Living Car Free - Being Old, Living Car Free Abroad... In Germany

Just an update...

I have been living in Germany
for most of the last year.

I live in the Northern Lowlands
about 25 Klicks from Belgium or
Holland in two different directions.

Life here without a car is entirely
doable... My first car is a TREK bike
with front basket, two panniers and 27 gears.
My second car is a brand new Mercedes City
Bus that takes me where ever I want or
need to go... then of course, the Zügen hier
are the best too...

I do all our shopping with a front basket and
two paniers made of heavy cloth, lined I might
add with cardboard fruit crates to keep the cloth
from entangling my rear wheels. Girlfriend is so
thrifty she will not allow me to buy REAL ONES, but
I am getting into living like a pauper too. A skill that
may soon be quite necessary.

There are no real hills here, so even loaded like a donkey
I can circumnavigate the town in 2.5 hours hitting
two or three or more shops for bargain items, and get
home without being completely worn out.

Forests surround the edge of all these cities here...
In 25 minutes I can be in dense forest that was
fought over by the Romans, Gauls, Saxons, Germans,
Dutch and allied forces in WW1 and 2. All these forests
have servicable bike and foot trails that one can spend
hours, days or weeks wandering around in. History here
does not date merely to the American celebration of
the exinction of the American Indian. It goes back
250,000 years to the beginnings of the Neanderthal man.
And the relics from all these times... including more castles
in this area than anywhere else in the world, old Water and Wind
Mills, Roman artifact museums, Art museums and more... make this
a fascinating place to live. I am doing my best to learn the language...

I don't drink alcohol. So the great beer hier ist not of interest.
The German brown bread, Bratwurst and fresh fruits from Italy,
Greece, Spain, Israel and South Africa, as well as the cheap high
quality meat and poultry make meals around here fun and sustainable.

But to be clear, and stay on topic. It can all be done by Bike, everyday
of the week all year long. I am even gearing up for the Winter, and my
Mountain Bike style setup will allow quick trips out to the market between
storms too.

For Recumbent Bike Fans... they have many of those here too... older people
mostly ride them that I have seen. They are called LiegerRäder Lying back bicycles... And most of the LiegerRad are lower to the ground and shorter than
the US counterparts, most, with only 16 inch wheels with thin width tires. And you can get them on a Bus too, in the Center section for a couple of extra bucks...

With luck and proper planning I get to spend the rest of my
life here with a woman I love dearly who also likes to get out
and see the world via bus, train and foot (and once in a while on
a bike although sadly she is not well suited to more than 5 kilometers...)
At some point the money is going to run out but we have a house here that
is paid for, with a bus line right out side the door. And even Junker bikes are
available around here at a cheap price if it ever comes to that...

It damn near killed me to think this far outside the box... and dangers abound
that could crush me like a bug... but for one of the first times in my life I am starting to enjoy life in a way I imagine most people do everyday...

Ned Goudy, 58
Maas-Rheinland, Deutschland

We have our feet on both sides of the Atlantic, Mr.Goudy.
We have a car because we are out in the country. But, many weeks we only turn the engine over once.. To go to town for a movie or what not.. It sure is a pleasure.
A benefit. Not having to be so dependent upon airplanes.. So much more relaxing to have a drink on a train club car, than sweating it out going thru security , wondering if one will miss their plane.

Good to see you here again, Ned. Sounds like you've had an interesting year!

Ned, I'm glad things are going so well for you. I remember you well from when you used to post here. I'm glad you're back. It's very interesting to read about being carfree in Europe. thanks for keeping us posted, and keep it up! :)

My sister, her husband, and their daughter have been car free in Heidelberg for three years now (well, say "car extra light", because although they're not going to buy a car, they've borrowed a friend's when they had big stuff to move, and we've rented a van each of the last two Christmas visits to cut transit times to Austria, etc). Visiting them and doing what they do only reminds me of how inadequate our public transportation structure is here.

It damn near killed me to think this far outside the box... and dangers abound
that could crush me like a bug... but for one of the first times in my life I am starting to enjoy life in a way I imagine most people do everyday...

Ned Goudy, 58
Maas-Rheinland, Deutschland

Congratulations... we hear so much griping these days, it's nice to hear about someone who made a move and is happy being alive.

[BTW... didn't you use to own a quadricycle..? What happened to that?]

How are you going with your mastery of die Deutsche Sprache?

