Who is car free?

[needmorecoffee]

Wondered if anyone else had gone car free?

Have always been car free - till this september when my Mum bought one for us to share - we now do the school run every day!

Feeling very unethical...

We have just downsized from a 1.8 turbo sporty car to a 999cc tiny car, does that count?

I'm car free - but DH isn't - I go in our car about 3 times a year - if that. Unfortunately DH needs his car for work otherwise we would be totally car free.

We had a car but found we were doing (me, that is, cos DH can't drive) only about 5 miles a month. I'd use buses to get into town or cycle and dd2 used to scream and scream in the car so, having always hated the things, we got rid of it.
Bliss.
We now use community transport (dd2 is in a wheelchair and is severely disabled) to get to her sensoty support group or we go to town on the once an hour low floor bus. If I don't have dd with me then I can catch any bus or cycle.
Took ds2 camping this year several times by train. Just loaded everything on an old baby buggy.
Sweet, why do you do the school run by car if you didn't used to? Is it 'cos its there'?

DH cycles 6 miles to work. Quicker than bus which often took one aand ahalf hours.

NDC - DH can't cycle to work or get the bus either - so we're stuck really

We got rid of our car when ds1 was very small - more for cost reasons - but haven't really missed it. German public transport is admittedly fab, though.

We only have one small Clio but will need a bigger one once DB3 is here which I am dreading. I hate driving but have to do it, DDs nursery and toddlers groups are too far away and when I had two in a buggy a bus was off limits.

We're car free since I had a bit of an accident with the car 2 years ago and it was written off. We did think about replacing it but worked out that in the main we only drove our dd to her childminders (1.5 miles there and back) and the occasional trip to tesco's at the week-end. Both of us use public transport for work as it's not sensible to drive across London.
So two years later it's not been that bad - we joined streetcar and hire cars as when we need them. We kept a record for the first year and we saved lots by not having a car and hiring them instead. Now we walk, train or bus - its even made me get back on my bike.

Always been car free. Neither dp not I have a licence. Doesnt actually feel very ethical tho more jsut a normal way of life. Dd gets very excited if we ever get a lift anywhere.

Mnd you we live on the outskirts of London so have good public transport and I cycle to work.

don't you have any low floor buses Kitty?

One thing I resent is those from outside the city driving in and polluting the air. We would rather live in the country but living in the city is the ethical choice cos its allows you to be car free.

We only bought a car a few months ago as we had lived in London before that and didn't need one. I can't drive though and dp catches the train to work so it doesn't get used very much.

me and boyfriend. use public transport or walk

can I ask why you biught one then goingfor3? They aren't cheap even sitting outside the house before you add in petrol. I worked out that depreciation/tax/insurance etc came to about £25 a week for the average car. Thats a lot of bus journeys or a couple of taxi trips.

needmorecoffee - In london getting to attractions and visiting people was very easy due to the fantastic public transport. DP's parents live in London and would often give us a lift home from their house which made us feel like we were putting them out and we wanted our own idependance to go exactley when we wanted. Mainly though it's so much easier to take the children on lovely day trips as the buses where we are are not great, we can get to the supermarket easily and not have to sit in the cold/heat for half an hour, we can take dd's to the parties she's invited too without having to rely on other people though we do now take others kids with us, we can go to the tip. It's made our lives much easier for even the smallest of things. We do still walk more than many people I know because it's not an automatic respense to jump in the car when we want to go somewhere.

Grouchy Towers is car free. It suits us fine at the moment. DS is only 4 and goes to school less than 5 mins from the back door. The town has a good set of mini cab services if we need them. Most shopping is done locally in towns easily acessable by bus or done online. I'm a SAHM and DH lives a 30 min walk from the office.

The local bus service is OK, not as comprehensive as I'd like but it is adequate. Our council is good for collecting large items of rubbish etc. Plus the train station in the next town is on a 24hr mainline service between 2 major cities if you need to get further a field

We do find it difficult to do things like pop to the coast but we do other things or wait til there is an organised trip.

We could not afford the cost of running, insuring, maintaining a car and the occasional cab trip is well offset by the saving of not having our own car

Plus you never miss what you've never had.

No cars in this family. DH can't drive and I only can because I was made to pass my test as a condition of getting a job...but they couldn't make me buy a car so I have never sat behind the wheel of a car since (No doubt to the relief of all drivers out there - I am rubbish anyway and have no wish to drive)

We are lucky to live in an area not too far from the city centre with good bus/train links. DH cycles to work and I walk everywhere. Keeps us fit. So may of my friends and family moan about being fat and never having time to exercise. I have no choice but to exercise every day and am v slim as a result. Oh and of course terribly ethical!

Is it worth putting up with some inconvenience (being car free) in order to be green/ethical? I'm just interested.
So far,apart from one stint standing in freezing wind at a bus stop and having the half hourly bus turn out to not be wheelchair accessible, I don't think I've missed it. Sure we can't go on car trips but my memories of them are of trying to find somewhere to park it and panicking in strange towns.
I don't think there's anywhere I can't get too that I want to get too. Off to Glastonbury tomorra with kids n DH. Hour and a half on the bus through pretty bits of countryside. Only thing I had to do was make sure I could get dd's wheelchair on it. Hospital is 2 miles away so a walk or hospital transport takes us. The disabled children's place is more problematic in that there's no bus routes near it so I have to remember to book community transport some weeks in advance (not great for bored days and suddenly taking dd there)
But its not vital I go there anyhow.
I'm amazed sometimes when I see people drive somewhere less than a mile a way and they are non-disabled. Mind you, I lived in the US for a couple of years and some people drove next door. No kidding. 100 yards.

DD's school is just under a ten minute walk away, one of my neighbours drove every morning until her car broke down. I object to cars being used for these type of journeys.

I don't drive. I have a 25 minute walk to nursery and work. Keeps me fit.

just passed my test and bought a car this year, am 38, and need one to get about, as live in the absolute sticks.

I lived in London for 11 yrs, and we never had one, or even consideredit, far better and quicker to use public transport. I live in the sort of place where there is one free bus a week to the local (25 miles away) Tesco!!!