Originally Posted by
mr,grumpy
These are some of the observations that I have made by reading this forum and the posts in it.
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Clearly, these are general observations and not an critique of any one individual's lifestyle. It's anecdotal information gathered over year of envious reading in this forum. It bears out the observations of RobbiRobbi that not every one is equipped physically or emotionally to BE car free. I have and do, wish that it was an option for me. Every so often I try to quit cars as much as I can but then I realize that I have to be on the other side of town in 15 min and BAM back into the car. If I lived 7 or even 8 miles from work I could ditch the car. And never see my daughter who doesn't live with me again. So, that's not an option... I have no where that I need to be that is NOT better served by my car than my bike. I'm not free to roam as I please. I am NOT ORGANIZED ENOUGH to replace car trips with bike trips (for the most part) and (I know that this IS something that I can work to change but, as I said, I don't
go enough places or
do enough things to make this kind of organizing a
habit. It's nice that so many of you are able to pull this off. You are heroic to me. Well done.
You got it!
When I was car free ...
1) Yep, no kids.
2) Transient ... not while I was car free. I remained in one place during those years.
I don't think being car free or light and moving a lot is necessarily related. In fact, from my observations here, most of the people who claim to be car free stay in one spot and don't venture out of their 5 mile radius. They even seem quite proud of that. Interestingly, they will, however, tell people to move.
But personally, yes, I do move a lot. I can't imagine living in just one spot my whole life.
3) Live in a place conducive to being car free ... yep. It helps. In fact, if you're going to be car free, that is one of the things you should probably to be willing to do ... position yourself near stuff. If you don't live close to stuff, it is so much more difficult to be car free. Not impossible, but difficult. However, some of us are aware that not everyone can live close to stuff and that's OK. Not everyone can be car free.
4) Live close to your work ... again, yep. It helps.
But again, some of us realise this might be impossible.
It is in Rowan's and my current situation. Our jobs are about 40 km apart. So we either live close to my work, or close to his work, or in between. We've opted for in between because that's where we acquired the best housing. But it means that Rowan drives. That's life. At least we live in a nice area.
5) As for busy ... my impression is that very few of the car free people here actually do anything other than go to and from work, grocery store, and home.
I post that Rowan and I go places (we travel, go to concerts and events, etc. etc.), but I haven't actually seen that anyone else does. We don't want to live simply ... we like to live life!
And yes, even when I was car free, I did all this too ... one of my motivations for being car free was so that I could afford to live life!
Life is too short to be sitting around home all the time.