Getting rid of the car - a good idea?

[readinginbed]

Just wondering if we are completely crazy... We are planning to ditch the car after Christmas and use bikes / public transport instead. Kids are 4 and 2.5 yrs. We live in London so buses and trains etc abound. It's costing us £200 a month just to keep the car on the road, even before petrol. And there's no sustainable alternative to oil so we're thinking we'll be ahead of the curve... But i keep thinking there's a chance i've gone completely crazy and life will become just very difficult with no car. Any thoughts?

Try it, maybe set yourself a minimum trial period 4 or 6 months and then re-evaluate.

I gave my car up a couple of years ago but the daily commute in the winter on packed buses with everyone coughing and sneezing was wretched.
I was out the house 2 hours a day extra too which I decided was valuable family time.

So didn't work for me but I really try and watch my miles now. Combine trips so as not to use the car unnecessarily.

If you'll be saving £200 amonth you'll have cash handy for emergency mini-cabs.

Our car needed MOTing and had quite a few things needing fixing and we just don't have the money to do it. We took the fairly drastic step of putting it in the garage and are seeing how we get on without it.

So far it's been 25 days and have really not missed it.

Admittedly my kids are 16 and almost 14 so they can walk much further than little ones but I'd not really appreciated how much pointless, lazy driving we did. Want some milk? ... Drive down to Waitrose garage. The first time I walked it I discovered there is a shortcut footpath and it takes 10 minutes!!! I'd been driving every time for 8 years.

We live in a small, rural city, 10 minutes from Waitrose, 15/20 minutes from the town centre with a Tesco and Sainsburys, as well as all the other shops. The bus station is 10 minutes away and the train station is about 25 minutes away. One boy has about a 20 minutes walk to his school and the other has a 35 minute walk. My parents live in the next village and the bus there goes right passed the end of our road. No real need for a car at all.

My husband very, very occasionally needs a car for work but he can hire one for £25 a day.

I can't say for sure that it will work for you but it's working for us and is well worth trying.

We don't have a car.

However the ILs take us food shopping once a week and take us to family events/parties. Which is going to be a problem when baby
arrives as will not be enough room in the car. Also we go on holiday with ILs so again they take us. Am also reliant on them to take me to hospital when I go into labour (am 39 weeks pregnant now) but as they'll be looking after ds we'd be reliant on them anyway.

On the other hand we have no local train services (i.e. we could catch a bus into town to temple meads and get a train to london, but not any of the surrounding areas/villages where family are as no railway stations out here). Bus service is extremely expensive so mostly we walk.

The other thing is taking ds out for daytrips - most of the affordable places are in the middle of nowhere, so again no chance of getting there, or catching 2-3 buses and spending hours travelling.

We manage fine and I don't miss having a car. And if you are in London I expect you have much better/cheaper public transport than we do so will be much easier. Also you probably have a lot of local facilities there which makes things a lot easier.

Most things for us are easily walkable and you do get used to it quickly. Ds (5yo) is good at walking (though does moan sometimes) and it saves the expense, hassle of our cars constantly breaking down (which they all did) and tbh it often takes about the same time to walk once you take into account parking/traffic jams etc.

We have a lot of cycle tracks where we are which makes walking a lot more pleasant. I work within walking distance and ds school is same distance away.

I'd rather have the money than the car tbh. One thing though I would always keep cash in the house for an emergency taxi ride.

The main points I find can be a problem are

1. food shopping - but is always internet shopping

2)emergencies - keep cash in the house

3)holidays - plan your holidays round public transport, e.g. where is accessible by train

4)visiting family - depends on where they are as to what you can do.