, MI - Roody (3 years)
Jackson, MI - Roody (4 years)
Lansing, MI - Roody (10 years)
Detroit, MI - Jim from Boston (1 year)
Ann Arbor, MI - Jim from Boston (4 years)

Memphis, TN - DX Rider (1 year)

Sarasota Springs, NY - jasonpraxis (1 year)
NYC, NY - jasonpraxis (3 years), baldsue (3 years)

Chicago, IL - jasonpraxis (5 years), LoRoK (9 years)

St. Cloud, MN - Scheherezade (1 year)
Northfield, MN - rockmom (4 years)

Fayetteville, NC - wahoonc (2 years)
Greensboro, NC - wahoonc (4 years), AllenG (? years)

Newport, RI - billew (35 years)

Portland, OR - rockmom (1 year), daxr (1 year), RobCG (2 years)
Beaverton, OR - djwid (6 years)

Salt Lake City, UT - rockmom (2.5 years)

Madison, WI - rockmom (8 years)

Albuquerque, NM - LoRoK (5 years)

Athens, GA - AllenG (1 year)
Atlanta, GA - urban_assault (8 years)

Just Seattle, WA.

Well, I was car-ownership-free up till the age of 18, and I lived all over western Canada. But as an adult ...

Winnipeg, MB for 6 years
Red Deer, AB for 1.5 years

I'd like to get a running tally of where folks here have lived car-free as adults. I'll try to keep the list continually updated in this post.

I'll start:

Cambridge, MA - uke (4 years)
Seattle, WA - bragi (? years)
Winnipeg, MB - Machka (6 years)
Red Deer, AB - Machka (1.5 years)

sorry; Seattle WA, 5 years.

columbus ohio 8.5 years

Denver Metro (Denver, Aurora, Lakewood), Colorado, 5 yrs
Lakeside, Arizona, 1 year
Bremerton, Washington, 2 years
Alameda, California, 1 year
Hampton, Virginia, 1 year
Orlando, Florida, 1 year

Victoria, BC: 7 years (moved out on my own at 19, didn't get driver's license till I was 26)
Calgary, AB: 1 year, and about to start again.

San Diego, California: about twenty years.
Glendale, California: two years.
San Francisco, California: one year.
Tijuana, BCN, Mexico: about two years.
El Paso, Texas: about one year.
Cd. Juárez, Chih.:Mexico, about one year.
Seville, Spain: twenty years.

Dallas, Texas: 2 years
Austin, Texas: 6 years

L.A. : 4
Santa Barbara : 5
Little Rock : 4

St. Catharines, Ontario - around 5 years

Starkville, MS - 2 years
Gautier, MS - 2 years

phoenix, AZ. 1 year.

(Yes, the summers suck)

San Diego, CA 1 year

Chico, CA -- 2 years
Xinyang, Henen, P.R. China -- 3 years

Iowa City, IA - about 1.5 years now

Highland Park, MI, 3 years (as an adult)
San Diego, CA, 1 year
Jackson, MI, 4 years
Lansing, MI, 10 years


Curious--what's the purpose of the list?

^ Curiosity on my part. I also thought it would be neat to get an idea of the breadth of places people here have managed to go CF in.

I often find myself thinking, "I need to be in a big city with this and this and that" to do it, but something like this helps illustrate that it's possible to live without a car in a lot of places if you set your mind to it.

Already got 5 countries and (as of your post) 12 states up. It might also help new visitors and lurkers who automatically rule out certain regions of the country because they can't imagine making it work there.

Good idea. I hope a lot of people respond--especially some of the lurkers.

:)

Reston VA for a bit more than a year...was working in a bike shop at the time too :)

Ann Arbor, MI: Four academic years (home for summers)
Detroit, MI: About one year but always bumming rides
Boston, MA: About 20 years (but did rent cars occasionally)

Memphis, TN - 1 year
Tustin, CA - 3 years
North Attleboro, MA - 12 years

Saratoga Springs, NY: 1 year
New York City (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn): 3 years
Chicago, IL: 5 years

Edit: Went back to look at the list again and I've added a couple of towns to my "Places to visit" text file. I'm a transient academic laborer, so anywhere in the US or Canada where it's possible to be car free is a potential work site. Great idea for a Google Map, too.

St. Cloud, MN - >1 year

It might also help new visitors and lurkers who automatically rule out certain regions of the country because they can't imagine making it work there.

Like Winnipeg with its brutal winters, for example? :D

Columbus, OH-about 3 months. Looking forward to going car free again.

:thumb: Excellent thread!

I lived carfree in:
Fayetteville, NC from 1982-1984
Greensboro, NC from 1984-1988

Then car light in Fayetteville until 1997.

Aaron:)

I've been car free, no license ever all my life. I've lived in Newport, Rhode Island for most of my adult life except two winters in Phoenix, Az. A grand total of thirty-five years since highschool.

