living without a car

chrisxr2

If ypou are built like arnie then good luck. Carrying shopping to the bus station (full monthly shop to heavy for partner) Waiting in rainor snow or cold for buses that do not turn up, horrible smelly person sits next to you even though seats spare. No thankyou, buses and trains have two places in my life, book a month ahead to save money or drinking so would not risk driving. i liv in a town were you can park on a side stret for free (ussed to live on said street) or pay 2.00 retuen for bus, For 6 miles of travel. my 1.4tdi at 60mpg is far cheaper.

atomicspaceship

I sold my car two months ago as I hardly used it anyway and it also unlocked a lot of capital. I also realised that without turning a wheel, every month the car was costing me £195 in insurance and depreciation costs!

I'm fairly lucky to live in London where, despite what anyone else may say, I think the bus service is excellent with a 24hr service, one at least every 15 mins, 3 mins walk from my front door. It's also great to ride on the top deck, read a book/paper and I feel much more relaxed. I also bought a bike a few years ago and i'm riding that more, complete with a newly attached basket on the front that is very handy for going shopping with! As for supermarket shopping i'm using an internet ordering service, and it has not been a problem yet.

RRatchet

Hi

I live in very rural Aberdeenshire, both me & OH have cars (well I have & he uses a tractor to get to & from the family farm, his car died and is about to be replaced). It would be possible for him to bike to work (4 miles) but as he starts work at 7:30 till at least 6pm (often a lot later) depending on the time of year & weather (harvest,silaging etc) when it could be 11:30 pm and as he does a very physical job, I don't think he should. That extra 15/20 mins in a warm bed is invaluabel)

I would find it intolerable without a car. The bus passes within 200 yards of my house 4x each way per day, but not at times that would allow anyone to do a job with anything like normal normal hours. There are no bus stops, you have to wave & hope the driver sees you, this is really unsafe especially when it's dark; we've no street lights.

I look after 3 kids aged 5 & under, 1 is at school, 1 at playgroup & 1 at home. Playgroup & toddlers is 1.2 miles one way & school 4 miles the other. It used to be feasible to walk to playgroup with the 2 youngest & when the eldest wasn't at school I walked with all 3 to toddlers dropping eldest off at playgroup, all 3 came with me when I was on duty at playgroup. If I wasn't on duty at playgroup or staying with my kids at toddlers I used the car. otherwise it would have meant a 30 min walk to playgroup/toddlers 30 mins back, 1.5 hours at home 30 mins walk to pick them up & 30 mins home. Yes I would have been fit or dead (the road isn't that safe even though it isn't that busy it is fast and narrow, bendy no footpaths & most dangerous of all drivers don't expect to see pedestrians & don't seem to know what to do when they see then, if they see them).

My eldest could attend the school in the same village as the playgroup/toddlers however we are renovating a property on the family farm which is in the catchment area of the school he is currently attending and we felt it would be too disruptive to start him at one school and then 6 month later move him to another, when? we move to our new & last home. So we started him at the school neasrest to our intended final home. As we are out of the catchment area for the school he is at, he doesn't get the school bus. Free school bus places are available for those in the catchment area and 2 miles away or more. When we do move we are 1.7 miles away therefore still no free school bus. I certainly would never let him walk to school on his own (dangerous road as above) & as the school bus doesn't already come past the farm he would not be even be eligible to have a privlege pass (which I would have to pay for). When we do move School is 1.7 miles away and toddlers/playgroup 4 miles in the opp. direction to the school so if I walked the eldest to school I would never get to toddlers/playgroup. Kids may be able to do without socialisation ie it isn't absolutely essential & I do give it a miss if I want/need to do something else, but I would go mad without another human adult to talk to face to face.

Logistically I would find it impossible to be where I'm suppposed to be at the time I'm supposed to be. There is no bus service to our doctors/pharmacist. The local PO & shop is 6 miles away, both are on the bus route, however if using the bus you would have a 2-3 hour wait in the village until the next bus home. The nearest Bank is 10+ miles away & the bus service just as inconvenient. I do use Tesco (15 miles away) home delivery for my fortnightly shop. I can't stand shopping esp. with kids in tow.

Ideally I believe car use should be reduced and perhaps we'll go down to 1 car when we move onto the farm. I do have friends who think nothing of running here there and everywhere in their cars, whereas I try and save up errands to do on one trip to the city (Aberdeen 35 miles & where mine & kids dentist is) or to the local towns (all about 15 miles away), even if this means going without certain items until there is enough to justify a trip.

