gerv 

I think there are quite a few car-free wannabees out there. I'm certainly one. I think I'm headed in the right direction, but slowly... Here's a couple of things I'm working on:

* although I commute to work daily, I seem to lack the energy for the 1/2 miles trip to the grocery store. I do it sometimes, but always feel I'm not equipped enough for dragging the groceries back. I have to make too many trips, daily in fact. Solution: thinking about buying one of those used Burley kid haulers... or maybe a single wheel trailer.

* absolutely despise going anywhere after dark on the bicycle. I bought a $50 Cateye light, but it seems to run out of battery when I least expect. Solution: maybe buy a wheel generator + light from Peter White Cycles sometime. I think you can get set up for about $150 or so. However, still have the problem that I hate travelling at night on bicycle.

Anyway, those are my current hurdles. What are yours?

KnhoJ

Rain.

wahoonc

250 miles from the house to the current jobsite only good thing is that the company pays for the mileage. I have been on the search for a local job that pays similarly but so far no luck.'

Aaron

Falkon 

1. Bad weather
2. There are times in which I really need to get somewhere across town, and I don't have an hour to spare.

littlefoot

I guess I was lucky, in a way...I had no choice but to become carfree. No permit=No car. I'd always been pretty carlite since college...so I knew what to expect...I've had to go more practical with the style of bikes I ride...but in a way I've enjoyed building machines I wouldn't have been caught dead riding 10 years ago.

One thing that sucks is how limited my employment has become do to riding a bike...my major source of employment has been industrial trade work for the past 12 years and usually requires driving having a truck to tote tons of tools from jobsite to jobsite....I don't miss the aggravation of hauling around all my tools , but I miss the money at times.

What I love is the sense of independence and simplicity my life has (d)evolved into...rain...yep I hate it...and I hate toting rain gear all the time not knowing when I'm gonna get stuck in a downpour...but I deal with it. Riding at nite...yep it's dangerous and I don't always feel uber safe...but I have lites ,I carry backup batteries and use relective stuff...knock wood not been runover yet.

It's always easy to come up with excuses not to want to do things...I really don't want to finish my bathroom remodel this weekend...but I will.

Carfree is definately a big effin change for anyone...most Americans ain't programmed that way...it can be done. I don't think I'll ever get my liscense back...screw it..I don't need it.

rajman

lol - I think the question could be - what is your barrier to become not-car-free (car dependent?)?

Money to buy a car

Red tape/licencing/drivers tests/etc

No Place to Park/Parking fees

Insurance

Danger of car accidents

Price of gas

Loss of personal time due to traffic congestion

Given all these I'm kinda surprised so many people actually have cars. Perhaps we should look into it - it seems to be a major social problem.

kf5nd

having to haul kids around to their places

Nightshade

What keeps me car-lite is that I live in a mid-western rural small
town that is one of the many hollowed out towns left over from
the old days of better times. There are NO mass transit means
at all within several hundred miles of where I live nor are there
any medical faclities within 30 miles. All on bad 2 lane roads.

To shop for food I must drive 25 mi or 17 mi one way to stock up
once a month. However, much of what we need I bring to us buy
shopping the net alot. Many web stores offer free shipping which cuts
our expenses even more.

When I'm in town I bike/trike my way around using a car only when I
MUST leave town which I limit as much as possible.

bhc

60 days a year with temps above 110, and 120 over 100 (AZ desert) and 4 children, and our area lacks public transportation. I don't mind the commute in the summer, and my children love their bicycles, but as they say, children and the elderly need to be careful in the extreme heat. In fact here it is the last day of September and 105 degrees.

cerewa

I am a non-car-owner, but my partner (with whom I live) still has a car. She wants to sell it, but hasn't taken the plunge yet. We want to have the ability to use a car easily just in case the need arises and fortunately there's Philly Car Share, which just recently eliminated monthly/yearly fees for their non-premium members.

We use the car occasionally when we're going somewhere out of town or when the weather's not so good. (I ride my bike in all kinds of weather but she doesn't do the same.) The car also gets used for carrying stuff that doesn't fit well in or on top of my 45-gallon bike trailer.

ryanz4

I've never driven a car a day in my life (keep in mind I'm only 20) so going car-free for me is no problem without any hurdles.

Hurdles I can see are if you have kids or live in a rural area where it may take a while to get to.

bragi

Get an LED light. They're not expensive, and batteries last for 200+ hours. I bought my LED light three months ago, I ride at night several times a week (I'm fond of music and beer), and I'm still using the original batteries. (But I keep a couple of extra batteries with me, just in case...)

gerv 

Yeah, I forgot about this when I made my list above. If you are bike commuting and wish to be car free, you really need a Plan B for when the weather is bad or the bike is in the shop. Where I live, there is public transportation. However, last time I tried it (more than 5 years ago...) it took 1.5 hours to get to work. However, it might be better these days. I need to try it out some day. I'll add that to my list.

