I-Like-To-Bike

Some may just wish a quick exit for the so-called pro-environmentalists (and vegans, and atheists and others who have strong opinions on proper/correct personal behavior) AND insist on sanctimoniously proselytizing everyone else on this list with their personal vision of high morality as an essential lifestyle component for everyone else, car free or not.

Jim from Boston

In response to the question of the OP, ”What's awesome about Living Car Free,” I posted and Ekdog replied,

Then,

Ekdog

I think you've hit the nail on the head as regards many posters to this forum. They know that if they mention environmental motives for leading a car-free or car-light life, they will be labelled as insincere, sanctimonious proselytizers, so they choose not to bring the matter up or, if they do, they make sure to soft-pedal it. Climate change denial and the promotion of automobilism, on the other hand, appear to be de rigueur here, and those who engage in it normally receive a warm welcome. How strange that this should be the case in, of all places, a forum dedicated to living without a car!

Walter S

I agree. People that want to change the world in their own small way are critized as being crazy wackos. LCF should be a place where we support each other more. I get caught up in minutia too frequently. But I recognize you as a kindred sprit regarding lots of LCF issues including this one.

Ekdog

Thanks. It's good to know I'm not a lone wolf.

Joe Minton

Nancy and I have one car between us but I seldom drive it. It would be very difficult to not include a car in our lives since we must sometimes drive 40 miles for a doctor's appointment and Nancy's mom needs to be driven around some (she's 92). This is Southern California and has no universal or very effective mass transit system.

I sold my car over a year ago. I did it for three reasons: 1) I can't afford a car, 2) one is enough between us and 3) I'd simply rather bike.

I use my bikes (3 working) to make shopping runs, doctor's appointments (8 miles each way) and for recreation/exercise. Plus --- I've learned that riding around my neighborhood has allowed me to meet so many fine people, fine dogs and, well --- you get my meaning ;o)

The health benefits are legion. My blood pressure is now 105/64 & resting pulse = 54. Not bad for a 74 year old man with a BMI of .30

Most of all ---- riding, smelling the world, seeing the world at a reasonable pace, saying "Hello!" to the people I meet, both two and four legged, has been transformational. I've never enjoyed 'getting around' more in my entire and rather long life.

Peace.

Joe

Walter S

You're an inspiration Joe. I love to read posts from older folks like you. They read like a road map of life.

cooker

Again, it is not about morality, it is about harm. If I simply don't like someone's lifestyle, that's my problem. If their lifestyle is harming somebody else then I should speak up. But even then, I don't see a lot of people here telling other people how to live (can you find me an example?) Most of the discussion is about facilities, infrastructure, policies and expenditures and how they affect society as a whole, not about individual people somehow making evil choices. That's only in your vivid imagination.

tandempower

It's not evil if the harmful choices are being made unintentionally, without knowledge of the harm done. It becomes evil once people become aware of the harm done and dismiss the need to put effort into eliminating or at least reducing the harm. Indifference to known harm can thus be evil, although in some cases it's not that people wish to cause harm but that they feel powerless to avoid or resist it. This is usually because people see themselves and their choices as part of a more complex system that is beyond themselves and their power as individuals to affect. Some people resort to denial because they have just enough faith in the power of individuals and conscience to change things for the better that they legitimately fear losing the benefits and privileges they get from the harmful thing they are defending against change.

Walter S

Evil just the same. Evil=Harmful or tending to harm.

Walter S

One of the things I enjoy about being car free is that I've lost the need for an exercise regimen. Exercise is a side effect of living. If I do virtually all of life's transport challenges with my bicycle it keeps me fit without being exercise with no other benefit. It takes less discipline to do physically challenging things that happen to just be errands in my life.

It's like my commute to work. I can't motivate myself to ride 40 miles every day for the hell of it. But hey, if there's a paycheck involved the ride suddenly has a purpose that drives it. I just hauled a 60 pound load of birdseed home from Walmart with my cargo trailer. The Walmart is only three miles round trip but there's a deep valley between us - a thrill to go down but a bear of a climb. Last weekend I brought a case of wine home from Trader Joes - 16 mile round trip. I took all afternoon, and stopped and had lunch enroute. Also this week, I hauled five gallons of diesel fuel for my tractor.

I used to get lazy between spurts of motivation to get really fit. That can lead to more sore muscles or injury over exerting. What works for me is to live my life on the bicycle and avoid dramatic compromises because of it. Instead rise to the challenge and feel strong and energized because of it.

Living car free I stay in tip top shape. It's a nice feeling baseline for launching all my adventures. To go on a bicycle tour, there's no "training". The tour starts and ends at my front door. Again, it's a miraculous feeling that all I need to do to enable riding all day and repeat that the next, is just keep living on the bicycle. And weekend camping is always an adventure. I can enjoy the days ride more if the riding is something I can take for granted.

Walter S

And what then? Who finds it a horrible thing that their normally car free life had to be compromised because they "have to use a vehicle"?

Of course we don't live car free in a literal sense. It's an expression that sums up a lifestyle of minimizing dependence on cars. Do you work for an employer? Does your boss drive a car? Do you shop at the grocery store? Do they employ people that drive cars? We depend on a network of goods and services that are heavily dependent on cars. That can't be seen as car free. But when taken down to the level of our personal lives we tend to call not owning or driving a car with regularity "car free".

