SB1501

I’m so close to committing to a car free lifestyle. There is one small potential factor that’s holding me back.

that’s when next winter rolls around and I have a 7 mile commute. Now, ONLY the first 1.5 miles is a mostly flat rural ‘Ireland’ A-road which is a main road from Dublin so anybody and everybody uses it around the clock.

as it stands, my girlfriend already lives in the city. I can stay with her during the week and cycle to work, 15-20 minutes, ALL cycle paths along the river. Showers at work. Perfect.

I suppose the main issue is… if I wasn’t with her for any reason in a years time and I’d gotten rid of my car entirely. I’d be a little screwed.

the road can be terrifying for that stretch during the day. The dark, rush hour and frostiness and non de-misted windscreens could truly make it a death trap. Even for such a short distance.

I know many of you are seasoned and probably doing much longer commutes. My issue is my locales ‘main’ roads are fairly rural.

as above, my goal for cycling is to avoid roads and when in the city, that’s very easy thanks to good green lanes and shared paths.

there’s even an Enterprise Car Club for hiring a car 1-2 times a month for days out etc. or hiring a van for big tasks (better than a utility car!).

everything else works out about this plan. In 2024 alone between all car expenses I’ll be saving automatically £5,000. Half from finance payments. Most of the other half from fuel. Little bit for maintenance and taxes.

eventually, and it might be years until I finish my apprenticeship and get paid more, I will be moving into the city. So long term, in the future, this plan will be possible.

but I had it all planned out for August 2024. Buy a nice (but overkill) e-cargo bike or e-bike with a Bosch CX motor, and never look back at car ownership again!

am I over dramatising the issue? I took a good look out the window this morning. That stretch of road is brutal. People don’t even slow down to drive through our village.. deadly.

Leisesturm

A car free lifestyle is not for the faint of heart. When you are your car, you can't afford to be afraid to ride on any road it is legal to ride on. We've covered this in earlier threads. It is not clear from your post as to what you are doing right now. If you are not currently cycling, I'm going to bring my wife into this thread. She is twice your age, blind, and absolutely fearless. We're riding in the mornings before daylight with three headlights on a tandem, because the buses don't start rolling early enough for her start time. Deadly? You have no idea. She's from the north of England and she'll have your arse if I put her onto you. So, come on. No more over analysis. HTFU and get out there.

Jay Turberville

I don't know the road and situation. So I have no idea whether or not your are overdramatizing or not. I still have my car but only use it for longer trips that take me out of my "bedroom community" town to a neighboring suburb. And even then, I often take the ebike. The ebike was a gamechanger for me to nearly omit the car. I still have an issue with occasionally needing to haul more than my bike can handle (though I can now tow another bike). I can hit 25+ mph pretty much on demand on higher speed streets. But the ebike laws in Ireland seem to be pretty limiting.

I would strongly suggest you adopt two tactics that I use.

First, I always wear hi-viz clothing. I know the whole bit about it being driver's responsibility etc. I don't give a rat's behind. I want to be seen and if I have to help the drivers, then I will. So I simply don't go out without day-glo and at night I always wear a reflective vest. My tires have reflective sidewalls. Nice big circles. Hmmmm ... what could those two big circles be?!?!

And that leads to my second tactic. My ebike is lit up. They may limit the watts for an ebike motor, but I've seen no limit on the lumens or watts for lights. I have an LED headlight made for a Harley Davidson. It pulls 35 watts on high beam. When you send that power to an array of LEDs sitting behind some focusing lenses, you light up the frickin' road. I've rigged it to use both the High and Low beam. I see the road ahead quite clearly. And people approaching me can't hardly miss me. I also have a crap-ton of (well, four) 12v LED strips on the seat stays and rear rack supports. They put on a pretty good show for people approaching from the side and rear.

Idiots will be idiots and nothing guarantees safety. But I do what I can to be seen.

loky1179

I'm guessing there is no shoulder on the road? If not, that's tough, and I wouldn't be comfortable with that type of risk in the dark. If there is any kind of should at all, it might be doable.

I use a mirror on my eyeglasses, and for the stretches of road I worry most about, I keep an eye on EVERY car that is overtaking me. Ready to head for the ditch if necessary. That is not always feasible for a long commute, but if you are only talking about a mile and a half of road, you'd need to be hypervigilant with rear view mirror for about 8-10 minutes.

If you already own a car, I wouldn't think you'd save much money by getting rid of it. (Edit - just noticed the line about finance payments - those are no good!) You can still bike commute and if you're not driving it, maintenance costs aren't really an issue. Not sure what you pay in insurance and registration. That stuff is cheap for me, but I'm old