dgas71

Hi Roody, thanks for the welcome. My commute wouldn't be very long. It's just under 5 km which I think is about 3 miles. The morning commute would be all up hill for most of the way. I think I would rather have it that way than having to ride up hill after a long days work.

dwilbur3

I'm not car free. But my wife and I haven't used a car for commuting for almost a year now. I think it's likely that one of our two cars will eventually be retired. Especially now that my wife has begun to use her bike for small shopping trips and bus/bike commutes.

But that's probably a year or two away at least. I don't see us going completely car free as long as I have a young child (6).

(That fact that my wife loves to ski makes it very unlikely we'll ever be completely car free).

Bizurke

I've been car free for just a little over over 5 years. I don't live in a big city with a great public transit system. We have a small time bus service that will waste 7 hours of your day just to do a quick errand, and it's impossible to ride a bike every day of the year, especially in winter when the roads are covered in ice and many inches, or feet of snow. This makes it rather difficult for me at times but I've just learned to adjust the way I live and I no longer notice the things I struggle with as much as time passes on. I haven't been stuck worrying about a car payment, buying gas, insurance prices, or anything car related for so long I couldn't imagine paying for all those things. That money has gone to help me live a much more decent and fun life than I would have been able to paying for all of that stuff.

Roody

Bizurke--welcome back! Howya been doing?

Platy

Yeah, welcome back from me too!

Lamplight

Wow, been car free now for nearly a year without much trouble, despite what my original post says. And I'm still repeating that last line every month, it seems.

RubberDucks

I became Car Free when I moved to NYC 7 months ago (not too hard to do). I started riding my bike everywhere until I became almost completely non reliant on the subway system... 11 mile ride to my day job and a 4 mile ride to my night job(from my apartment)... but after the summer months ended and my bike bit the dust I had to go back to my monthly 81 dollars in subway fares....I'll be back there in due time though

JBHoren

Now I'm "car-free" -- the license plate came OFF at midnight -- and need to sell it, before the State of Florida has me fined and the car impounded... seems you can't own a car, without registering it; and you can't register a car, without insuring it.

Hey, if I can get $850 for it, that'll cover the March rent!

So, I'm stopped at a traffic light close to home, waiting for the green arrow to turn left, when a guy honks at me, rolls down his window, and compliments me on my ink. He also opined that it was better, his being inside his car, than my being outside in the drizzle -- a matter of perspective, since I was already dripping wet with sweat.

tieka

My husband sent me the link to the forum and I couldn't help but sign up! I am excited to find other people who live car free and car light. I just started living car light as of December 2008, but wouldn't have it any other way.

I don't drive my car at all, and will only use it if I have to go to the emergency room at the hospital or if I want (meaning special occasion) to go to another city that doesn't work with the local bus system.

breakaway9

if I could just sell my Diesel Jetta I would be "car light" last week. I will still keep my 81 Air Cooled VW Vanagon, I still have to be able to pick up the kids from dance or run them on some last minute errand, and to take the dog to the dog park (although I hope to get a dog trailer for that soon, then I will only have to drive her during prolonged periods of snow accumulation...)

You would think someone would be interested in a car that gets 45-55 mpg, I guess I may just have to wait until gas hits $4.00 a gallon again...

I-Like-To-Bike

Try lowering your asking price.

BarracksSi

FWIW, you couldn't give me a Jetta, even if it got great mileage. The practical-minded people looking in the used car market look really hard at a car's reputation for reliability, and at least through the first half of this decade, VW's rep has been awful. One of my neighbors was all too happy to finally get rid of his Jetta because of all the problems he had with it.

breakaway9

Interesting, this one is a 2006 and I haven't had to do anything to except put tires on it and change the oil. The car I had prior to this one was a 1999 Jetta and I never had to do anything to it either, except change the oil, the tires and since it had 70K miles I changed the brake pads once. I know another person with one and he had the alternator go out and that was quite pricey but he still drives it today... Perhaps I have been lucky but my experience with Jettas has been nothing but good (Except that I don't ever drive it anymore). My 81 Vanagon is the same way, I did have to replace things like shocks and cables and what not but never anything major...

And the ratings on it are really not so bad (9.3/10):
https://autos.msn.com/research/vip/ov...en&model=Jetta

I will grant you the body style before this one did not get nearly as good of ratings as the current model/body style.

breakaway9

My asking price is already 6K under blue book... I need to get at least enough to pay it off... I would really hate to sell the thing and still have to pay for it...

I wonder honestly if it is not hard to get a loan for a used vehicle right now, that could play a part in it as well....

Roody

This really isn't a good time to sell a car. both because of the difficulty of getting loans, and the fact that most people are worried about losing their jobs or making their mortgage payments. If you can wait a bit, people will start buying cars again because they believe that they "can't live without one."

breakaway9

Roody, I agree, I have listed in our local papers web classifieds and on Craigslist for free. I am somewhat "lucky" though in that it is leased and if all else fails I just give it back in December. I think once winter is gone and gas prices start going back up it will have a better chance...

On a separate note I have noticed a lot of people on the roads that have bought large SUV's again. I see 5-6 new Explorers and Suburban/Tahoes with temporary tags almost every day... YIKES People really are morons and don't learn...

BarracksSi

Maybe they're pouncing on some killer deals and don't plan on driving them much anyway. They might already have, or plan to get soon, an econobox daily driver, but those are selling at premium rates, too. Some of the car racers around here are seeing it as an opportunity to buy a new tow vehicle for dirt cheap (although that's a very narrow market; but other heavy duty users would also be glad to see cheap trucks).

breakaway9

Well wish me luck I finally got a call on the car today, hopefully this will be the buyer...

Roody

So they're buying a destructive device that they don't really need--just because it's a little cheaper than it used to be? This sounds like the same kind of poor planning that got us into this mess in the first place.

Roody

Fantastic! I'm glad that you're making a positive step in such a difficult time.

breakaway9

My sentiments exactly....

BarracksSi

In some cases, yeah, they need them, since you can't exactly carry a ton of bricks or tow a drag car in a trailer with a Tercel.

Didn't say it wasn't..

breakaway9

I agree with this also, there is a definite use and reason to buy a truck or heavy duty vehicle to haul/tow stuff... But why on earth would someone buy an escalade or tahoe/suburban to do that??? Maybe to pull a boat. Unfortunately though the trend here is to buy the biggest most ridiculous sized vehicle you can to "haul" your 65 lb little girl to dance class and back... I can't even count how many times a day I see these HUGE vehicles cruising down the road with just one person inside. Like I said there is a place for a truck/large vehicle but most of the people I see are just wasteful morons driving too much car...

The escalade/navigator in particular are the biggest joke of all. Anyone (that actually bought it) driving one can immediately be considered an idiot. There is no true value in that vehicle other than you have some complex about the way other people see you or you think you deserve that much luxury because you are special... it is hands down one of the dumbest purchases a person can make... At least with a Hummer or something similar you could use it off-road to access remote areas and to handle the snow, the new SUV's with 1 inch thick racing tires wrapped around 24" rims is almost as stupid as the jacked up F350 4 door trucks with HUGE tires that never leave the road...

breakaway9

Well the guy never called back about the car unfortunately... BUT I did another call today, this guy seems a lot more serious.... Hopefully I can get it sold tonight so I can pick up the XtraCycle I have been eyeballing on Craigslist....

breakaway9

Yeah!!! It's sold, I am officially one hour car lite!!!!