Its really glad to hear that Germany is a good country for cycling. It is my eventual next point of travel since I've started learning the language, and the question I most ask when talking to Germans I see about, is whether Germany is accessible by bicycle! They usually agree with you.

Although they don't seem to have such a varied and popular bicycle forum such as bikeforums.net in German. There's radforum.de, but it hasn't got a large focus on commuting or car-free. Do you know of any German bicycle forum which is good for commuters?

Germany is a great place to be car-free. Very bike friendly, lots of bike lanes, good public transportation.

How are you going with your mastery of die Deutsche Sprache? (...) I've started learning the language

Brave soul.

http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html (http://www.cs.utah.edu/~gback/awfgrmlg.html)

Although they don't seem to have such a varied and popular bicycle forum such as bikeforums.net in German. There's radforum.de, but it hasn't got a large focus on commuting or car-free. Do you know of any German bicycle forum which is good for commuters?

Yeah -- it's called "your friends and neighbors". ;) Or, heck, just a bike shop. It's nothing unusual around there; there's not much reason for a forum to spread knowledge that everyone already has.

Well, since moving to Taiwan a few months ago, we're not car free, but extremely car light. I can get everywhere I really need to go by bike, train, and taxi, but I also have a scooter and a car. The scooter is extremely fuel efficient since I rarely get over 45 kph, and the car only gets driven about 4 miles total each week because it's hard to get 4 people on a scooter or bike.

The scooter is extremely fuel efficient...

... but dirtier than an SUV in terms of exhaust emissions.

(just picking nits.. ;))

Living in Germany….wow….my dream. I visited last there in May 2008 & did some biking. I get butterflys in my stomach thinking about actually getting the chance to live there. Some day I will make it happen.

Ned .. . you aren't "old".

You just are. Take a moment and let that sink in.


Thanks for the great post :cheers: I don't drink either .. . but the figure looks cool!

... but dirtier than an SUV in terms of exhaust emissions.

(just picking nits.. ;))

Are you sure? I had a look around and found this: http://tinyurl.com/qfbfbe

Are you sure? I had a look around and found this: http://tinyurl.com/qfbfbe

Yes, I'm still sure, because even that article says, "As time goes on, motorcycles and scooters will need to meet the same emissions regulations as cars and trucks."

The only advantage that most scooters have is lower CO2 emissions. Everything else -- HCO, particulates (especially from 2-stroke motors), etc -- is worse.

There are a few that also use catalytic convertors just like every production car, truck, and SUV sold today. But, again, it's only a few.

With luck and proper planning I get to spend the rest of my
life here with a woman I love dearly who also likes to get out
and see the world via bus, train and foot (and once in a while on
a bike although sadly she is not well suited to more than 5 kilometers...)
Ned Goudy, 58
Maas-Rheinland, Deutschland

My brother in law lives in Germany and he's car free to and won't come back! LOL! I don't blame him, if we don't get national health care in the U.S., I may have to start learning German too! The hospitals around my way are closing down because of the high cost of providing health care.

I have a similar situation with lots of buses and lightrail to provide access. There are lots of places in the U.S. that have good public transit but like you said, it requies moving and living outside of the box. Unfortunately, the majority of the world boxes themselves into a world that requires an engine for transport.

Ned, thanks for sharing about living in Germany the past year. I spent 4 years there from 1974 to 78 while in the Army. I was stationed at a remote post in the northeast corner of Bavaria, about 100 km east of Frankfurt. I enjoyed traveling around Germany by train, and I also did some cycling while living there. The rural area that I lived in was like going back in time a century or two, and many of the towns have changed little in the past few hundred years.
I'm just a few years younger than you, and am considering retirement from my engineering job in a few years. I would love to spend a few years living in Germany again after retirement. The problem it that a non EU citizen might have a lot of difficulty trying to stay there legally for any long period of time, even with a stable and comfortable retirement income. If I was able to live there for a few years, there are so many good places that I like, it would be tough to decide. Good luck Ned.

I work in Muenster part of each year (also in northwest Germany). I was just looking through the car-free site and thinking that car-free is so easy here that it doesn't really count. It is so nice to live in a developed country!

People around the world discuss the importance of cutting back.
Not many actually are.
The rest of the developed world continues to increase their consumption of fossil fuels. German transportation fuel consumption is actually decreasing, year over year.
People like you are making this possible.