chewybrian 

I want to applaud Roody for making such effort to keep this sub-forum active, even as some others seem to be working in the opposite direction. The subject of living without a car may be a bit narrow, but I have to think we haven't explored all aspects. So, maybe if we work on it we can come up with some fresh ideas.

Suggested response parameters:

1-Don't poo-poo someone's ideas (brainstorming, remember?)

2-Any topic is open season for someone to use, in whole or part, and to alter to their own taste, to start a thread.

3-Don't be afraid to post any ideas, even if they seem lame or weird (see #1 )

Roody

Great idea! I'm especially looking forward to hearing from lurkers, new members, and infrequent posters. Everybody's ideas are valuable and interesting.

Lurkers--if you are just reading the posts but haven't registered yet--it's very easy (and free!) to join bikeforums. I'm not trying to run a guilt trip, but we do need more people to contribute. Internet forums are totally about user-provided content. If we don't provide it, it isn't going to be there.

cooker

Personally I enjoy the threads about urban form and how it affects lifestyle choices, as living car free means living in a community where it is possible. As previously discussed ad nauseum, it also seems to me that the social, political and environmental issues underlying urban design and how it may facilitate car-free living, is perfectly appropriate and on topic, although others may sometimes disagree.

Having said that, I would be happy to see more pragmatic threads on how individuals and families can adapt, cope and even thrive while reducing or eschewing automobile dependence, if anyone wants to start them.

Drv1913

I would be interested in a "day in the life" kind of thread, particularly if supplemented by pictures and more particularly if contributed to posters who do not live in dense, urban cores (although those would also be interesting) and for days that consist of more than just going to work and returning home. There are several existing threads that provide bits and pieces of this, which I enjoy, but I am looking for something more comprehensive - "here's how I really make this work in a real, normal, actual full day of my regular life". Something like that would be really useful for me. If there's interest, I may start it myself sometime this week.

chewybrian 

Some good thoughts already...

-Your dream lcf ride (1938 Hetchins with new chrome and electric power?)

-Big or unusual items you've moved without a car

-Gated/limited access communities (hate 'em, and not just because I can't pass through on my bike)

-Access to commercial services (Is your bank atm or McDonalds drive-thru only?)

-Tax codes and lcf living (Are you paying for others to drive?)

-Famous car-free/car-light people (David Byrne, I think)

-Unusual non-car ways to get around (Do you ride your horse, golf cart, rollerblade...?)

Some of these have been done, I think, but it's just brainstorming; save the poo poo for every other thread. (rule 1)

Roody

I planned to start a thread about a "Carfree Century" this summer. I was going to ride 100 miles in one day, but within the context of transportation cycling--haul some kind of cargo at least part of the way, stay fairly close to home, do the work commute, run a few errands, eat at local restaurants, and so forth. I was hoping to get a few of you also involved in your own Carfree Century, and we would all report about it on the same thread.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to do it this year because of health problems. It would be awesome if somebody else went with it. Reading about it would be the next best thing to actually doing it!

fietsbob

I just dont make a big deal of it, ... no GF or kids to demand I drive them around any How..

I live in a town with 3 taxi companies, so DUI's after a Night of drinking is inexcusable
since the Cabby will drive you home 24-7-365.

Mobile 155

In the few times I have visited here I have noticed the topics are only loosely based on Bicycles, the best Bicycles for LCF, the equipment needs accessories for the bike that make LCF cycling more comfortable.

Next to A&S this forum turns political faster than most and seems more Anti-car, rural, Suburban than pro bicycle. Some may enjoy that and I don't suppose starting a forum for Urban living outside of the Bicycle Forums would get many visitors. Looking at the topics on the Commuting forum and the utility forums I have discovered a lot more about cycling related living than I have ever discovered here.

So in effect I am more interested in how "Bicycles" help people reduce dependance on cars and what makes a good "Bicycle" for such a lifestyle.

I know it may be radical but discussing bicycles, something I love dearly, in a Bicycle Forum site makes for less antagonism than where one should live, what they read and what political party they believe in. Just saying.

Machka 

Well, I did start that sort of thread about two years ago and it is still going. You're very welcome to participate in it.

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...alk-today.html

And yes, if you want to flesh out your comments with "something more comprehensive - "here's how I really make this work in a real, normal, actual full day of my regular life"." That would be great!

Also feel free to ask questions of those of us who post there. When I say I do "utility walking" ... feel free to enquire what that might include or how I make it work. I'd love for that thread to develop some conversations along those lines.

Machka 

Many of these ideas have been done. Have a look at what types of threads have been started over the past, say, 10 pages. If you see something interesting, join in the conversation and bump the thread.

This is why I bump threads now and then ... because there were good topics posted way back when, and it is interesting to see how things have developed since.

It's a good way to renew the conversation here rather than recreating the wheel all the time.

Roody

This forum is strictly about what the users bring to it. Do you actually start any threads about topics you claim to be interested in? Or do you leave it up to others to start the threads, then complain about the work they have done? I see you as being a frequent contributor to the type of topic that you are whining about in this post. You seem to have strong opinions about politics and lifestyle, and you are a frequent poster on those topics.

Honestly, I don't see why there can't be many diverse topics on this forum. Carfree Living is a vast subject, and it grows in importance every year. It would be nice if those who don't care for a certain topic would start new threads that they are interested in, instead of leaving it for the same few people to constantly start the threads. According to a forum search, you haven't started a new thread here in almost two years.

