Originally Posted by
Torrilin
We don't have a car. Madison winters are far safer without... too many college students and adults who barely know how to drive in snow. Rockmom is a voice of great experience in being car free and handling Madison winters with kids. Like us, she falls back on the city bus fairly often. Walking is also a big deal.
A 6 mile commute would not be my favorite thing to walk, but it's doable if there are sidewalks. It might also be possible to use the bus to cut the trip short on one end or another. It might take a couple years of practice to get your commute down to bus/bike/walk only in the winter.
Until we'd moved to Madison, I had never biked more than 3 miles. Walked sure. By the time we left LA, we both considered it a big treat to walk from Palms to Santa Monica and back, so about a 10 mile round trip. For most of the world's history, humans have walked. It is a great fail safe mode, whether you're trying to get rid of a car or not.
I have very sturdy children (10 and 7) and lots of winter clothing. A lot of making car free family life possible is planning and practice. We also had the advantage of being car free before the kids came along so we had the basics down. From experiences in non-transportation related areas of life, it is hard to get spouse and kids used to new patterns and routines.