Living Car Free...The reality.
#26
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Are you trolling LCF?
I'll play the game, how about "car free lite" and keep a cheap old truck in a shed? Drive it once a year for vacations.
I'll play the game, how about "car free lite" and keep a cheap old truck in a shed? Drive it once a year for vacations.
#27
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Or are you a motor vehicle owner who rides a bicycle whenever you choose to ride a bicycle and drives your motor vehicle whenever that is your choice; and call that "car free lite"?
Or are you one of those few who actually does voluntarily live without a motor vehicle and claims either no disruption/limitation to your lifestyle/living standard or chooses to downplay/ignore any disruption/limitations your decision has caused?
#28
Senior Member
In a little less than a month I'm going to make 1200 mile journey from the Midwest to Colorado and then back. I'm taking a one week vacation from work with a friend. This is a fishing vacation where there will be some camping involved and few nights in a motel. By the time it is all done, I will probably have put 3000+ miles on my truck going there and back plus driving to different public access points on the river to fish. Some of which take a 4 x 4 to get to.
I have 9 days to get this all done. I will be hauling 2 coolers, 2 tents, a camp stove, lanterns, fishing gear, change of clothes etc. The back of my full size truck will be more or less 3/4 packed full with our gear.
If I was living car free, how would I accomplish this journey in 9 days and carry all the gear I need for my vacation?
Renting a car/truck isn't an option. Their business hours of operation don't work with my schedule.
I have 9 days to get this all done. I will be hauling 2 coolers, 2 tents, a camp stove, lanterns, fishing gear, change of clothes etc. The back of my full size truck will be more or less 3/4 packed full with our gear.
If I was living car free, how would I accomplish this journey in 9 days and carry all the gear I need for my vacation?
Renting a car/truck isn't an option. Their business hours of operation don't work with my schedule.
#30
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So rent it the day before and return it the day after; you'll pay a bit more but it will fit your schedule. Geez. What would you do if you couldn't drive for some reason? You'd either take a different vacation or make it work somehow. It's like you think people in this thread have an obligation to figure it out for you, lol.
#31
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So rent it the day before and return it the day after; you'll pay a bit more but it will fit your schedule. Geez. What would you do if you couldn't drive for some reason? You'd either take a different vacation or make it work somehow. It's like you think people in this thread have an obligation to figure it out for you, lol.
In reality, LCF is just a question of modifying your wants until they are doable without a car/truck. Still, you'lre going to get all these people who say, "but I don't WANT to modify my wants AND stop telling me that I should . . ." Some people just don't want anyone to say that anyone else should do anything. Of course, they are telling you you shouldn't say what other people should, which is a contradiction.
#32
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I just bought a seventh bike last week. It's only temporary while I gussy it up to give as a present, but owning is much better.
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I estimate that I save a minimum of 6,000 a year living without a car. 6,000 will buy a fair number of rental days and airline tickets if that is what I choose to do. Yes there are sacrifices, and no it isn't for everybody, it was my personal choice. Not needing to make that 6k a year to support a car means I do not have to work more to support the car, it buys me more "me" time to do what I want. Friends and coworkers are very helpful for those times I need to transport something and often think of me when they travel to another bigger city to go shopping and ask if I want to go, on the few occasions I take them up on the offer I repay by buying lunch or gas, or both. I made the choice, I may not always live car free but for now it is working for me. Is it limiting, absolutely, no arguement at all, but it is also liberating in it's own way as well
#34
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I estimate that I save a minimum of 6,000 a year living without a car. 6,000 will buy a fair number of rental days and airline tickets if that is what I choose to do. Yes there are sacrifices, and no it isn't for everybody, it was my personal choice. Not needing to make that 6k a year to support a car means I do not have to work more to support the car, it buys me more "me" time to do what I want. Friends and coworkers are very helpful for those times I need to transport something and often think of me when they travel to another bigger city to go shopping and ask if I want to go, on the few occasions I take them up on the offer I repay by buying lunch or gas, or both. I made the choice, I may not always live car free but for now it is working for me. Is it limiting, absolutely, no arguement at all, but it is also liberating in it's own way as well
#35
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Yes it would be a good investment. Or you could do as Steve Wasnick did, use the investment in Apple to make a lot more than 6000 dollars and buy and drive a Chevy Bolt every day for local trips and a Tesla for long drives. It works both ways. People invest in transportation they believe in for whatever reasons that might be.
As I discovered when I started visiting this forum car free doesn't mean not using a car. It isn't like being tobacco free, or even drug free. It seems to be an undefined ideology that no one has a clear idea about. The only real agreement seems to be there is far too much traffic and that traffic is caused by somebody else.
https://www.carscoops.com/2018/01/ap...ng-tesla-says/
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#37
Prefers Cicero
Actually it is kind of like drug free. You don't keep opiates in the house or use them whenever you feel like it, but you do use them when you break your leg or have a heart attack. Similarly, you don't keep a car at home for daily use, but you do use one for extraordinary circumstances.
#38
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Actually it is kind of like drug free. You don't keep opiates in the house or use them whenever you feel like it, but you do use them when you break your leg or have a heart attack. Similarly, you don't keep a car at home for daily use, but you do use one for extraordinary circumstances.
The There are those that have proposed that if we ever get self driving cars that will be car free even if it replaces mass transit. That will add to the definition I guess.
At least that is what I take away from someone saying they are car free, something I don’t hear in my daily conversation with others in the real world.
#39
Prefers Cicero
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And to that one person car free is???? If the objection is simply not owning a car is there a difference between riding in a Uber and a bus or a taxi? All are ICE powered. All are owned by someone else and none are ICE free. Neither require one to exercise. And what happens if the cars are electric and on demand? Or is it a definition by someone other than the user that makes one car free? Does the reason for being car free matter? Not according to anything I have seen agreed upon in this forum.
