Redrom

Wow. Hostility... interesting. Well I'm all ears for someone who can lead by example... do you have young children? Do you let your kindergardener bike 2 miles to school in sub-0 degree weather? What is the difference between renting a car to go on vacation, and owning one that you license and insure just for the same time period?

I do think that the tandem trike could work 100% of the time for a family that has made slightly different life choices than we have. Ideally, they would live a little further south, and not be interested in taking vacations. Currently the winter and vacations are the only obstacles we have been unable to reconcile. Also, we had to borrow a neighbors car a couple of times to go to the Emergency Room...

cerewa

Redrom, I think you correctly identified hostility from I-Like-To-Bike but you didn't correctly identify to whom it was directed. He likes to complain about the car free people, not the car owners.

My family lived car free in Aniak, Alaska for two years while the three of us children were within the 2 year to 12 year age-range. Among a great many car-free people who spend significant amounts of time outdoors in the winter. And took vacations. (We grew up with very different expectations about whether owning a car might be useful for a vacation - no roads were available to drive more than 5 miles from home, but we knew plenty of people who would travel by airplane.)

This is not to say that you should try living car free with several small children if you don't want to. But it is possible, and it's possible to do so in a fun and healthy way. Of that I am sure.

Roody

Some families choose to keep a car, but replace it with a bike for many or most of their errands and leisure trips.

I have no idea what they're smoking, but i want some.

Roody

In Traverse City, Mich. I see a number of families riding their kids to school throughout the winter, and I've also seen them shopping with children at grocery stores in the winter. They might not be carfree, but they're certainly replacing the car for shopping and school commutes. Traverse City is a rather ritzy community in northern Michigan that is in the lake effect snow zone.

I haven't seen this much in Lansing, where I live, even though we're further south and get a lot less snow. (However, I believe a member of this forum does ride with her kids in Lansiing all winter--I just never saw her.)

And for vacations, it depends on what your family likes to do. Flying (or taking a train or bus) to a single destination like a resort, ski slope or big city would be very practical for a carfree family vacation. Road trips and camping probably require a car, at least until the kids are old enough to tour on bikes.

jdmitch

Are you expecting the kids to help pedal? I'm thinking two bikes + two kid seats. Or (what we're considering when we get the third kid), two Madsen Bucket bikes.

Don't get me wrong, I would love a Surrey Deluxe Limo. But two Madsens seems, to me, far more practical. (or two CetmaCargo / Bakifet / Big Dummy / Joe Bike {which looks awesome, BTW})

We won't get rid of our family car when we go to this. Especially in horrible weather (though I'd go out by myself and my definition of horrible is probably different than most), but it will let us go extrememly car lite.

mamaC

Okay, that was so cool! The link of me in my signature is me pulling/riding with all 4 of my kids, but this one you linked to is way cooler!

Hey, fyi, Madsen is giving away a free cargo bike (holds up to 4 kids/adults and can come with a cap for rain). They're giving away one a week, so your chances are pretty good to just win one! (Although if you buy one & then win, they'll refund your $ AND give you a free one to give away or sell!!!) https://www.madsencycles.com/?utm_source=LinkContestB200x300&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=LinkContestQ209

Roody

Here's mamaC:



So cool!

Are you seeing this, ILTB? It looks like they're replacing a car with a bike.

Artkansas 

How could they? They don't appear to be swilling gasoline and dumping hydrocarbons into the air.

I-Like-To-Bike

Using Roody™ Brand Logic, everybody "replaces" a car with a bike everytime they use a bike to go anywhere; if you think your silliness answers the mail, enjoy. If thinking/debating like a doofus works for you, you will always be right and win every argument.

BTW, are those Mama C's family cars in the picture? I suspect a van is more likely mama's ride when it come to hauling the family farther than around the neighborhood, especially in unpleasant weather, doncha think?

