Results of no-car experiment
Posted: July 29, 2010 Filed under: 5. Alt Transportation | Tags: sell your car, UPS on bicycles 4 Comments »
One year ago I challenged myself to not drive a car by myself (with the family is still OK) for one year, using a cargo bicycle as a car replacement instead. This is not such a far-fetched idea, as even UPS is doing tests on it.
Here’s what I learned from the times I failed to stay true to my goals:
- When injuries from MMA training at the dojo (shoulder, lower back) prevented me from getting anywhere close to a normal riding position without pain. Clearly when my hobbies overlap, it does not always lead to productive results.
- Late at night I found myself taking the car, as I simple don’t trust the drivers that are out at that hour (drunk, buzzed, sleepy, etc).
Despite those failures, I discovered the benefits of bicycling most of the time for me personally. When asked why I bicycle, I can now say:
- To better myself physically: strong legs, good cardio.
- To make the community I want to live in a reality; I want to see alot more bicycles in my small town. One of the best ways to do that is to *be* one more bicycle on the road every day.
- To find post peak oil business opportunities by living through the pain points.
- To lessen my impact on the environment.
I’m declaring this one year experiment a success and continuing down this path. Next stop: sell the car.
You are really inspirational. Nothing like walking the talk ( or biking the talk?!). Unfortunately we are located miles from everything so biking to work etc is just not a feasible option for me (almost 25 mile one way commute), however, it would be possible to bike to town for shopping (long ways but possible). Not something I am likely to do given those constraints but I see the wisdom of your choice and recognize our location choice limits us on potential mobility in a post peak oil world.
Very nice work! I’m in the same situation as KitsapFG, a 34 mile one-way commute to work that can be done on the bike, but adds 4 hours to an already busy day. I’ve been happy replacing my grocery store runs with the cargo bike for now until I find meaningful employment closer to my home. My 18 month old daughter loves the bike trips to the store and soon to be bike trips in the morning to daycare/school!
I’m sure you’ll be successful in living carfree.
I have to say your commitment to bike riding is admirable. Great exercise.
In my case I decided against going the bike route. A neighbor’s sole vehicle is a bike. He’s been run off the road by nasty drivers several times now. So far no injuries worse than some bumps and bruises.
So I bought a $300 civic from my neighbor. I put $300 more into it in parts and this is what I use to do my errands. In 2010 my total gas cost was $235. Insurance is another $600 per year.
I do ride my bike around for pleasure/exercise. But the narrow windy roads here make for close calls with the ‘gotta get there yesterday’ attitude of people who have not opted out and are instead stressed out.
That’s a great point. One I think about often as several of the key roads I ride on don’t have great shoulders.
Took a look at your website. That PV systems looks awesome. Wish we had that rebate!