I don't post much, but here are the stats for me:

Northfield, MN 4 years
Portland, OR 1 year
Salt Lake City, UT 2.5 years
Madison, WI 8 years

Inland Empire, Southern California, 6 years (got 1st bike in 2007) :)

St. Gallen, CH - 8.5 years

Blacksburg, VA 3 years
Munich, Germany 1 year
Beaverton, OR 6 years
Kirkland, WA 2 years

Irvine, California. 3 years and counting.

Exactly. I'd never thought of living car-free in Canada, but apparently, it's possible!


Actually, it was really easy to be car-free in Winnipeg.

The bus service is good and there are lots of helpful services for people who don't have cars ... like shoppers, for example, who go out in a van with lists of groceries from various customers, get the groceries, and deliver them right to your door for 15% the worth of the groceries. So if you order $100 worth of groceries, you pay an extra $15 for the service of having this company shop for you and deliver it all. A great way to stock up on large items. And a pet taxi service who would take me and my 3 cats to the vet, would wait for us to have the appointment, and would deliver us home ... all for $15.

Just a couple examples. I don't know if these things are still active, but they were when I needed them. :)

I also lived within easy walking distance of a small, but adequate, grocery store, an M&M meats, my tanning salon, a convenience store, the library, several small restaurants, and my physiotherapist. I had two malls and my Drs office a short bus trip away. And work was only 13.4 km rt away. I rode my bicycle most times, took the bus occasionally, and even walked it a few times in the winter when there was heavy snow because it was so close.

Car-free my entire 32 years. Mostly in Chicago, except the last 5 years in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Vicenza, Italy-2 years
Bamburg, Germany-2 years
Carrickmacross, Ireland-1 year
York, England-2 years
I have not managed to live entirely car free in the US, just car-lite. Things are just too far apart here and I always seem to have a job that requires driving at times.

So far, the most popular... city [is] San Diego. Interesting...

Interesting indeed. It was no picnic being car free when I lived there in the 60's and 70's as the mass transit was terrible and cycling was downright dangerous in many places. The advent of the trolleys in the 80's really changed things for the better.

Hampshire, UK, 5 years.
Aberdeenshire, UK, 1 year so far.

Portland OR, 1 year
Seattle WA, 1 year
Santa Cruz CA, 6 months


(so I'm a pretty solid West Coast guy...)

Places I lived that were more or less bad (late 80's, early 90's) -
Los Angeles - when I was there if you saw a guy on a bike without a kit, everyone assumed he had too many DUI's or had his driver's license taken away for something bad. The streets and air were dirty - just being outside for long made you feel like you needed a shower.

Bellevue, WA - east of Seattle, no bike lanes, narrow busy roads and everyone in a big unfriendly fully motorized hurry.

Atlanta GA - maybe there were good routes to ride, but I never found them. So spread out, without the motor-only highways connecting things it hardly seemed a city. I found no practical way to get groceries, go to the library, get to work, etc, without a car.

Dunellen NJ - I don't know if I even need to say anything...how people even live in NJ is beyond me. I was right on the PATH train line to Manhattan, otherwise it was house-car-work.

In Portland, Oregon for approximately two years.

Athens, GA for a little more than a year. It's one of the few good cycling cities in Georgia.

Greensboro, NC for the entirety of the first Gulf War. Another relatively cycling friendly city.

New York City - 2001-2004

List updated! 10 countries and 24 states so far. Portland, OR has tied San Diego, CA for the most frequented CF city so far, with 3 members in each.

2 years--Denver

Atlanta, GA 8 years
Ft Worth, TX 2 years

AllenG...
Athens Ga and Greensboro, NC? Those are the two towns I grew up in, Athens from birth till 15, and Greensboro from 15 through the end of college.
Small world.

I have to say Ireland was the best place I have been car free. Small villages have everything you need, bus service works like clockwork (not much of a train system but its not needed) and for the buses the traffic is not bad at all.
I can see why so many people of Irish descent identify themselves as Irish, it really is a fantastic country.

L.A. 32 years and counting.....

Post updated. Quite interesting results so far. California is the most represented state in terms of car-free cities.

Post updated. Quite interesting results so far. California is the most represented state in terms of car-free cities.

I'm surprised. My impression from reading Bike Forums is that Boston, Toronto and Minneapolis have the most active commmuter contingents posting. I've never been to Minneapolis, but the first two cities have a good CF infrastructure IMO.

I've been living car free in rural and small city areas of Haiti (Dabonn and Fayet) for the past 3 weeks. My home, where I'm also car free, is Philadelphia, PA (car free in Philly for 3 years). Lived car free in Montreal, QC, Canada for 2 years. Lived as a young car free child (whole family car free, that is) in rural Alaska for 3 years (Sleetmute and Aniak.) Must have learned something from my parents.

more info about the Haiti trip:
http://haiti-hope.blogspot.com