folder fanatic

I know many people (Bragi especially) does not like what I usually say about the reality of living car free. I know my even my sanity was place into question by a probable him about not stating what others want me to say here on this subforum. Well, guess what? My own choices were put into play a very long time before the Internet was even offered to the general public. My cycling needs and attitudes were also formed way before the ‘net-long before. anyone rode or even heard about Dutch style City Bikes were and these same bikes were not marked up or priced way over what a sane Dutchman would pay for one.

The following list, photos, and comments are the result of careful choices I made in the past and why I must go back to car ownership. I do want to emphasize that I will continue to use a bike if it is the best way to complete a task, not be limited to just cycling only.

• In the first chart, you will see I rode bikes as a young adult up to my University years (upper division to grad school). I was pressured then as image was all to land any sort of employment even then. When I was in my twenties, I left behind my bikes because I had to establish myself in my career and personal life (after all there are only so many hours in a day). My demanding career and graduate school demanded that I kept up a certain "image" to project myself as a serious contender for the few slots available to new hires-meaning not being seen on a bike. Now that I don't have the pressure to "succeed," I can enjoy being myself-and ride all the bikes I want-that is, if I choose to do so.
  
• I had a 15 year hiatus establishing my own way in the world. Like most woman, I assumed many more responsibilities than a man in similiar age & circumstances would then. And usually have no free time for much of anything. Men generally are allowed a certain leeway as far as riding bikes. Women are still in charge of running the house and assuming adult expectations & responsibilities sooner.
  
• Women’s responsibilities include primary elder care as well as child care. I left my “wonderful” career to care for my elderly father. In order for me to stay home with him, I gave up the pretense-and mainly the costs-of car ownership, fancy clothing, professional look, and the rest of that phony existence. I bought a couple of old bikes from the 60s and 70s to get around. (That was before the current bike craze when I was still able to pick up a bike for around 25 dollars). If I had to, I used the bus. So, I live (and even now continue to) live simply this way-for now.
  
• The current bike craze has place a great dampener on cycling-at least for me. If you look at my second chart, you will see another bike boom was born around 2008-and another similar drop in bike usage for myself.
  “As of 2008 some industry analysts see signs of surging bicycle popularity”
  -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bike_boom
  That is all well and good, but it has created some more roadblocks for me. Look at the recent pictures I took yesterday (see second post below). Would you share the road, the sidewalk even, detoured, or even prevented from using what little road there is? Yet cars still have the upper hand?
• In the final chart, you will see where the bike does me good-and how limited I am with cycling around my house. Most places I either enjoying going to or must go to are very far out of my cycling comfort range (I placed it at 5 miles surrounding my residence). Assuming I can take my bike without locking it up, I find I have rare need for bikes anymore. Except for an emergency vehicle like it's original purpose was in the first place.

Yes, living car free does work in that respect. But sometimes there will be expected and unexpected events in your life that will change the need to be car-ed or not. For me, the pendulum is swinging back right now. My father is gone now. My mother needs to get around (and balancing her on a bike is not an option). The city has changed. While it appears to be more accommodating to cyclists, my experiences proved otherwise to me-don't believe me? see photos below.
I now will return to driving full time. There is no other option that works around here.

folder fanatic

Here are some photos from a trip to the beach yesterday. I took along my camera to record how "wonderful" it is supposed to be riding a bike even around the beach & surrounding neighborhood-with the traffic congestion and all. The first thing I saw disembarking off my first bus (yes, I took public transit that day), was this sign-the Pedestrian/Cyclist Yield share-the-road-sign (top far left). I felt a wonderment of why in the world do I have to share the sidewalk with faster moving bikes? I thought that was crazy-and a real waste of my tax dollars.

It gets even better. When I finally arrived at my destination, what do I see? These other photographs. Jammed in recreational setting cycling, verses a move promoting serious commuter/utility cycling. It is all well and good. But applicable to living car free? I think not.

dcrowell

You've listed why it won't work for you. I agree it's not attainable for most, but that's because you have to re-arrange your life around it.

I moved to be closer to everything. Others may not have the financial resources to do that. Some just aren't willing.

folder fanatic

I encourage, not discourage, others to make similar charts and really analyzed their lives before giving up driving completely. I find that many people here just blindly encourage others to do like they do, rather than assisting others in a more productive lifestyle changes.

I also look forward to the present bike boom going bust. I look forward to the peace and quiet of not fighting over limited road space again like it was in the 1980s & 1990s to 2008. And not be taken advantaged of at the bike shops charging overly inflated fees because of popularity.

Then I will return to being truly Living Car Free again.

Plus I don't have to put up with problematic people like this:
About 150 cyclists cause a ruckus in Playa del Rey

PLAYA DEL REY - About 150 unruly cyclists, some of whom may have been drinking, held up traffic in Playa del Rey, and six were given citations, police said today."-https://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18652322?source=rss

DX-MAN

Here's a list, "What I Gave Up When I Sold My Last Car"

1. Out-of-town trips.
2. Shopping excursions to the 'new side of town', where all the new development is going -- not really something I care to experience, since they are snobs as well as anti-bike.
3. Deciding to the minute when I go somewhere in nasty weather/road conditions (I take the bus).
4. Carrying more than 50 pounds of . . . whatever.

