humancongereel

[QUOTE=manewal] 4 bags of groceries with a case of beer lashed on top. This rig has hauled 320 lbs up a 30 degree incline. QUOTE]

you are my hero. beer and bikes...ha ha. yes, please.

biodiesel

Bay Area of San Francisco. You get some rain but mostly warm weather, lots of mass transit options, a good bike culture and a diverse mix of populations and environments.

I live in Palo Alto/ Mountain View, two small towns that have stayed on bicycling's best biking towns. I can ride to work, train into San Jose or San Francisco. I've ridden to Santa Cruz, crossed the bridge to Marin County and ridden to Bodega Bay. A quick drive and you totally change climates. I've driven to Yosemitie (4 hours) and ridden from the central valley to the high sierras.
Beach, mountains, farmlands, redwoods, Santa Cruz mountains, city and small town...

thelung

I'm car free, I go to school in Richmond, VA and live in Virginia Beach, VA. Its a lot easier in Richmond but VB is not bad either.

kevink159

Madison, Wi. Great bike paths and cagers are very courteous, but crappy midwestern winters.

___

I live a train stop or two away from Mr. King -- the area is ok, but the commuter rail is true to it's name and only built and run Mon - Sat. during typical work hours (6am to around 10pm) so it is occasionally a hassle to get out to a few places not in biking distance....since I'm going to be doing the majority of my remaining graduate studies remotely I'm probably going to be moving back around one of the light rail stations in Dallas where contrary to popular belief I find it relatively easy to get around w/o a car (and I go all over the metro area).

Mtn Mike

You commute from Richmond to VB? Or do you have residences in both cities?

noisebeam

Well, most of Tempe (where I live) itself is a sprawl. I commute to south Chandler, ride to Phoenix on occasion, ride to big box stores (when there is no other choice) in Mesa. I don't see much difference between riding in Tempe vs. riding out of it. Some roads are fantastic to ride on, others (high speed with narrow outside lane) are less enjoyable.

Longest I've gone without using car is 7 weeks. I've been kinda car free for a couple weeks now as the battery in my truck died and I can't see myself carrying a new one on my back and don't have a trailer, so I don't have a replacement yet.

Summers are fine for midday/afternoon bike for trips 10mi and less. Over that and you need to be careful or go in mornings.

Al

patc

Ottawa, ON, Canada. Beautiful city to cycle in, give or take a little winter.

cerewa

I regularly traveled 3 or 4 miles to high school by bicycle in Anchorage, AK. Anchorage isn't as bad as you'd think because it's never windy and really cold at the same time. In my opinion, Anchorage is very car-friendly but also fairly bike-friendly. The roads are straight and wide, and you can easily use sidewalks for biking, which works for people uncomfortable with being passed by cars going 50mph, because people almost never walk on the sidewalks except downtown. (things are too spread out.)

I bike-commuted to college in Montreal, QC. It was really cold sometimes in the winter. Other than that I thought it was a great place to ride a bike. To me, Center City Montreal would be a ridiculous place to use a car.

TuckertonRR

NJ suburbs of Philadelphia. Not bad, most roads have descent shoulders, buses have bike racks, and it's not really bad to get into downtown Philly which is very good for cycling, in my opinion, on most streets, anyways. Weather ranges from very hot to very cold, but most days arent bad.

kurremkarm

Wichita, Ks. Not a bike friendly town. I been carfree two years. Usually I ride on the streets and plan routes to avoid the busy ones at busy times. Sometimes i find it easier to ride on the sidewalk.

In the winter i use knobby tires. I have a basket on the front for groceries that i take off when i am not using it.

Everything is close. Work is < 2 miles away via the park.

Mtn Mike

I lived and worked car free in Anchorage for about 4 months a few years ago. I lived downtown on 9th Ave. The town was pretty easy to navigate by bike, once I learned to avoid the major car routes. When the snow started to fall, it wasn't much of a problem because the cars packed it down enough to make it ridable.

attercoppe

I've recently moved to a small town in central Colorado and rediscovered bicycling. I am originally from hot 'n' humid Missouri, most recently St. Louis. I never felt like even cruising around, much less going anywhere, in MO - too hot and sticky in the summer, too wet and/or cold most of the rest of the time. Here in my new home it is cool and dry, and living in a small town everything I need (work, grocery, laundry) is close by. There is some beautiful riding outside of town (as well as around town). The area is a big tourist draw, mostly during the summer, so there are good bike lanes along the roads. Locals in general are used to seeing and sharing the road with bikers, and many residents are bikers themselves. I am still getting used to the altitude, and am also an ex-smoker (still recovering), but I greatly enjoy riding again. I highly recommend a small town, with good weather and friendly people, for a car-free lifestyle.

powerhouse

Portland, Maine. Formerly, I'm from Belgrade Lakes, Maine

I've lived here for about 5 years. It's Maine's largest city with about 65000 people.

It has a relatively good bus system here with most of its routes in service every day. Each bus has a rack for bicycles. Greyhound and Trailways bus services stop here, along with Amtrak. Most of the major streets have side lanes, including the ones leading out of the city. Bicycle shops abound, some of them with their own clubs. However, traffic is rather unfriendly.

I get around by walking, biking, using the bus system, or cabs. Maine life, however, is largely associated around getting around cold weather and snow. Maine is a great place for biking when there's no snow, but I'm not out biking in the dead of winter.

