tulip

Washington, DC

bike, bus, Metro, ZipCar/Flexcar, and Avis for those longer trips.

I rarely use the family car (better half must have it for work)

tiroleaf

minneapolis area here. never owned even a drivers licence. familly and friends help out when i need to haul heavy/bulk items. moved close to work. a nice twenty minute walk. moved here from yuptown so's i could walk to work. have an extracycle. slowly (read lazily) dialing it in. i love it's stability. however, there is the need, at least for me, to cancel out the squirminess if you will with the rear loaded. so some front racks are needed. even with dummy loads to balance the ride out. half step gearing now also granny when it's finally set. as for cycling in the twins: tis great! i say this because there are so many interconnected roads/trails/whatever here. when i go to downtown i rarely have to ride on the street. i'll simply go around on the pathes/backstreets. it does take longer but i have no problem with that.

Autokat

suburb ..Kingston
city .. Brisbane
state .. Queensland
country .. Australia

Where I live we have great bikeways and everything ( even the hospital and local forest which has mountain bike trails ) is within 5km from where I live ......It's great and the local council is very bike friendly they put out new maps every year , and they have a free program to teach children the correct way to be safe while riding , They have strict helmet laws ( which doesn't bother me as I've been down the road and know that they work .
From where I live it's about 50 minutes ride to the Surfers paradise ( Gold coast ) I only know this because a friend and I rode it a few years ago ,it's also only about a 1 1/2 hour ride to Stradbroke island ferry and you can take your bike on that for free ( just pay the $9.00 ( both ways ) single person toll . The ferry ride takes about 40 mins but the view is amazing and when you get there there riding around the island can take from 1 hr to all day if you want to look around , as for surfers paradise it's cool but gets very busy . These are some of the booklets you can get ........

knoregs

north of Burlington, Vermont.... a rural setting... this winter should pose a real challenge... i'll be biking between 9 and 15 miles one way, most of the time in the dark... studded tires and ski gloves will be necessary....

Burlington is a pretty bike friendly city and if you lived and worked there you could easily get around on foot.

Alekhine

From Buffalo, NY.

But moved to Santa Rosa, CA so I could ride year-round more easily and enjoyably.

jterribili

Apex, NC...Just ditched my car in order to commute 7-8 miles to work one way

Fun so far!

stegosaupus

Toronto, ON. 7mi round trip commute to work, subways and streetcars for lazy days

eofelis 

We are in the biggest city in western Colorado, Grand Junction. The "metro" area here has about 100k people. The riding around town is pretty good. We are car-light, we usually walk or ride most places, drivng the car once or twice a week. There is good bus system in town but we have never had to use it. As a student I think I get a free bus pass.....

The weather is pretty good here, usually sunny and mild. Had a bit of snow overnight but it melted off by noon. The drivers aren't too bad here either.

Woodog

Bowling Green, Kentucky. Easy city to get around in. I live car-lite. When my son becomes 18 I plan to go car free.

Woo

david.l.k

I am a student in toronto. I bike about 9.2 km to school one way every day, regardless of weather. I actually sort of wish it could get colder and snowier. I like being the last man biking (as conditions get worse) I think I've got some kind of brain thing . I had a teacher at my school who is a fairweather cyclist tell me that I'm not being brave or manly (I wasn't really trying) but foolhardy by biking. I just told him I was sorry that he felt that way, and that I'll ride till the day I die.

twochins

ridgecrest, ca usa

crazy little town, wild west i suppose...everything is within a 10 mile by 10 mile square
yet only a few people bike anywhere much less walk....people from big cities will be laughing at the
'long' distances we have here

Artkansas 

Living in Little Rock.

Interesting place. The west is the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, nothing but hills. The east is flat delta land. There's supposed to be 50" of rain and 5" of snow. January lows hover around 30. So I think it should be bikeable except for a couple of days. Not much in the way of bike paths around here, most of the streets have the required 0-3" curb to the right of the lane boundary. Some are more generous.

The cyclists I have met are pretty nice and I've joined with the local bicycle advocacy group. This isn't my regular commuter bike, but its fun.

budster

Statesville, a town of 20,000 in the gently rolling hills of the NC Piedmont. We're about 45 miles north of Charlotte (2+ million people), and about 45 miles west of Winston-Salem (250K).

It's a mixed bag for car-free (I'm car lite).

I live downtown, and everything I need day to day is within a 5 mile radius. Most streets are wide. Most speed limits are 35 mph or less. Traffic is mostly light. The hills are more fun than difficult. We have two good LBSs. Hot summers, cool winters, wonderful autumn and spring. Precip on average every third day (including short-lived summer t-storms). We have many county roads good for road cycling; there's a good MTB trail 12 miles away. We're building a 26-mile unpaved MUP. This is a "Tree City USA" and we've been an "All America City."

On the downside, cycling is unusual here. Other cyclists are about 50% kids, 30% invisibles and 10% fair-weather recreationalists. Ignorant motorist behavior is common, most of it well-intentioned (e.g., they won't pass, or they yield when they shouldn't), but some of it not (honking, buzzing, yelling). Intracity public transportation is limited to a van service requiring 24 hours notice (and allowing only 1 bag of groceries!). There is no intercity mass transit -- not even Greyhound. There are no proper bike racks.