Do you really see people here "boasting" about their car free status? What's an example of that? I'm car free and happy about that. Maybe even a bit proud of my accomplishment, having learned in detail how to manage a car free life after not being raised that way. Is there anything wrong with liking your choices and wanting to share them with like minded individuals and exchange information/tips? If you don't want to read comments from people that are enjoying a car free lifestyle then you've picked a strange subforum to find your reading material.

As for the possibility that I would eventually "have to use a vehicle", I don't lose much sleep about it. If I need to drive a car I'll give it some thought and then proceed. A car is a tool. I just choose not to use a sledge hammer when a rubber mallet is handier and not so dramatic. I save the need for driving for when the situation requires driving. In practice it's been a few years since I had that need. When I needed to, I rented a car for a day.

What should it mean to me when I rent a car? That I'm no longer "car free" and that's oh so terrible and ruins everything I thought my life stood for? No, it just means that I finally needed that sledge hammer so I used it.

Walter S

I agree Roody. I think when you're used to driving everywhere it can lead to the feeling that "there's nothing around here" and that to get "anywhere" you need to drive. When I quit driving I started discovering neat places all around me. Last summer that took on new dimensions because I broke my arm and couldn't ride my bicycle for a while. So I walked a lot instead. In the process, I discovered some little parks and walking trails within a couple miles that I knew nothing about before even though I've lived here for years and years.

Walking gives me a more intimate connection with my surroundings than bicycling does. I'm also more accessible for friendly exchanges with other people on the street. My bicycle had become my go-to mode of transport but now I've deliberately made walking a regular experience I'll maintain. When I walk I can investigate anything I see and my mind can roam more freely, with little concern for things like checking my rear-view mirror for cars.

Walking makes the world around me bigger and full of variety.

Walter S

Another awesome thing about living car free is the inexpensive fun to be had when you don't have to pay for everywhere you go. Having experiences that are rich and don't cost money makes them all the better. As I approach the time when I can retire from my job I find myself looking for free fun and living car free is a key part of that.

Yesterday I rode my bicycle to Stone Mountain and hiked to the top. Had I driven there, I would need to be maintaining a car, paying for gas for the trip, and paying an admission fee to go to the park. But my whole day was totally free. I rode to the park and cruised past the line of cars at the gate since bicycles are admitted for free. I locked up the bicycle, hiked up and down the mountain, had some fruit and a powerbar I brought with me. Total tab? $0.00

Ekdog

That rings a bell. Ah, yes, of course:

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I think I'd like to hike to the top of Stone Mountain.

wolfchild

That sounds a lot like some type of political/social/religious/environmental activism...I am not surprised at all. I see this all the time on this forum... According to a few regulars on this list a person doesn't even qualify for LCF status and LCF membership card unless they become involved in social/political activism, environmental activism, freedom fighting and animal/human rights movements and tree planting.

Ekdog

You're joking, right? I can't believe anyone could seriously object to that post, which refers to a mountain in the United States and to an allusion that was made to it in a speech fifty-three years ago. There's nothing political about it. I often ride out to the Roman ruins of Italica. If I were to mention that here, would you object on the grounds that it has associations with the Second Punic War and with the emperors Trajan and Hadrian and is thus political in nature?

I really think you need to turn off your computer for a while and go outside to get some fresh air and exercise. Cycling is great for that. Leave your SUV at home.

Walter S

Walk on eggs.

Walter S

Maybe he misses the good old days before MLK helped lift the smothering oppression of negros in the south?

Ekdog

I doubt he's old enough to remember those days, but if he really thinks there's anything political or controversial about the words I quoted from Dr. King's famous speech, he must be caught up in a time warp. I prefer to believe he's not a white separatist.

Ekdog

Anyway, your earlier post got me thinking: Cycling to famous places and historical and archeological sites can be fun and inexpensive. We're lucky to have quite a few Roman ruins around here, as I mentioned, and we often cycle out to see them with friends. What types of sites are the rest of you fond of visiting car-free?

cooker

Being a fellow Canadian I had to look it up. It's a Martin Luther King quote that specifically mentions Stone Mountain. Lighten up man - you need to get back on the bike.

TuckertonRR

So Mayberry still exists? Must be nice.

Roody

I also enjoy riding my bike to visit historic landmarks in my area.

I rode my bike to see the places where Malcolm X lived while he was a young child here in Lansing and Mason. MI. It was quite interesting and inspirational. I also toured many other locations where African-Americans settled and lived both before and after the Great Migration. Alot of this was done on foot since the locations are quite close to the house I'm living in now.

I've also visited a number of sites that were important in the early development of the automobile industry. One of the first auto assembly plants in the world were built here by Ransom Olds, and the plant is still used today to build Cadillacs and Camaros. I also found the location of the old proving grounds where Oldsmobile tested cars for many years.

Olds's mansion was torn down in the 1960s (to make way for an expressway! that was then named after him!). But I've hunted down many other beautiful buildings designed by that architect in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

I've been searching for local evidence of the streetcars and interurban trains but so far haven't found any.

I'm not saying that I couldn't have done some of this by car. But touring as a cyclist or pedestrian brings me closer in spirit to past events and people and allows me to make better observations.

wolfchild

Nothing wrong with visiting archeological sites and tourist attractions. I have visited few ancient Native American archeological sites, I have also visited former Nazi Concentraction camps which have been made into tourist attractions when I was in Europe...I just fail to see why some posters are using quotes from civil rights movement on a cycling forum. I just fail to see any connection between LCF and social activism. Car-free movement and civil rights movement have absolutely nothing in common with one another.