Jerseysbest

Boils down to real estate costs and my salary. I could be car free, but I have bills to pay (school loans) and I don't want to pay a such a substantial percentage of my income for just housing. My work is 34 miles away, doable in the summer, but not now. I do, however, in some weeks drive to work, bike home, then bike back the next morning, then drive home; my work's flexible hours let me do this, otherwise it wouldn't happen. Note that I just graduated and I'm at first job in my discipline, so I expect to make sacrafices like living so far from work.

Owning a car isn't an expense for me, gas + insurance + parts (I do all work, just did the brakes thursday) is still far less than any compareble place near work (<10 miles), plus I'm closer to family and friends.

But I still dream of the day where I can ditch the car have everything within 10 miles.

krazygluon

Hurdles...
An S.O. with a car, which fosters my laziness which prevents me from doing things other than commuting/joyriding with my bike.
If I didn't have the "you can always pick that up on this week's grocery/mall run on the weekend" sitting in the back of my mind, I'd do more errands on the bike..that and a lack of good mounting mechanisms for my lock+cable.

The Human Car

FWIW if you are thinking of getting a bike trailer and you find the price discouraging, check out bike trailers at your local __mart store. Last time I looked they were around $100. Not a bad price to pay to see how you and your bike function as a cargo hauler.

bike2math

Yup it is the car me and SO bought just before we got married. she needs it for groceries, even though I'm trying to do the European thing and stop by the market every night on the way home to pick up fresh foods for dinner. I just can't seem to convince her that me with the bike, a couple of large panniers, and a backpack can keep our pantry stocked. (she uses transit to commute).

I hate that car, and I hate the 320 dollar monthly payment on it. That's more than half our mortgage payment, and we only spend an hour a week in the car. as Opus said, "Phbtthhhtttt!" and god forbid I use it for something it is really useful for like two bales of straw or four hundred pounds of compost. Then I get read the riot act for making it dirty. Like we intend to start eating out of the trunk any time soon.

sigh. why do we pamper these stupid machines so much? I've considered skipping the maintence on it in the hopes of killing it off.

In some ways I'm lucky. She agrees with me that keeping it in the garage is a dumb idea, so we have a wood shop/bike repair garage that is also storing much of the produce from my garden.

gerv 

Sounds like she is halfway there. You should look at it this way: by the time you get the car paid off, she will probably see it your way. Your current car will be in pristine shape and maybe you can sell it for a good price.

davidmcowan

My hurdle in going from car lite to car free is my love of snowboarding, hiking, biking, and camping in the mountains nearby. I hear that they have shuttles for boarding but the shuttle costs almost as much as it does for me to maintain my old prizm. And hiking and camping in secluded places isn't exactly "get a cab" material.

Geraldo

Mainly it's a lack of mass transit here. There is one bus line that runs north and south on US1. I've checked the schedule, and being that it is basically one bus running a loop, it takes forever to get anywhere. In the next city north of me it does branch out a little bit, but not nearly as far as I need to go. I could bike but a suit looks terrible after an hour on a bike in S. Florida.

ryanparrish

snow

Roody

For the first hurdle: if you lack the energy to ride 1/2 mile on a bike (That's about 3 minutes, even at low speeds), you should probably see a doctor. You might have an undiagnosed condition that makes even minor exertion difficult. If the doctor passes you, maybe you just need more exercise. It can take a few weeks of progressively difficult riding before you are in good enough shape to do your daily riding. Don't give up now! good health and fitness are worth the initial struggle. It feels so good to know that you can move your body for a long time, and cover some good distances under your own power.

For the second hurdle: I'm not buying it. A $50 cateye is probably an LED light. The batteries will go at least 30 hours, and they drain gradually to give you some warning before they totally black out. I change mine on the first day of every month, just to be on the safe side. 30 hours of battery life is more than a month for all but the longest commutes. As for "hating" night travel: maybe you hate it because it is something you're not usd to it. I hated it a first, but after a few trips I came to cherish my nightly commute. Give it a chance--you might grow to love it.

gerv--what are the real hurdles? These ones really don't seem so insurmountable. Maybe you just don't really like riding that much? If so, that's fine--just find something else that you do enjoy for exercise and fun. But do something!

If you do decide to keep riding, just hang in there, keep trying. Before you know it, it will be just as easy for you as it is for me and the millions of other people who ride bikes for transportation. Mostly...Have fun and keep moving!

Cowboy Joe

Kids...my youngest DD had a minor cold this weekend that took a turn for the worst overnight. I rushed her to the nearest clinic when she started to complain of shortness of breath. Scary, very scary. She's OK, severe bronchitis, fortunately they were able to get it calmed down. Family is quite a distance away. I suppose I could have called an ambulance. Hard to give up peace of mind...

gerv 

I do 15 miles a day bike commuting, so when I say I'm "lazy", I mean I hate going to the grocery store 5 times a week to buy smaller amounts. It's more "shopping aversion" than laziness. I think a used Burley trailer is in my future.

Good point. I used to hate biking in the rain... but when I did it a few times, I realized it was fun.

littlefoot

+1