Currently I'm looking for permanent employment, and I'll probably have to leave here, which I wish weren't the case. I was born here, and this town fits me like a comfy old sweater.

rwwff

Conroe, TX. Smallish town 50 miles North of Houston. A few people commute to Houston from here, but mostly not. No bike paths at all, but pretty much all the roads are somewhere between good to great for cycling. There's no mass transit to speak of, but there is regular Greyhound service. The nearest megamall is about 10 miles south of here, I've biked there and its a pretty comfortable ride. Other stuff is much closer; you'd be hard pressed to be more than a couple miles from a large grocery and a large warehouse store (walmart, target, lowes, home depot, etc). A lake within 10 miles has marinas, rental boats, relatively good fishing and recreation. One could easily replace a car in the driveway with a boat in a slip.

Summers are brutally hot. Its hard to describe 100F with 95% humidity to someone who's never felt it. Those days are not the exception, they are the RULE in July and August. On the other hand, there is no snow, and most winter days are 50F, dry, 10 kt wind out of the North or South East depending on frontal passages.

Very rarely teenagers will do something stupid like throw a paper cup at a cyclist, but for the most part, drivers handle bicycles pretty well.

Speed limits in the center of town are 30'ish, but elsewhere folks drive much faster; 70mph. They aren't being agressive, thats just the smooth traffic flow rate.

NB: I'm not car free, but I don't have a commute either. I use them in my work. I think I'll likely always own a half-ton pickup. I max it out about a dozen times a year, so cost wise, its about the same as renting a truck, and they last forever as long as your expectations are reasonable. Also real handy when you break your leg, (lesson learned last year).

af895

Happy Christma-chanu-kwanza-ka everyone.

I'm in Ottawa, Canada, Mtn Mike. We have one of the better public transportation systems in Canada. Mostly it's buses with one very short diesel-light-rail line as a test project running a few miles through town.

If you want to get around without a bike or car here, you can on the bus. A bike lets you cut travel time where a connector bus would have you waiting 30 minutes or more and walking would take longer than either waiting or biking. They have racks on buses in summer but I have a folding bike to take on the bus in winter.

Winter can be brutal here. -42degrees, while not an everyday thing, isn't uncommon. Not a big deal once you're used to it - "no exposed skin" rule.

BTW: I'm told by a friend who emmigrated here from Texas, geographically, Ottawa is a lot like Austin.
Pop ~1 million, spread out over a large area. He also says we have "the bus system from heaven."

Mtn Mike

LOL, I broke my leg this year, which forced me to be car free for 2 months!. You must have automatic. I couldnt drive my 5 -speed pick up truck, and was forced to take the bus, or catch a ride with someone. Now that I can drive again, I don't, and my pick-up truck is for sale

Mtn Mike

It seems that public transit is generally better in cities north of the border, hense making it easier to get around despite the cool weather.

jcwitte

I live in Normal, Illinois. A college town of about 50,000 but with the neighboring town of Bloomington, it's closer to 110,000. I have only been car free for about a month, and I have not yet used the publice transportation system. Everything is pretty close to where I can either walk, ride, or do without.

frost_from_hell

I live in an inner suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Many people who live in my area will tell you that having a car is a liability, and they infrequently drive, if at all. There are quite a few bike lanes/bike paths to ride on, and the roads are generally good too. The outer suburbs aren't as good, but in general I would say that Melbourne is quite bike friendly.

demo9orgon

I live in Tucson, AZ. I've been car-free for nearly two years and I've been commuting by bicycle since 1988. I picked up a BikesAtWork trailer in July and haven't talked to so many people about cycling in all the years of commuting by bicycle before then--every time I go shopping or haul something I end up answering questions and talking about bicycling--this year for giftmas I brought home a brand-new 27-inch TV on the trailer. It was a blast, and the box was as big as a love-seat! (sorry, had to share that).

Tucson has been improving but it's still mainly a "car city" where you can expect rotten people in cars to do all the rotten things they do when they think you're wrong for not being on the sidewalk (which by the way can garner you a $150 ticket). Tucson is NOT bike-friendly. The only people who go car-free in this town are idealists and the poor. I fall into both categories.

And even though it's crazy riding a bicycle in Tucson I don't worry about getting run over because it's far more merciful than the "straw death".

mrkott3r

Newcastle Australia. the cycling is good (but does get hot in summer), very few hills (which can be a let down). Dont own a car but do have my L's, unlikely to get a car as petrol is more expensive over here compared to you guys in the states (about US94cents a litre). I just hitch a ride when i have to with friends/dad.
Keep up the cycling

turtle77

Minneapolis now - I agree for the most part about MPLS, Tiroleaf. There's a few sketchy areas, tho, and they REFUSE to plow the back roads of uptown (I guess I need a Pugsley). Lived in Pittsburgh - sucks for bikes. Lived in Boston - great for bikes.

Sluggo

Knoxville is probably typical of mid-sized cities in the US. It would be practical to live car-free here if you chose your living location carefully (heroic if you did not). Public transportation is mediocre. Much of the town sprawls horribly. Streets in general are not bike friendly. But the weather here is not too extreme, and if you work downtown and live in a nearby neighborhood, you could do it (or if you live close to work elsewhere).

I used to live entirely car-free in Eugene, OR, and essentially car free in Corvallis. It was much easier there.

gwd

DC has been striping bike lanes as it repaves streets. Last summer I noticed they've even installed a
full lane as bike and bus only. Along 7th street near the MCI center. If the police would enforce the
rule they'd be a welcome addition. I'd love to see these on all the state named avenues at least.
I'm not sure of the proper behaviour when a bus comes along- I usually find an place to let the
bigger vehicle pass since if I inconvenience a bus I'm slowing 20 or so people. When a car tries to use
the lane I just hog the middle since it is my space. 7th street is so jammed that cars make better
time following a slow bike than staying in their lanes. DC has a long way to go but some things are
getting better.

madhav

Hi sk8ar man i agree with you i 2 don't like cars big smoke giving monsters