UberGeek

I'm sure there's lots of reasons people put forth for why car free (lite) doesn't work for them. There are lots of reasons to be put forth for why it works for others.

Much of it has to depend on where one lives. Being car-free in downtown Chicago is almost a requirement (With parking prices). In Knoxville, KY; probably not so much because of the distances between POI's.

Other cities, car-lite can be easily done (I do so in Buffalo), if there is a decent public transportation system.

Caretaker

"I felt a wonderment of why in the world do I have to share the sidewalk with faster moving bikes? I thought that was crazy-and a real waste of my tax dollars."


This is quite common where I live. Usually it only amounts to a couple of signs and white lines on the pavement/sidewalk. Provided both pedestrians and cyclists respect each other it works fine.

Seems utterly sensible to me.

Artkansas 

Well, it's no news that the beach bike path going from PDR south is a scary and dangerous place. Even in the '70s when I was car-free and rode fearlessly all over L.A. in heavy traffic and bad neighborhoods, that bike path was one place where I hesitated to go. One time I got on it, and couldn't help thinking that I'd see a collision. Sure enough, on the way back, a father and son were riding side by side right in front of me. Unexpectedly, the son just wobbled into his father. Only because my paranoia had led me to give them some extra room, was I able to stop in time. Give me La Brea or Broadway at rush hour rather than the beach bike path.

Artkansas 

I think that there isn't anyone who would posit that everyone should go car free. It's true that the facilities have to be there and your life has to be set up right.

Graphs won't help. Charting how I have biked only says history. Charting how I might bike in the future is just a wild guess.

I don't have to make a map up as you did. Within a mile of me I have two grocery stores, a big box store, two movie theaters, many banks, a post office, two bicycle stores, many restaurants, streams filled with fish, muskrats, snakes and birds, a bus to downtown, and a lot of nice neighborhoods. There is a 14 mile long bike path about a mile and a half a way. So car-free works for me, right now.

But as I've said, car-free is a day to day thing.

I don't know if it's a matter of what I give up to have a bike, but rather I assume that as my baseline. The question is if I get a car, do the benefits justify the costs? For you, for now, the answer has become yes, and you are responding correctly.

Steely Dan

i'm living car-free in downtown chicago and parking is stupidly expensive ($3,000/year to rent a parking spot in my building), yet i'm amazed by the number of my neighbors who still choose to own cars despite the expense (and given the fact that we are literally surrounded by car-sharing service cars).

most americans would sooner give up their left arm than surrender private automobile ownership, even in a dense urban city like chicago.

cycleobsidian

It seems that, based on this post, you have had to do some soul searching in order to feel ok with going back to driving. You feel like your return to the car needs to be justified.

In your life, at this time, driving a car makes sense. You have too much on your plate to be able to balance all of your responsibilities, deal with lousy infrastructure, and ride a bike.

Take care of the things you need to take care of and maybe one day if you have fewer demands on your time and better road conditions, you will have the opportunity to cycle more often.

justadude

I'm not advocating, but locally I see more people using golf carts on the side streets, going around in the neighborhood, like visiting people and doing errands.

justadude

Wouldn't you agree though, most or at least half of adults who live and work in the urban neighborhoods of Chicago don't own a car?

Steely Dan

no, i would imagine it's closer to 20-25%. car-sharing would make a ton of fiscal sense for craploads of chicagoans living in urban neighborhoods who only use their cars infrequently, but americans, generally speaking, are very, very bad at sharing.

Newspaperguy

I've been in some areas where car-free or car-light living simply will not be feasible. I've been in other areas where car-free living is extremely difficult but car-light living makes a lot of sense for some. And I've been in some areas where car-free living is easily the best option. I've also seen cases where one person can easily live car-free or extremely car-light, but others cannot achieve this. It depends on where one lives, where one works and various lifestyle choices.

For myself, car-light living makes sense at this point in my life. A decade ago, it was not possible. Car-free living right now would involve some huge changes including a move to another community and a significant job change or some changes in my community and a job change.

I'm interested in moving from car-light to car-free, although this may not be possible for some time. On the other hand, if my life changes and I need to use the car much more often, I'll still work on keeping vehicle use as light as possible, simply because I'd rather not drive any more than necessary.

folder fanatic

My graphs and charts are not fantasies-two are past and present usage of my bikes and one is a future projection based on how much I have been using the bikes from 2008 to now and taking it to the years ahead. I kept careful records of my cycling frequency rates plus the amount of and type of errands I need to do in a given amount of time (day, week month, even year). Then I created the graphs & charts based on the gathered data. I noticed a sharp plumge of me riding less and less since around 2008 corrorlated with the rediscovery of biking by others. Plus spotting those ridiculous signs and even riding recently along the "new" painted bike lanes along the old route I took as a teen going to high school. I witnessed many dangerous habits by all concerned (especially double parking within the painted bike lane or using driving it as another lane by cars) to make me think twice about how great things were supposed to improved since the new boom resurfaced.

