tandempower

For those who are car-lite, I wonder what tempts you to cheat. I am assuming that when you choose to be 'car-lite,' you are trying to avoid driving by putting extra effort into doing things without a car that you could do more easily with a car. Are there things that you teeter between doing with or without car? Are there times when you take the car for some reason but you think about how you could have done it car-free the whole time? Do you ever wish you could just go completely car-free for the sake of simplifying the choice of whether to drive or not to drive?

Maelochs

Dude ... you cannot "cheat" when there are no rules.

Because only for you is "car-free" or "car-lite" a religious issue, where you can "sin" or 'disobey commandments" or "cheat" does this seem to make sense.

There is no valid concept of "cheating" when it comes to car-free or car-lite. There are no rules.

badger1

This, x1000.

ThermionicScott 

+1. I'm not into guilt or shame, that's one of many reasons I gave up religion.

But to play along with the OP anyway: there is the occasional day when the weather forecast is for continuous rain, and so I drive to work. And if the rain never materializes, I do regret not riding. But I get over it pretty quickly.

Rollfast

Welcome to Car-lite Anonymous?

linberl

Cheating only applies in contests, where there is a winner and loser. There's no winner or loser when someone decides whether to take their car (okay, maybe the environment, lol). Why try to create guilt?

cooker

I don't frame it as cheating when I drive, but I do set myself a bit of a personal challenge to try to drive as little as possible, so when I do drive I am not meeting that challenge. Usually I have a perfectly good reason for driving, like I have a short window of time to get a haircut or buy beer or whatever, or I'm just getting over the flu, or a non-biking family member wants to go with me, so I drive and don't sweat it. But rather than feel bad about those times I still drive, I instead take some pleasure in how often I meet the challenge of not driving.

indyfabz

My name is Indyfabz, and I have a problem. A couple of times this winter, when it was really cold out, I drove a couple of miles early in the morning to shop for special dinner fixings when I could have walked or taken the bus. Does that mean I cheated? Am I a bad person even though my 21 month old car has about only 4,400 on it, some of which were put on for field visits for work when no other form of transportation was remotely practicable?

CliffordK

The easiest way is to drop your car insurance.

I presume that if I really need to drive, I can re-up my auto insurance... but that is also a big expensive hassle

Oops, the registration has also expired.

Start posting on the commuting distance page...
https://www.bikeforums.net/commuting...ge-thread.html

Whew, I've got to get in a few more rides, otherwise I'll never keep up.

Jim from Boston

Hi @indyfabz,

Maybe succumb is a better term?

Walter S

Yes. You should be ashamed of yourself. Driving is simply inexcusable under any circumstances

ReclusiveOne

I'm car free at this point but at one point I was car-lite (drove all of 11,000-12,000 miles over 4 years and that includes several vacation trips about 400 miles away to see family). My biggest problem was there were plenty of times where I drove 1-2 mile trips when it was perfectly nice out and great weather to walk/ride but ugh... too much work and I'm tired. It was easy to come up with excuses to drive, even real short distances.

tandempower

Do you ever think about how you could have done it without driving while you're driving?

I do, namely. I was walking about 30 miles to catch a bus the other day and I was looking at the trucks at a dealership thinking about how I could get one and use it to haul building materials, but then I realized that I'd be in debt and I'd have to pay gas and insurance, etc. and then I'd have to build more than I want and cater to potential buyers' whims and aesthetic preferences, and then I realized it would be more enslavement that it would be worth; plus if I had driven I wouldn't be enjoying the epic 30 mile hike, which was intensely rewarding as well as fatiguing.

cooker

Of course, and over time I've used the car less because of that.

Mobile 155

Are you now redefining car light? I thought it was a personal thing? If you gave up driving one day a week rather than seven you were becoming car light. How can one cheat on that principal?

Are we now into defining how much is required to be called car light? Are there credits to be earned? Who determines what cheating is?

KraneXL

You need to expand on the motto OP, like I do for using stairs vs elevator: equal to or less than 3, go elevator free. In the case of your bike, you can't take it to a concert. When you go shopping, you're limited by the number or size of the packages you will be carrying. So some venues will exclude you by design, others by convenience.

cooker

I'm certainly not redefining it - it has a pretty loose definition and I'm fine with that. In light of that, I don't consider some use of the car to be "cheating" - I don't think that word applies. I do have a personal agenda of trying to minimize my car use, so when I do use it I might feel a bit of regret that I didn't or couldn't use an alternate method like walking, biking, or public transit. But I haven't "cheated" because there's no stone tablet or official LCL players handbook that defines what car use is acceptible or not.

22ster

You are absolutely right it IS 'Cheating.' Whether to drive a car is part of a belief system because materialism is a never ending cycle of desire enslaving us through consumerism, passions not possessions brings happiness and all of the best/efficient designs are the most simple, that includes the way the we live.

So, when we go against this, we are cheating ourselves. Religion is a belief, they all teach good things, its the lack of beliefs that causes the problems, the cheating. You are right to try your hardest.

I believe the Earth is flat, ships always appear mast first. Life is simple.

I have a car, I plan on using it far less, hopefully stop altogether, because I want to stop cheating myself, I don't want to be a slave, I want to be free, I want to start with the man in the mirror and be a better person to myself, then I will change the world. God bless.

indyfabz

I can't understand your comment. Too much noise the way you post so I skip over your comments.

tandempower

Ok, cheers; but be careful posting religious language in the regular forums outside of P&R. You could get yourself in trouble and the last thing this forum needs is to lose inspired participants because they trigger anti-religious zeal.

Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by tandempower

For those who are car-lite, I wonder what tempts you to cheat…

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

Dude...you cannot "cheat" when there are no rules.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cooker

I don't frame it as cheating when I drive, …

Quote:

Originally Posted by indyfabz

My nameis Indyfabz, and I have a problem…..

Does that mean I cheated? Am I a bad person …

Hi @indyfabz,

Maybe succumb is a better term?

Quote:

Originally Posted by indyfabz

I can't understand your comment. Too much noise the way you post so I skip over your comments.

…to cheated.

I quoted more extensively the preceding posts in my original reply because I thought they were well written viewpoints on the topic of the OP.

There is an Internet initialism,“tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read); I guess I inspire “tc;dr” (too complicated; didn’t read) .

Maelochs

te;db

Took effort, didn't bother.

Dude, where is that self-reading tablet? Doesn't technology produce anything useful? I can't wait for AI so I don't have to use my own.

Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

…There is an Internet initialism,“tl;dr”(too long; didn’t read); I guess I inspire “tc;dr” (too complicated;didn’t read) .

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maelochs

te;db

Took effort, didn't bother.

Dude, where is that self-reading tablet? Doesn't technology produce anythinguseful? I can't wait for AI so I don't have to use my own.

Thanks for your effort, and bothering to write.

I have previously posted,

I-Like-To-Bike

Isn't that what ALL car people do?

KraneXL

The brain is a muscle. If you don't use it, it will atrophy. That said, communication is a fine art, and some do it it a lot better than others. If it's written well, reading should be a pleasure, not an efforts.