gerv 

Of course your choice of residence has to be decided in consideration of many factors. Single people probably have fewer of these factors... but they are not immune to some either... like proximity to family, job, services. For families with children, there are a few more factors... schools, safe places to play.

I know that we sometimes read posts here where folks will say "Hey... I'm moving to Portland so I can be carfree."

I suspect that even in those cases we are seeing only one of the decision factors. It's probably the case that these people are young, no children, not tied to a particular career or job... they may also be hoping to get away from their family and find new friends.

The carfree aspect is naturally just one considerration, even for the most provincial carfree zealot. Of course you read about it here... because here's where we talk about the carfree decision factors. If you want to read about schools or family or whatever, you'd head over to some other forum.

No?

I-Like-To-Bike

Yes; but - this list is also the place where some posters post messages about how easy it would be for almost everybody else to either go car free, or just pick up and move to a place where they could/should be car free, like the happy go lucky zealots/ideologues posting such provincial observations.

gerv 

I suppose this does happen.

I guess we should have a sign right over the front door. "All posts IMHO". I know I take almost every thing I read on BF (for that matter, everything I read on the Internet...) with a grain of salt. For LCF or any other forum you can get a good idea of "best practices" or good ideas by getting a consensus from many, many posts.

But you also need to compare that consensus with what you experience in your personal life. For example, if I read 10 posters telling me I should pick and head for Portland, I nod, but I don't pack my bags. Not that it wouldn't be a good idea for many folks who visit LCF, but maybe not for me. I assume the same for everyone else here.

AsanaCycles

multi modal transport is pretty darn cool
trains in particular
i think its great to ride your bike to the train station and tour all over.
i've never been to Europe, etc.. so i can only imagine what thats like.

work in the city
and live in the suburbs
with a 20 mile one way trip
SoCal is totally crazy
i'd be amazed if you could get out of Los Angeles in 20 miles. (other than going to Catalina)
the biggest greenest spot in LA is Forest Lawn Cemetery (maybe I'm wrong) but it sure looks like it.

personally I don't like cities
much less megacities... (based on my experience with cities, which is mostly Ca cities, mega cities, LA, and maybe SF falls into this category, not sure of the pop of SF)
the topic of MegaCities alone is amazing!

Arcata, Ca is awesome. i really dig it there, too bad the job scene is so bleak.
Santa Cruz, Ca is also awesome
Santa Barbara? a little bit too LA for me, but it does have Amtrak that goes right into LA
Ventura, Ca? i grew up there, its a nice "beach town" (i guess), but its way too crowded for my liking. the houses begin to look like barracks to me, complete with a duty schedule, etc...

so i guess, it kind of comes down to the Community.
I would imagine there is a mega city somewhere, that is full of "villages" where it may be nice to live... maybe.

for me personally, I've done a fair amount of researching that "perfect blend" of climate, bicycle facility, natural settings, jobs, crime rate, local clubs, the racing scene, and what the locals are like.

in fact, actually, i know it sounds crazy, but quality of Bicycle Life, is the primary factor in my life. I actually go somewhere, on the train, bus, with my bike, and check it out. see what its like to look at jobs, where the stores are at, the housing, the crime rates, and what it is actually like to ride my bike there, and actually run around town acting as if I'd be living there, going to work, etc... check out the bike shops, get with the local club, and go for group rides.

another place i think would be pretty cool, is Hawaii...maybe.

in the SoCal sense, the sprawl, and absorbing small towns/villages along the way...
well...
so like what? West Lake Village? Simi Valley? Chatsworth? Morepark, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Brentwood?

SoCal is huge. i think 80% of California lives south of Santa Barbara.
my siblings live Fairfax/Melrose area in LA, and I know my feeling is that its a major bummer!

NorCal is a little different. SF has BART, CalTrain, and in particular, Livermore, Pleasanton... but really, in my view, its still communities developing under sprawl, secondary to 680 and 580...

but i'm spoiled that way.
i prefer small towns like Monterey, Santa Cruz, Arcata

if there are nice suburbs, and viable mass transit, (i guess rail) I think its great!

Newspaperguy

I've never moved to a town or city because of the cycling culture, but I haven't yet lived in a place hostile to cycling. Any community can work for cycling.

I'm quite interested in a number of quality of life issues and if those are not met, I'd quickly reject a community. I'll consider factors such as the size of a community, the distance from work, church, shopping and recreation and the culture or character of a place. If I had children, proximity to schools and the quality of education would be a prime factor. If I was near retirement, I'd look for a vibrant population of seniors.

These factors all make for a community where car-free or car-light living can work, but that's just a bonus, not the main reason for choosing a place to live.

Roody

I don't think anybody would point to my city as the perfect place to be carfree and dependant on bicycles. But I'm living proof that it can be done here, and done happily. I think that most communities can suport a bicycle dependance if you're smart enough to make it work.

There are some exceptions, however. If you live in the esceptions you might want to do what you can to change things. Encourage good public transit and work to get them to improve the pavement infrastructure so that you can cycle more efficiently.

