Ekdog

Those prices are steep but, on the other hand, the minimum wage in the UK if you're 21 or older is £6.31, while in the US it's only the equivalent of £4.36. I guess we can complain here in Seville. A bus trip with transfer only costs £0.76. I'm not sure what the minimum hourly wage is. Senior citizens ride for free.

metro2005

I could but i wont, i use my bicycle in the winter as i always do. I wont drive a car when it snows or the roads are icy either. Too afraid of crashing or others crashing into me. If i fall with my bicycle i get up and pretend nothing happened

yote223

OooKay, Time to go. You folks have fun. You live your life, I'll live mine.

cooker

Oh come on, don't be like that. Surely if you post several times in the Living Car Free Forum about not being interested in Living Car Free, you have to expect a little good natured ribbing.

cooker

Besides, we need a few contrarians around - otherwise the forum is such a boring love-fest.

Ekdog

Surely you jest! It sometimes seems like there are more gearheads in LCF than car-free types.

joe932

I stopped driving my car 3 years ago. I kept it in my garage for another year to see if I would miss it. I was surprised to find that I did not miss it at all. I sold it on Ebay. Now I bicycle or take the bus.

I love the lack of gas costs. I love the lack of registration, insurance, and smog check. I love the lack of oil changes. I love the extra room in my garage.

Simplify your life. The less things you own, the easier it is to be happy.

I-Like-To-Bike

You noticed too? If a couple (or so) of posters had their way this would be nothing but a support group for Kumbaya-like group think.

I-Like-To-Bike

If gearheads is defined as including anybody who owns or has quick access to a motor vehicle in the household, or regularly uses a motor vehicle you are certainly correct.
The regular posters who don't meet that definition can probably be counted on one hand and certainly two.

Ekdog

I used it to refer to people who like cars and would like to see their prominent rôle in transport continue.

There are quite a few posters here who have said they'd like nothing better than to get rid of their vehicles but who are in a situation that won't allow them to do so. Those folks are not gearheads in my book.

Roody

There's actually quite a group of negative naysayers on LCF. I hate to break it to you, ILTB--youre no longer the solitary curmudgeon; you're in a group now too.

Yep, you have your own hippie coven now.

So row that boat, Michael! Give yourselves a big ol' group hug and start preaching to the choir!

cooker

irony

anon06

Ekdog (and other foreigners), I'd like to apologize for the arrogant American bullies who are bored and want to get their kicks by just bashing everyone here; as you can see, not all Americans are like that, but unfortunately, there are a lot of them who like to boss others around and think they know better than everyone else. I'm a second-generation American whose relatives were born in other countries, so I wasn't taught to be like that.

Thank you guys for being more mature, intelligent, friendly, and inquisitive, without egos.

cooker

I'm confused - am I a foreigner or an ugly American in this scenario?

Ekdog

That's what I thought, but I wasn't 100% sure.

Ekdog

Thanks, Anon06. I try not to worry too much about the trolls. Their ire is mostly a sign of their insecurity. Deep down they probably sense that the car-centric world that's been around for the last hundred years is on its last legs and they're worried about what life will be like as we move away from the automobile, so they lash out at those of us that are embracing the change and trying to figure out how best to live car-free.

By the way, I'm an American, although I've been living in Europe since 1990, and several of the posters who most love to bash us car-free types here are actually not from the States.

The best way to deal with the trolls is to stay as positive as possible, ignore their taunts and respond to their arguments with logic and reason.

Machka 

+1.

I'm experiencing the same confusion.



But I'm curious ... who exactly, specifically are these "arrogant American bullies" you refer to anon06 ... from your newbie perspective? Name names.

Roody

Instead of stirring the pot, let's turn down the burner.

Machka 

I'm having quite a laugh! I think it's funny. I suspect anon06 doesn't have the faintest idea where we're all from ... and I'm curious who she thinks these "arrogant American bullies" are.

Roody

Maybe we should give it a rest. Just to be nice. I think anon06 was complaining about the general belligerent tone more than any particular person.

CbadRider

And the implosion has started. Alright people, listen up.

Just because someone posts an opinion that does not agree with yours, they are not a troll. Calling them a troll because they disagree with you is not going to be tolerated any longer since it generally escalates into name-calling and other unpleasantness, and the staff here is getting tired of having to come in and clean up the mess.

LCF is a small forum but it gets a lot of complaints, and this needs to stop. Next time you want to post something, please review the forum guidelines before hitting the Reply key:

Intelligence
We’re a community with quality standards and expect our members will make a sincere effort to contribute their thoughts on interesting subjects in a meaningful and respectful manner. Posting messages and otherwise interacting on BikeForums is completely optional; many members often prefer to just read what others have to say. But if you do post, we expect that you’ll be respectful of the time of others by posting meaningfully.


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kookaburra1701

Not for me- my car was so old that none of the insurance-per-mile schemes would cover it. In 2013 I drove it once, andthen sold it in November.$500 annual expense minimum gone like that!

wahoonc

I love anything mechanical, the more complicated the better, especially the older non computer controlled stuff. I love vintage cars and their simplicity/complexity, ditto motorcycles, lawnmowers, tractors, manufacturing equipment, cash registers, sewing machines, etc, etc. I probably fit the description of gear head. But not to the exclusion of everything else.

I have no problem with cars being part of the transportation mix, just hate the fact they are improperly used in many if not most situations. I always look for alternatives to car use, but more times than not the alternatives don't exist at this time or place. We can only keep pushing and working towards other alternatives.

Aaron

Ekdog

As you probably know from reading my posts, I'm anti-car on moral grounds. I can't get behind a contraption that kills so many people, pollutes so much air, spews out so much greenhouse gas, leads to such terrible human rights abuses in places like the Niger Delta and the Ecuadorian Amazon, not to mention oil wars. No, I want have as little to do with cars as is possible.

Roody

Very well said.

I don't know about you, but I feel free when I make a decision to do what I think is intelligent and workable, instead of just automatically doing what everybody else thinks is right. Making choices gives me a feeling of freedom. Most people never make choices because they think the car is the only tool in the shed. There are a lot of transportation tools that we are free to choose from.