Any body do remodel or construction
 

Wonder if u can be car free or car light if you do remodeling and building maintenance for a living. My truck and tool boxes are needed for work. Wonder if any one has ever done this for a living and remain car light? And also be self employed ..not just show up to work and have all the tools there..

How do you get around when you're not working? How does the rest of your family do it?

Work too much,
 

I work 70 + hours. Long story , just trying to keep my business going, not becausee of wanting too much, just pay bills etc and just recently got health insurance after having to drop it because of cost. But back to original question . I am driving to and from Menards , lowes, etc and multiple rentals . I need the truck for all the tools and runs. Luckily they are all within ten miles, but biking would be out of the question, only thing I can think of is once the job and tools are set up I could ride my bike for a few days, but all it would take is an emergency repair call, to make the whole day messed up if no truck!..

it's pretty clear you need a truck for work. What about the rest of your family?

i don't think i could ever go vehicle less. i use to get by when i was younger biking everywhere but i don't know if i would feel as comfortable biking around town as i use to. with every accident i have nearly been in while driving has made me more hesitant about ever biking in town again. i know there was 1 day nearly got in 3 accident while driving my elcamino and none of the accidents would have been my fault. just stupid drivers. i usually just stick to trails. only thing you got to worry about is pedestrian. plus i almost need my truck to make a bit of money here and there without working a full time job. lot easier to pick stuff up with my truck that i can fix and sell than it is with a bike. even when i use to have a trailer it would only haul so much.

Car free (other than my bosses shop truck during work hours) for a few months now and I'm really enjoying it.

I gave up my car in 1987 and it led to a life-changing experience. First the shock of having to function without personal transportation...then the irritation of relying on public transportation. As time went I could appreciate all the money I was saving by not making the usual car maintenance and repairst...costly insurance, etc..A very large weight was lifted from my shoulders and I was actually having fun riding my 3-speed beater. If I need a car I guess I could rent one or a Uhaul for moving large items. For day to day needs my bicycle is the perfect solution...

Almost all my life I have been car free, my Dad gave me a junk car about five years ago that I tried to use, but just felt so unsafe driving it, and got rid of it. I use to have a dozen bikes, but maintenance on that many was expensive, I'm down to four, two of which I have added on headlights, tail lights, turn signals, horns, and sound systems, fun to rid but they weigh over a hundred pounds each, the smaller one was at 120 last I checked.

Got any pictures of these bikes?

I posted my trike in alt bikes, my cruiser is https://imgur.com/gallery/NCTh5

You're miles beyond hardcore...I just take a little Walkman radio/cassette unit with membrane speakers in a zipper bag and hang it on the handlebars.

Color me in awe.

And that's equal for the bike itself.

Man, this sounds familiar! Parents gave me their old car in high school. Filled it up once, didn't like that part (gas was 60 cents a gallon!), gave it back at the end of the week. And just last week I gave another bike away. Got rid of 4 in the past 4 years. Three left, but I need all of those including a folding bike for picking up/dropping of rental cars.

Full disclosure: From ages 17-30 I had cars, motorcycles, and campers non-stop. No car since 1989.

Nice post! Thanks. And welcome.

No joke!

Sounds like a normal and reasonable reaction to a sketchy situation. I will bike far out of my way to avoid fast moving auto traffic. Luckily my city has an adequate network of back streets and bike paths. For safety, the shortest distance between two points is NOT a straight line sometimes.

Nice tadpole! My wife and I would have a pair of them if I had a way to haul them to the nice Rail-Trail 35 miles away (by car, 50 by bike). Can't have everything I guess.

I'm car ultra free, meaning I'll ask mom/dad to give me a ride to work if I am injured or not feeling well. Other than that, grocery and beer runs are all on the bike. Oh, being single helps.

I don't know if I could ever completely give up my truck as I love camping and hiking (and some places are just too far away to ride to within the confines of a full time job), but my wife and I moved to a town just outside of Philadelphia a few years ago that has a train station (for the railroad I work for) so I do go weeks at a time without driving. It's such a great feeling to get to work, run errands, etc. under my own power and I don't see that changing anytime soon. One day I'd love to be car free, but car light seems to be just the ticket at the present time.

Car-free pretty much my entire adult life. Never had a driver's licence either. Bikes, public transit and the odd taxi now and then is all I know.

Amazing . Wish I could do. I am trying to make some life style changes to reduce my driving.

