FlatMaster

I've recieved a job offer back at Auburn. I would be their "Science in Motion" asst. director. Basically, I would be driving a van around Alabama moving lab equipment around, doing demonstrations, and teaching teachers. If I'm car-free otherwise, but drive a van for work, am I really car free?

AsanaCycles

thats another Car-Centric Lifestyle

Mr Danw

Better than employment free! That is a rather nice position to add to a resume.

sanitycheck

No idea if you would be car free, but you would be living responsibly.

See. the stuff you mention is exactly the kind of stuff we SHOULD use cars for: moving lab equipment, improving education, making science happen. If people only drove cars when they've got a damned good reason to, instead of using 2000 kg of steel to schlep a single 70-kg human around, then we would not be in the environmental and economic mess we're in.

Nonsense. How do you propose accomplishing the same level of science education, without transporting equipment around?

AsanaCycles

got me

but its not "Car-Free" <--- those are the words, not the ethics, not the gist, but rather, the definitive, cognitive words... "Car-Free"

driving a car around, is not living car free.
its driving a car around

i know its absurd
i agree with the proposed ethics of scientific education
i suppose like a Book Mobile
or a Bible Mobile
or a mobile vasectomy truck/van/clinic
or a milk truck
or an ice cream truck

its not "Car-Free"

sorry...
but its not
its "Car-Centric"

maybe if the OP shipped his equipment
used his bike, on multi modal transport
i.e. bus, train, etc.
then technically, that would be "Car-Free"

AsanaCycles

oh...
how about more than 1 person hired
more than 1 set of equipment
ship the equipment
and have the "professors" ride to their "work shops"

or...
set up and have a conference

or
telecommute

internet?

video?

i don't know... a million options, I'd imagine...

OP's signature? Ride or die....

sounds to me, that the job has its limits. the funding is as such, and the set of circumstance is set...
there it is
another by-product of our Car-Centric mindset.

there are probably way too many obstacles to "effectively" address the situation without an Auto-Mobile
that is a Fundamental Issue in America, is that our daily operations, demand the use of Auto-Mobiles

they eat money, eat resources, etc...
but its progress right?
right...

when i was 21 years old, firing a Howitzer into a building in Panama, never once did i imagine that HWMVs would be under Chinese management. is that right? a Chinese corporation now owns GM?

thats the way it is...
what blows my mind, is to see bicycle marketing reps pull up in a car.

or how about all the cars that go to a Bicycle Sporting Event?

its a viscous cycle
and from what I've experienced
there is only 1 way to be Car Free
simply don't use a car

and there are a lot of things a person cannot do without a car
like... order food in a drive thru, make out in the back seat at the drive-inn, etc...

sometimes its not that easy

for instance: I want to go to Pine Ridge, and see how The Sioux are living, see an Army buddy. How can i get there without using a car? I haven't figured it out yet. within financial reason. I suppose i could use a Bike Friday, and charter a private plane.<---- not really the idea. the idea would be to use Amtrak, and bus service to get as close as possible and ride my bike to visit my buddy.

when it comes to business... mostly Auto-Mobiles are part of the structure.
its as if an American Standard

heck... just the barriers that are commonly found when it comes to riding a bike to work...

GodsBassist

I don't think it's a car 'centric' lifestyle. It may be a lifestyle that somehow involves a car. Centric would mean that you put a significant amount of time or energy into it.

I have a rug on my floor, but that doesn't mean my life is centered around it.

tsl

Perhaps not, but I'm sure your furniture is.

I-Like-To-Bike

Not to someone who feels that he is above that sort of plebeian drudgery, and boasts about it, in verse no less!

JeffS

And maybe if his mailman walked the route, and his milk was delivered to the store by horse, and he didn't pay taxes to support the government that funds the highway patrol, and didn't buy any product from any company that owned or operated any cars.

The definition for this forum has always been what you own. Someone re-forward him the memo before he's inclined to quote himself again.

AsanaCycles

yes... we live in a Car-Centric Society
most of our lives, revolve around the use of an Auto-Mobile

duhh... well call me mud. I never knew there was a definition for this Forum. I should read!

AsanaCycles

well...
my apologies:

"Here is the new forum for car free living. Feel free to discuss your car free concerns here... but keep in mind, this is NOT the forum for discussion about multi-use paths, arguing about your problems with cars, SUV's etc. or to flame people who drive. It's the spot for people to discuss getting around without cars, utility trailers, living without the car, etc. Any topics that deviate beyond the spirit of the forum will be moved out into their proper forums.

Enjoy.

Koffee Brown"

i'm off to haul my bikes to a new garage space, and stare at the ocean....
you are what you drive... i guess...
in this case... A Big Dummy!