I am not actively discouraging others from pursuiting their own car free lifesytle. I am trying to remind people that it is not a bed of roses either or for anyone that is not either really into it or perfer to the the master/mistress of their own environment (you always the one to detour to a quieter street-even sidewalks. I have yet to see cars detoured for a bike-not counting the usual offical bike events). It is really easy for others to give sage advice about when and where to cycle in their own locale and in their own circumstances. I don't think it is wise especially if a car is still needed in their own lives. I have found that the more people adopted the bike (especially recently), the more easily swayed they can be either to permamently store the bike away forever (like my old Raleigh Twenty was almost 40 years ago before I rescued it from the landfill), or immediately run off to join another "in" activity when this particular one loses appeal-which eventually it will.

By the way, most companies hire people with my backround to create "those useless" graphs and charts as visual aids in order to quickly get main points across for the CEOs to make their decisions. I have found they are very powerful indeed. I used Google's own software to create the graphs plus change them to JPEGs in order for posting here, wrote the 1st post presentation, and even store the photographs on for a future Webpage. All available free from Google.

justadude

I don't understand the Projected cycling basis, but agree you shouldn't necessarily limit yourself when you recognize your needs change.

Caretaker

The charts look weird to me.

The horizontal axis for the 15 year hiatus is about 4 times the horizontal axis for the ten years 2000-2010.

They are supposedly compiled from data collected on a daily, weekly basis yet are a series of straight lines.

The future projection chart you say is "based on how much I have been using the bikes from 2008 to now and taking it to the years ahead" but bears absolutely no relation to the the 2008-2011 chart.

"most companies hire people with my backround to create "those useless" graphs and charts as visual aids in order to quickly get main points across for the CEOs to make their decisions"

If this is true of the past it explains a lot. If it's true of the present and the future it's really scary.

harshbarj

I disagree with the opening post completely. Living car free would work for most people. One only has to look to the netherlands to see it would work. Back in the 60's they to were in the grips of car culture, much as we are today but they decided to do something. Today they enjoy nearly a 50% bicycle commuter rate and over that for all trips. This is not 3rd world country either, in many ways they are better than the united states. They have a higher standard of living, higher average personal income and more days off work. They also have an unemployment rate of just 4.1% (as ours creeps towards 9.3%). Now I am not saying it would not hurt and that some would not want to budge, but there is a difference between not wanting to do something and having something work for you.

Pedaleur

Car-free is quite a bit different from high cycling commuter rates. Car ownership in Holland is on par with the UK, Spain, Belgium and France. If you want to make broad generalizations, the Dutch prefer to "use the right tool for the task."

My informal estimate in Denmark (which has lower car ownership rates than Holland) is 5-10% of post-college age adults are car-free.

folder fanatic

It's a projection, not a psychic prediction. I look at it like this: if the boom ends early, I feel that I will return to cycling again at my 1990s level barring illness or other unforeseen circumstances. If the economy stays poor (I feel the basis of this boom) and people seek out cycling at the same or increased rate, I will be forced to limit my cycling to only-if-I-must.

I decided to use the Google doc "drawing" function as I no longer have access to the fancy Word & Excel programs I had at work-victim of the latest downturn. It is a rough sketch rather than a precise fancy ones that my old software used to be able to. I decided to keep my Broadband connection rather than purchasing software I have now very rare, if needed, use for. I rather put the money I could have spent on it (about 150 US dollars) in the car's purchase. If you think using Google was bad, I remember how I completed my senior project's graphs in college using colored pencils, rulers and a manual Smith-Corona typewriter back in the early 1980s. I wonder how the young people would have handled that!

I really like the Dutch. I grew up around them, went to a Dutch immigrant family's own bike shop, learned about quality bikes, and how to commute/utility cycle from them. But I also live here in the good ol' USA. I live in a harsh unforgiving environment that does not now or in the near future support cycling. The video I selected below is a fantasy. I wish it was the case. I wish I could cycle to the nearest drugstore without detours in a trike that is protected from bad weather, park in a parking space without fussing over multiple locks, go in & do business, come out with my packages, load the trike/bike and go home. It is not even true in the Netherlands for the most part. Have you seen the huge locks they use to lock up even junker bikes? Or overwhelm the protected parking areas with all those bikes? I only use the 2 folding bikes (and soon folding trike) that is adaptable for the locale & terrain I actually ride them in. I leave fantasy to the movies and television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJJLhDlxBss&feature=player_embedded

justadude

I'm predicting in the next few years: the economy improves, efficient cars become more prevalent than SUV's, and yet more people ride folding bikes.

alicestrong

Reading your posts FF makes me think that perhaps we need a "car-lite" sub-forum...

folder fanatic

Actually, I would be happy if we maintain a more balance outlook on the bike/car usage according to not only the point of life you are at, but the environment which you live/work in.

But either way, rest assure that I will never give up cycling again for any reason. That is one of the reasons why I am buying a adult delta type tricycle.

Pedaleur

I don't get this. I mean, if various hardships keep you from riding, that's your choice; I don't care. But I don't see how holding up the Dutch, who have overcome all of these hardships, as an example of why you don't bike makes your case.