G'day all

I'm about six weeks away from going car-lite. I'm middle aged, fat and a father of two so I can see it will be a challenge. For all of 2018 and a bit of the end of 2017 I cycle commuted pretty much exclusively (about 10km to 13km each way depending on my enthusiasm for hills) on a 26" hardtail that have skinny Marathon Plus tyres and a rack with great success. I'm currently doing some major training at work for a new position, during which I've decided to drive... but the end of that is in sight. My wife and I are currently a two car family. "My" car is great fun, it's a little two door Suzuki 4x4, however it is just about the least practical car in the world when it comes to family driving. With the two rear seats up it has about 85 litres of cargo space, and with two children that need child seats (one needs a rear facing capsule even) it's probably even less than that. As a result, last year it pretty much sat parked not being used for months at a time, and the expense of having it sit there not being used is just getting ridiculous so very shortly it'll be going on the second hand market and out of my life.

I'm still going to be partly relying on a motor though, my plan is to buy an e-bike, probably something like a Merida Espresso EQ. I want to be able to use it as my pedal-assist station wagon, hitch up the kids bike trailer, go do the grocery shopping at the supermarket, run errands and zip about town as needed. Our eldest kid is only two and in child care three days a week, and while I CAN get up the hill with her in the bike trailer on my regular bike, it's something I don't do with any regularity because of the difficulty... something I want to change. Regardless of the bike I'll be starting up bike commuting again, but will probably split the role 50/50 between the ebike and regular bike. Really frequently last year I'd have killed for an ebike and its "easier" ride home at 23:30 whilst doing late shifts, in freezing windy winter conditions. Conversely, in summer it regularly hits 40 degrees C and the cycle to work can turn into a sweat fest super quickly. To be able to alternate and pick the appropriate bike according to conditions will hopefully be something to help maintain my enthusiasm.

I would love to take cars out of my life completely, the cost where I live is pretty monumental (just the privileged of owning a car where I live in Australia works out to about $2000 a year when you factor in all the insurances, registration fees and regular servicing) but don't see that as a possible outcome while my wife remains reluctant. If I can 99% cycle commute, 99% take my daughter to child care, 66% do the shopping and 75% run errands then I see that as a win. At least it will be a base that I can start to improve from.

I'm with you on the above! Been cycle commuting since 2014 and loving everything but the Atlanta (USA) traffic.

Off grid-hoping to reduce car use
 

We are a five-member, two car family, rediscovering cycling.
We live up a hill on a rough track a mile from our village.
We live in a mountain bike and road bike paradise, with a large tourism and hobby industry based around the bicycle.
Since the covid situation took hold, I have been looking at ways to make some money and keep busy whilst my usual freelance work has for the moment dried up.

Looking at the cars sitting there, I have been feeling that a homemade e-bike would be a practical means to carry rubbish down to and bring groceries back from the village.

This would reduce our typical car use by 1/2 to 2/3 in one go.

This has led me back into the cycling world, and I am buying up old nice cheap bikes as they appear. Quite a collection has formed in just a few months!
As it is I have just picked up a great 90s steel Peugeot Origin Mountain bike which I adore.

Next on the radar is a GT Outpost selling for peanuts.

Anyway, I see that car use is quite often unnecessary, and combined with the obvious benefits of cycling we hope for a slightly greener and healthier future ahead. And having three young boys grow up with this example can only be a good thing.

I gave up driving in 2007. My wife has never had a driver's license. It's much easier here in Wales... we've excellent public transportation, but cycling is what it's all about for me. Sustrans has done us a great favour converting many of the disused railroad lines into excellent cycle paths. We are very fortunate.

Well we were car free for 10 years, then in 2019 my wife had a "heart attack" and we lived a long ways from the hospital!! I was there at all hours, some times 3 trips a day so I bought a 1993 Ford Ranger from my brother and it was his "haul loads to the dump beater truck", but it lasted till June 2021! Syncro's in the transmission went gave up, hell to shift down into 1st. and not easy to get into 2nd. gear either, Steering Column broke, 2 out of 4 fuel injectors gave up and misc. other problems, made me have to have the old truck hauled off to the scrap yard. So we are now back full circle and "Car-Free". Since we are now living only on our very meager Social Security Retirement income we will NEVER be able to afford another car so "Car-Free" is back to being NORMAL life. Thank goodness I kept the "home built" utility trailer I build a decade ago, it's been brought back into full time service!! :)

My family of 4 has alternated between car free and car light for the last 6 years in BC. Currently we are living in a semi-rural area but only about 3km from the downtown. Only vehicle is a campervan that gets fired up a few times a month over the summer. It might get retired soon as the kids are nearly old enough for bikepacking. We did a few short trips this summer and am looking to do more camping by bike next summer. Despite not living in the city there are a number of families in our community that also live car-free. I was very surprised.

It's good to be fit as hell and completely ignorant of the price of gas.