ModoVincere

I've always found the Rhoades car intriguing. Often thought it would be possible to mount batteries and a solar charging system on it to essentially make it an electric assisted pedal car. I think for intown use, something like this could be quite handy for short errands such as grocery store runs. It wouldn't work for everyone, but it would make sense for some.

mamaC

Ha! Thanks! It of course depends on who is defining 'replace'. Hold on, let me get out my can opener and open the can of worms. With a family of 6 living in the cold wet rainy snowy midwest, total replacement just can't happen... unless it involved a time machine and reliable birth control. So in my case, I replace the 'family' car as much as I can with my bike. We ride to get ice cream, groceries, visit the library, run errands, visit friends, go to the park, etc. For trips to the ER, longer jaunts and any time the weather is really bad -- we use our (Yes, I-like-to-bike) van.

I lurk in this forum a lot, because I learn a lot from you all! While total car-free isn't possible for me right now, my goal is to be as car-free as possible.

Nope, those are my neighbor's cars. Van and a eco friendly compact are in my garage... parked there as much as possible.

I-Like-To-Bike

No excuses necessary, mama c for hauling your healthy looking family by the preferred or most practical means as determined by you. Not as sanctioned by a handful of single guys smoking pixie dust at their keyboards, giving advice about "replacing the family car;" advisers with no personal experience with family transportation and who have no responsibility to transport anything more valuable than themselves and some cat litter or a six pack back to their apartment, parent's basement or some other type of bachelor pad.

Platy

That would work fine with a little infrastructure. Last year LCF poster Fairmont described the golf cart trails in Peachtree City, Georgia:

I-Like-To-Bike

Just a "little" infrastructure? How would you plan to drop that "little" infrastructure in on any built up US city that provides significant employment for the people who live there?

Didn't sound like anybody but a handful of famiy people in Peachtree City could afford to replace their family car if they weren't independently wealthy or could work from home and seldom went farther than the range of their golf cart or the city limits. I don't suppose too many of those Delta pilots and Airport employees have replaced their family car yet with pedal power.

DX-MAN

From a family standpoint, you'd have to call me 'car-lite', as my sister & her hubby (who live w/ me) have cars. I don't drive, though -- been behind the wheel 1x this year. I pedal or ride the bus.

I honestly think we'd do as well, or even better, from a daily standpoint, if internal combustion took the form I think it should...that of nothing larger than a motorcycle engine for personal transport. The old, corporately-buried Tri-Hawk proved the concept, as did the kit-available FireAero -- motorcycle frames fitted with two-wheel front ends and 2-4 seats. Anything up to 125 miles could be handled this way, and an improvement in mass transit could take care of further distances, or maybe even rentals.

Just my 2c.......

Roody

If somebody rides a bike on a trip where they would otherwise have driven a car, they are indeed replacing the car. Look it up.
P.S. the personal insults are uncalled for. I have not insulted you, although I very much want to.

Roody

A lot of cities have passed Complete Street ordinances, and similar legislation. This calls for a gradual addition of infrastructure for cycling and walking as streets are added or repaved. In the case of my city, planners must consider spending 5 % of any streets project on bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

Yes, it will take many years or even decades for this work to be finished but improvements can be seen almost immediately. This is a very good time for cities and counties to adopt Complete Streets, since so much stimulus money is now being allocated for street repairs.

I-Like-To-Bike

By the same logic/parsing of definitions, everybody is "car free" whenever they are not physically using a car. Ya think anybody here would use that definition unless they were deliberately trying to be obtuse? Try reading the OP and see if your out of context use of the word "replace" fits this thread.

Doug5150

The opinion on velomobile/recumbent forums seems to be that four wheels is a dead-end. Three wheels is much more efficient than four, in terms of simple weight as well as frame design practicality.
~

Platy

Same way we made everything car accessible - a little at a time, do the easiest parts first.

Artkansas 

I hadn't noticed any such bias when I hang out there. I'm not sure you can presume to speak for those forums.

For multi-rider vehicles other than tandem bikes and large cargos, I don't think that 4 wheels can be beaten. I think that each area will find its appropriate vehicles.

Robert C

Consider existing vehicles in the class. The cargo carrying bicycles in China, are basically long tricycles with a pick up style bed. The bicycle taxis all over the world, even here in the US, are generally three wheeled.

The market for heavy load carrying bicycles has chosen three wheels.