Raiyn

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I'm not "from" St. Pete, but I live there

nathank

originally from Dallas TX.

currently live in Munich Germany (4 years now)
Munich is VERY easy to be car-lite or car-free as:
* VERY compact city so distances small - around 90% of companies/residences/destinations are within 7 mile radius of center (near-metro around 1.5 million) - so walking, biking and bus are reasonable
* great public transit (subway, busses and trams in the city + trains for long-distance travel)
* bike-aware auto drivers
* bike lanes (although many poorly designed)
* long-distance bike routes (e.g. along rivers, major roads or train lines)
* 2 car-sharing companies
* downtown pedestrian zone
* city designed for pedestrian usage and then retro-fitted for auto usage (most North American cities opposite)
* climate ok - summer not too hot and winter not too cold (although fair amount of rain)
* while a car is an important social status symbol for the well-to-do in Germany it is not assumed that everyone has a car or that you are "deprived" without a car

spent 3 years in Portland OR.
Portland is one of the best US cities to be car-free/lite although it is not nearly as easy as in Europe.
* more compact than most US cities
* great planning organizations that attempt to plan the city transporation for multi-mode (i.e. bike, bus, pedestrain and auto instead of just designing road for cars)
* active bicycle advocacy (Bicycle Transportation Authority)
* decent bus service and light rail system with strong intergration for bicycles (i.e. racks on buses and bikes on rail)
* environmentally conscious culture so biking is "cool" and seen as a "good for society" thing
* because of large number of cyclists, drivers are bike-aware
* drivers are pretty bike-friendly (exceptions are mostly conservative out-of-Portland types who believe bikes belong on the sidewalk)
* relatively pro-environment, pro-sustainability government officials who see value in and support cycling as a way of life
* strong critical mass and "alternative bike culture" (although this has brought out many police-masser conflicts)
* mild climate so year-round cycling no problem (it drizzles but you just get wet)
- outside of the Portland metro area you cannot do much without a car (Amtrak only runs north or south)

and the rest of my time was in Texas (Dallas, Austin, Houston) where being sans car is about as easy and socially accepted as being gay in rural Texas (i'm not, and nothing against being gay, but i wouldn't want to try it in rural Texas). Austin is _better_ than the rest of Texas but EVERYTHING is still car-oriented and you are a FREAK if you don't drive a car -- you know, the size of your truck and how loud the engine is defines your social status and a bike (other than a Harley) is not big, cannot pull anything "impressive" and is not loud... so you must not be a "real Texan"...

ok, my entire family is made up of Texans and Texans are nice people, it's just not a good place to bicycle or try to live without a car (or be a liberal or care about the environment) --- although it can be done anywhere - i was car-lite in Houston Texas for 2 years - you get used to the "are you sure you don't want me to give you a ride? it's awful hot out there."; "when will your car be out of the shop?"..."it's not in the shop. i just like riding my bike."..."no really, what's wrong with your car? do you need gas money?"..."no, i ride my bike for my health and to reduce pollution and my consumption of fossil fuels, but mainly becuase i like to"... "no, really, i can give you a lift. it's no big deal!"

___

....are you sure you still don't need a ride?

I often think about moving to a more ped/bike friendly city/atomosphere, but I'm kinda "stuck" here for a minute and just make the best out of a poorly planned built environment.

K6-III

Born in Moscow, USSR. Moved to Minneapolis, MN when I was 4.

Grew up in the suburbs, where it is OK to poor to be car-free, but doable for those with the desire to do it.

Living in the city, it is easier, especially in downtown, as it is the terminus for almost all the buses, which are otherwise not as convenient. As downtown is thoroughly lacking in grocery stores, it's not as good as it should be. As 3 are in the process of going up within fairly decent distance, it is getting better.

In any case, I'll be moving to Montreal when I graduate. Much better city life, the public transport is amazing, the the women are so much better looking.

Biker2004

Garden Grove, CA is STILL a nice place to ride despite all the traffic in the area.

genericbikedude

New York. Harlem, baby.

Cabbies are jerks, yes. But they are predictable jerks.

shishi

NYC. Brooklyn. Drivers suck and sh%tty streets.

drbianchi

Seattle here. Wedgwood to be exact. 8 mile commute one way to work and I live in between (within a two block walk) two grocery stores and a drug store. It fairly easy to go car free or car lite. Our vehicle is mainly used to get to the recreation areas that we are blessed with in this state.

SpokesInMyPoop

Portland, OR. Car-free be mee... my opinion: Portland is a great place to be car free. Trimet is pretty awesome, bike lanes almost everywhere, not to mention the ordinance that bikes are allowed use of a full lane ! (although I wish the lady who passed me by this morning knew that when I took the lane >:\)

Originally from Honolulu, HI. I had a car while living there :B But also managed to use my bike when I needed to (like when my car got impounded ).

uhh... that about does it, I suppose :B

humancongereel

if you like portland enough, you'll just start to deal with the rain. i love it there, and i don't like rain, but i just learned to become indifferent. plus, it doesn't rain hard very often. it's more like it drizzles on and off constantly.

Alekhine

From Buffalo, NY, but moved to Santa Rosa, CA for better weather.

So...Santa Rosa. No problems so far. Digging the sunny 70 degree daytime temps here in mid-November. On the other hand, the rent is killer for the tiniest little craphole imaginable. Toss up, but the weather really does kind of make up for it.