Roody

I want to start a conversation on this. My opinion is very different, and I'd like to know how other people feel about Machka's thread bumping.

IMO, bumped threads just stifle the conversation. Why should I post the same thing that somebody else said 3 or 10 years ago? Why should I even care what somebody (even myself) thought way back in the past? I want to know what people are thinking today.

New members should have a chance to express their opinions as new opinions, and not be weighted down by voices from the past. A forum always needs "new blood," and the way to get that is to make room for new people to express themselves.

Also, most of the people on these antique threads have drifted on to other things. They are ghosts, as far as the forum is concerned. You can't ask a ghost to explain a post he made, you can't argue with him or defend him. Two-way discussion is the purpose of an internet forum, but a ghost isn't going to talk back to you.

Mobile 155

Roody,
Once again I have learned it doesn't matter if I or you start a bicycle related subject the lines have already been drawn. The topic will drift off of bicycles and onto some social or political issue.

This was just my opinion and I made the suggestion as directed by the op as to topics I might find interesting.

Machka bumped a relevant post related to this subject and the subject drifted almost as soon as it was posted. We often post on things said years ago. Some of them in books by people many have never read nor care to. Then paragraph after paragraph is spent defending a statement or idea expressed by the author of the book. Is bumping an old thread any different?

Even this topic has left bicycles and drifted. It is as if we discovered a college coffee shop stuck or hidden in a bike forum.

It can be interesting it just seems as if bicycles are secondary to the discussions in LCF.

I-Like-To-Bike

I think more like late night discusion in the college dormitory by underclassman without a date, with a course or two of sociology and psychology under their belts, as well as more than a few beers.

Bicycles? Usually irrelevant in these "LCF discussions". Living car free is also often irrelevant in these political, economic and sociological "discussions."

Roody

I'm sorry that I'm getting defensive here. It's just that there are about five people who start all the threads here, and a different five people who are constantly whining about the threads. You are definitely one of the whiners. I'm pretty sure that you have started only one new thread here since the forum opened.

I propose that we switch off. You post new topics, and I'll whine about them.

Better yet, let's both shut the hell up and let some of these newbies and lurkers start threads and keep them going. I probably said every new thing that I know about five years ago!

Roody

And while I'm in a defensive mood, here are the threads I have started on the LCF subforum. IMO, almost all of them are relevant and appropriate, but you can decide for yourself. I will grant that a lot of them are lame. But you never know if a topic is going to spark interest until after you have posted it, so inevitably some turn out to be lame.

Please, if you are lurking here, express yourself by starting a new thread. Those who whine will whine, but the rest of us will enjoy reading it and replying. Lame posts will quickly die out In a short time nobody will remember that you started it. But posts that catch on will give information and enjoyment to some of your fellow cyclists who participate. Believe it or not, sometimes your words will literally change somebody's life!

loky1179

All the good threads get locked before I have a chance to post : (.

Ekdog

One of the biggest problems with this subforum is the heavy-handed way it is moderated. A case in point: the "Do you cycle while intoxicated?" thread that I started. It was going along fine when a moderator swooped down out of the blue and with two cute little sentences ("Okay enough. Thanks for playing.") closed the thread. No explanation as to why. No attempt to moderate. There was one poster who was offended, apparently, and started swearing, and that, it seems, was enough. One gets the feeling there are certain people who don't want LCF to succeed.

loky1179

This sub-forum is not devoted solely to bicycles:

"Do you live car free or car light? Do you prefer to use alternative transportation (bicycles, walking, other human-powered or public transportation) for everyday activities whenever possible?"

If you prefer to use public transportation, but that public transportation is inadequate or non-existent, the topic will of course turn political; Government entities are the ones who build and/or operate public transportation. Same with bicycle infrastructure.

I don't think topics on this forum "turn political". I think discussing government infrastructure, AKA "politics" is exactly what you would expect.

Ekdog

There's the rub.

loky1179

Ekdog, I thought that was an interesting thread myself. Honestly, when I was actually living car free (college), that was one of the benefits. LOTS of drinking going on, but no driving for me.

I knew numerous people who got DWIs in college. And of all the living situations, going to college is one of the easiest times in your life to be car free. I see parents buy their college age (and high school age) kids cars, and I just don't understand why you'd do that.


Maybe that is an idea for a new thread: How do you manage to live car free in college!?

Mobile 155

And that is how you search for political forums? You look up Bicycle forums.net? Not infrastructure forums.net? Or is everything political as Perchik said in Fiddler on the roof? Is there then a reason these subjects couldn't be easily moved to A&S, isn't that what A&S is for? In fact shouldn't they be addressed in A&S Directly? They don't get moved from there do they? But maybe more to the point that might be why some perceive participation so low in this particular forum? Just my opinion but to me it is a lot like bate and switch. It may be intended that way but it may be why this is a minority in a minority group.

Machka 

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...t-student.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...nts-speed.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...le-school.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...-friendly.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/living-car...e-college.html

If those don't do it, you could start your own.

loky1179

I'd love to go back to college. I have to get my 8 year old through it first. It will probably be about 2035 before I start that thread .

Ekdog

It might be a good idea, but would it be shut down as soon as it started to get interesting?