AsanaCycles

centric |ˈsentrik|
adjective
1 in or at the center; central : centric and peripheral forces.
2 Botany (of a diatom) radially symmetrical. Compare with pennate .
DERIVATIVES
centrical |-trikəl| |ˈsɛntrəkəl| adjective |ˈsɛntrɪkəl|
centricity |senˈtrisətē| |ˈsɛntrɪsədi| |-ˈtrɪsɪti| noun
ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from Greek kentrikos, from kentron ‘sharp point’ (see center ).
-centric |ˈsɛntrɪk|
combining form
having a specified center : geocentric.
• forming an opinion or evaluation originating from a specified viewpoint : Eurocentric | ethnocentric.
ORIGIN from Greek kentrikos, on the pattern of words such as (con)centric.

the forum's title, "Living Car Free"
if a person where a "Rug salesman", then perhaps their Living would be "Rug-Centric"

a majority of our Lives are Car-Centric
the means which we achieve a Living are mostly Car-Centric

however the definition of The Forum, deviates from the verbiage.

the spirit of The Forum, is somewhat different.

obviously, I've taken the mean nomenclature to an extent, further than intended.

and to that degree, I apologize.

I do realize that "Living Car Free" is just about impossible. Depends to what extent. obviously groceries arrive at the store on a truck.

travelmama

Why worry about it. Just work and be happy to have a job no matter what you are doing.

mihlbach

I LOL everytime someone here is accused of being car-centric.

Go visit my home-town in central IL. In addition to driving everywhere, all they do is talk about cars and trucks, watch Nascar, build cars and trucks for fun, trade them back and forth, ride 4-wheelers and motocycles in the woods, and hang out in car-repair shops. Everyone I know either has multiple cars, trucks, motorcycles, or some other vehicle in their garage that they are building up or hobbyizing on one way or another. They think 10mpg is fuel efficient. On my last visit, my cousin's husband actually bought and restored an old semi-tractor. He drives this gas guzzling beast around for fun. My brother set up a business building high performance tractor-pull an dragster engines for a living and my dad commutes 150 miles RT to work 5 days a week. Last time I was home, I met two old friends at a bar...they both drove four door dualie pickup trucks. You know what they talked about most of the time?....buying SUVs.

Their lives completely revolve around gasoline in every way shape and form. Many spend at least spend 50% of their income or more on automobiles and fuel. Its like a religion.

Thats car centric, people. All of us are dependant on cars or other gas-powered machines in one way or another, but far from car centric.

noisebeam

Maybe you could sub-contract a driver and you can ride as a passenger, or better yet cycle behind the van to location - this would enable you to retain your CF purity as judged by some here.

Congratulations on the job!

FlatMaster

The most reasonable answer.

Tabor

It would be car free.

car != van

duh

gerv 

Excellent point. If I had the job, I would make sure to avoid unecessary trips. However, when necessary, sounds like a reasonable way to go. (OTOH, if I did have that job, I would soon be annoyed with having to be behind a wheel all the time... although I guess it beats having no job at all.)

rbrian

If you weren't driving the van, somebody else would. Perhaps you'll drive more carefully than them, looking out for cyclists. I'd say that's an improvement overall.

mondaycurse

Correct answer. Try hypermiling this van and you're technically doing good for the environment versus some other guy flooring it to save 10 seconds.

enine

Wait, don't start false rumors here, GM and HMMV's are not owned by china. Gm sold the Hummer brand, the hummer brand is the consumer version of an hmmv but they are not the same vehicle and not all of gm.

FlatMaster

Actually, it might help "the cause". When talking about my job, I can say "Unfortunately, I need to drive a van."

StephenH

I'm not car-free, and don't expect to be. I drive about 32 miles to work each morning. But on occasion, I run errands on my bicycle. Is that pointless? No, it's still one less trip by car that gets made, one little smidgen of gasoline that is unburnt, a bit more of exercise that gets done. So I would say, no, your proposed lifestyle is not car-free, but that's okay, go for it anyway.

jonathan180iq

I drive my car 2.8 miles so that I can avoid a major highway and then I bike 3.4 miles to work. My work consists, on days that I'm out in the field, of driving around a crummy old S-10. A lot. Sometimes 100 miles or more in a day. At the end of the day, I jump back on the bike and ride to my car. I then crive to the house and hang out with my little boy.

I'm not car-free, but I can't help it right now. I have a family to support. It would be irresponsible and selfish of me to persue my own eco-hippie tendencies.

Enjoy your new job keep riding your bike every chance you get. That's the most important thing. Riding a bike and being in the position that you will be in will give you the chance to influence others to do the same and I think that's what it's all about. If you are a 100% bike-centric/car-free commuter that looks down on anyone who isn't but doesn't influence anyone else, what good is it?