Bizurke

I've been car free since 2004 and I live in a town of about 120,000 people in Iowa. I move around a bit but I tend to live on the edge of town. This can complicate things when it comes to grocery shopping or doing laundry but I've always got by just fine. I have also lived in a town of about 1200 people in the middle of no where and didn't have a car. I did however ride along with someone in to the nearest town to shop about once a month, the 120mi round trip wouldn't have been very good with a months groceries and other items.

Over all being able to live car free is more about the person than the location. I think being in the middle of an urban area could be nicer at times, but I think I would rather live in a town about this size or a decent sized suburb of a larger city.

gerv 

As long as you don't have to cycle 40 miles for groceries, I guess a suburb could be OK. To me, it seems like it would be very isolating.

Machka 

What's wrong with cycling 40 miles for groceries?

Artkansas 

The ice cream and popsicles melt.

Machka 

I only shop for ice cream and popsicles in the winter. Unless I'm going to eat them right away.

enine

Where do you get this info from. We moved to the suburbs because beng inside the city everything was too far away. Now I have 5 grocery stores witin 2 miles of home.

I-Like-To-Bike

Maybe the source of such information is the same that reports that people have to be rich or millionaires to afford the cost of automobile ownership and maintenance, or would be millionaires if they only they remain wise enough to never have any transportation costs that involve a privately owned motor vehicles.

Roody

very well said. This could be the motto of the forum.


This depends on the area. You really can't generalize or stereotype locations. I believe there is only one large supermarket in the entire city of Detroit, for example, but many stores in the suburbs. OTOH, I live near downtown Lansing and there's a Kroger only a half-mile from my house, and several other big supermarkets within 4 miles.

I think it's a good idea to research an area carefully in person and on your bike before you move--especially if you're carfree.

Lamplight

In my town, the suburbs do sometimes have various necessary stores within a couple of miles. The problem is, most of the roads have no bike lanes or shoulders, and since everyone drives (like maniacs, of course) then it would be extremely dangerous to actually try to bike to those stores from the neighborhoods. And, being designed the way they are, those stores are almost never accessible by anything but major roads, where all the worst traffic is. All of the quiet side streets go nowhere. In the older parts of towns, there are countless grocery stores, hardware stores, department stores, restaurants, schools, a library, doctor's offices, and...well...everything you could need and almost everything you could want. The traffic is still insane, but at least a cyclist can take side streets or the MUP and get nearly anywhere in town without having to deal with much traffic. One thing I don't like about my town is that it's not very walkable. Even in town a lot of things are still spread out a bit too much to comfortably walk everywhere. A bicycle is pretty much a necessity in most locations here. Oh, and in town we also have a bus system, although it's practically useless to most people.

I think a lot of people are over-zealous when they first discover they can get around by bike. I'll admit, when I first started I thought, "Wow, this is great. Why doesn't everyone do this?" But of course, when you actually stop to think about you can see that many people could not for all sorts of reasons.

uke

+1.

chephy

However, many more indeed could, just don't wanna.

I-Like-To-Bike

Sure many could, but don't wanna. Many more could also attend regular religous services or go fishing but don't because they don't wanna. So what?

gwd

Its almost 9 years since I sold the car and I still think that way as I pedal around doing errands. I don't really analyze peoples excuses because I don't usually solicit them. But, lately, just yesterday in fact, the bike parking at the grocery store was full up. I took the last slot. Now I'm thinking- "I'm glad everyone doesn't do this. I'd have no where to park."

zeppinger

A lot of car drivers are "over-zealous" when they first get their licenses/cars too. In-fact a lot of them stay that way for the rest of their lives.

Torrilin

If it happens more than once, let them know. The grocery store out back used to have just one wheelbender rack, and it was often full. Now they have 4 (2 wheelbenders, 2 waves), and don't seem to get full (despite more bikes being parked). They have a small parking lot, and there's no good way to fit in more cars... but they could easily fit another 15 bike spots if they need to.

They're a lot busier since they added the extra racks, and it's not the nicest grocery store to bike to by a long shot.

Lamplight

Yes, I've noticed that as well.

CW Spook

There's definitely more than one solution for carefree. 1 million, 2 million, 3 million.....

Bah Humbug

I love driving. I love doing a double-clutched, rev-matched downshift into second before flooring it away from a slow corner. You can have my steering wheel when you pry it from my cold dead hands. However, I do not like being dependent on a car, and am eager to get moved to Boulder so that I can have a cheap, old, unreliable toy car and not be out of sorts when it breaks.

mike

It sounds like you have a pretty unique and enviable situation. You live in an urban town with everything you need very close at hand. You are physically capable of a daily 40+ mile commute AND you have public transportation within a mile of your home that brings you righto your city.

Most of us would have to ask someone to pinch us everyday just to make sure we weren't dreaming if we lived like that.

The reason you feel alone on the car-free forum is that very few people have that kind of opportunity. For most, you either live in the city, or you live outside of the city with poor roads, long distances, and limited conveniences. For most, truly living car free means living close enough to work and shopping that it is possible to live car free.