By the definition used in this forum I did not own a car for 9 years. I commuted and went everywhere by motorcycle. Not a car as described by the forum definition. Was I car free? Did I even know I was car free? Did it really matter what I thought or anyone else? I didn't own a car, I didn't use a car, I didn't even want a car.
I am just saying there is no agreed upon car free in this forum. A consensus has been, Not owning a car and not having access in your home to a car. Uber, Lyft taxi and bus, jitney fit that bill. Your results may differ. I will leave it to the community to decide if motorcycles are cars and what isn't.
Last edited by Mobile 155; 08-07-18 at 01:24 PM.
#41
Prefers Cicero
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Do you have a better definition? How many times a week moves one from car free to car light using Uber or a taxi? If someone goes on vacation and rents a car for two weeks to explore the east coast or the Florida Keys do they become not car free and how long does it take to earn your car free badge? I thought not driving for one day was being car free for that day? Does the weekend not count? I didn't create the definition. Like I said who defines what alternative transportation is? This are all ideas expressed at one time or another in this forum. I ask again, was I car free for all of the years I didn't own a car and rode my motorcycles?
#43
Prefers Cicero
Do you have a better definition? How many times a week moves one from car free to car light using Uber or a taxi? If someone goes on vacation and rents a car for two weeks to explore the east coast or the Florida Keys do they become not car free and how long does it take to earn your car free badge? I thought not driving for one day was being car free for that day? Does the weekend not count? I didn't create the definition. Like I said who defines what alternative transportation is? This are all ideas expressed at one time or another in this forum. I ask again, was I car free for all of the years I didn't own a car and rode my motorcycles?
#44
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But using your idea who isn’t car free? If you don’t drive while you work or while you sleep that makes you car free 2/3 if the day?
I understand car free is not free from cars. Still for 8 or nine years I did not drive a car so was that car free because I used alternative transportation? If not who holds the rule book?
is car free by definition not what I said? Not owning a car or having access to one in your household? Did I get the agreement wrong?
Last edited by Mobile 155; 08-08-18 at 06:51 PM.
#45
Senior Member
being an employer I used the illegal drug free term. Don’t know about Canada but even here testing positive for restricted drugs gets you terminated from work.
But using your idea who isn’t car free? If you don’t drive while you work or while you sleep that makes you car free 2/3 if the day?
I understand car free is not free from cars. Still for 8 or nine years I did not drive a car so was that car free because I used alternative transportation? If not who holds the rule book?
is car free by definition not what I said? Not owning a car or having access to one in your household? Did I get the agreement wrong?
Last edited by 350htrr; 08-08-18 at 07:51 PM. Reason: add stuff
#46
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Even the term drug free is not definable... drug free... when you show up to work, do your 8 Hrs and go home and smoke a reefer... but get fired from work because the tests can't/don't differentiate "when" you were "under the influence" a big ass"d fail... So, I have refused to take drug tests for years and years ON PRINCIPLE, I have always told my employers I will take the drug test "IF" they said and actually accused me of being under the "influence" while working, and thus must "prove" my competence... Guess what, NOBODY actually/officially accused me, and only 1 company of … dozens and dozens + has ever fired me for refusing to take the test, then rumors floated around that I "must be using" or I would have taken the test... and guess what again, they called me over and over to come working for them years after... again, and again I said no thanks and continued to work for other companies that trusted me, a few more years go by and I said, sure I could work for you if I don't need to take the drug test, then I will... and Yes I would have passed any drug test, even a hair based drug test let alone a pisscup test, but F" them, innocent, innocent I say, so for the last 10 years of my working life I did not work for that company, but more than a few of their competitors used my services... and I survived, and made them $,$$$$,$$$. and that "other" company lost $,$$$,$$$.....
In close to 20 years I never had a termination overturned.
One of my friends had his son show up for a forklift job last week. First day they handed him a cup. The never even let him start a shift.
It is just the difference in how I view being “fill in the blank”. Free and how some other person might.
I had the added firepower of my employees had to deliver to sites where children children were attending classes. The state has strict rules in what you can do.
That however just shows how definitions focus our view on things. Litterly how car free is stated on this forum there is a hole big enough to drive a RV through. They are after all, not cars.
#47
Prefers Cicero
being an employer I used the illegal drug free term. Don’t know about Canada but even here testing positive for restricted drugs gets you terminated from work.
But using your idea who isn’t car free? If you don’t drive while you work or while you sleep that makes you car free 2/3 if the day?
I understand car free is not free from cars. Still for 8 or nine years I did not drive a car so was that car free because I used alternative transportation? If not who holds the rule book?
is car free by definition not what I said? Not owning a car or having access to one in your household? Did I get the agreement wrong?
#48
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Employee drug testing is pretty rare in Canada, but also off topic - I was just using it as a semantic example of how the definition of any sort of "X-free" can be hard to pin down, and not black amd white, so there's really nothing unusual about how it's a bit fuzzy here.
#49
Senior Member
Employee drug testing is pretty rare in Canada, but also off topic - I was just using it as a semantic example of how the definition of any sort of "X-free" can be hard to pin down, and not black amd white, so there's really nothing unusual about how it's a bit fuzzy here.
#50
Newbie
So living car-free isn't an option for your lifestyle, for other people it is. I'm not sure why you felt the need to make this post in the first place as it seems you're just trying to argue with people who want to better the environment. You can still greatly reduce your vehicle usage and that's great too and I'm sure you do that since you own 4 bikes. Congratulations, enjoy your trip.