Incidently we run old cars (upto £1000) as they are all we can afford. £6000 + finance costs to buy a better more efficient car, for us is better spent paying for fuel, repairs & other running costs on our bangers, that the OH can fix. Also No. 4 kid is on the way so a small car is a no no.

If you have reliable/comfortable public transport,and/or safe roads for walking/cycling on I guess you have less of a reason for not ditching the expensive/dirty car.

Sorry I'm an addict (even though I don't like cars or driving)

johnjp

chrisxr2 wrote:

If ypou are built like arnie then good luck. Carrying shopping to the bus station (full monthly shop to heavy for partner) Waiting in rainor snow or cold for buses that do not turn up, horrible smelly person sits next to you even though seats spare. No thankyou, buses and trains have two places in my life, book a month ahead to save money or drinking so would not risk driving. i liv in a town were you can park on a side stret for free (ussed to live on said street) or pay 2.00 retuen for bus, For 6 miles of travel. my 1.4tdi at 60mpg is far cheaper.

Why do the shopping monthly? Even with a car it`s more sensible to do it weekly or, at maximum, fortnightly.
I am `multimodal`. I live between two towns, 4 miles from each. I use my bike and trailer, when the weather`s okay. I use public transport to get into the city, and in the city. We have also gone on holiday using public transport. I use the car for work, as a decorator, and to visit / days out. I believe it`s more important to use the car as little as possible.
I now have an economical 1.6 litre bought for £200 with a years M.o.T. £20 petrol lasts about two weeks.

kittiwoz

I live in Trafford. I am near both bus and tram stops. The tram is regular but expensive and doesn't run late. The bus service is not that great, very dependent on time of day, and much more expensive than when I was in Rusholme on the Wilmslow Rd corridor (V.V. busy, V.V. cheap bus route). It finishes quite early most days but there is a night bus Friday and Saturday night. I use a bike to get around most of the time. I am a student, no kids, and Manchester is mostly pretty flat with a lot of cycle paths and bus lanes so that is pretty good. I find the night bus very useful too. There is a good selection of shops locally; a number of small Asian and Caribbean grocers which sell a good selection, particularly of veg, at vey reasonable prices and an Aldi, and I shop at these quite frequently. I walk to the shops and use sholuder bags to carry my shopping home. I find it easier to carry things in shoulder bags rather than carriers which cut into my hands and make my arms feel rather stretched. I also find I spend less by getting a little shopping in frequently because I plan my cooking better than way.

Before I moved here I lived with my parents in an village which likes to think of itself as rural but is actually pretty suburban and more or less a dormitory town for London. The local shops there were abysmal, I have seen tomatoes putryfiying on the shelves. The transport links were also not terrific. Moving to Manchester gave me a terrific amount of freedom, which is not dependent on my having a car, but if I moved away I would find it hard to give it up and might need a car to retain it. I can certainly see why having a car can be important to people who are in different situations but for me it isn't a problem. I do think some people are complacent in their car use though. I saw a woman who lives on the same street as me drive to the same grocers I shop at once and it is literally a couple of hundred metres away.

BusinessStudent

The best thing about using a bus is you get to listen into conversations and gossip - (no need to buy Hello or OK magazine, that saves a few quid) ...You then get your favourite tunes played by some junkie sitting in the back on his mobile phone MP3 player - so no need for iTunes.

Plus you are likely to find a copy of The Sun on the seat or floor (I found one in immaculate conidition *unread* - saved a couple of pence there too!

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

BusinessStudent wrote:

your favourite tunes played by some junkie sitting in the back on his mobile phone MP3 player - so no need for iTunes.

Surely a junkie would've sold the mp3 player-c um-phone for a fix? Or do you just like to use derogatory terms for anyone listening to music on a bus?


I've never understood people who claim 'freedom' when they own a car. I used one from my late teens to mid-20's then finally decided to not bother with it. I feel much more free without it (no forms to fill in, no insurance to sort and pay, no tax to be sorting, etc etc). Yeah it was convenient but it wasn't required nor did it give me any freedom.

OTOH some (not all) rural areas are incredibly badly serviced by public transport and getting around is a lot harder - but you can always hitch a lift if you are going anywhere more than 20mins walk..

kittiwoz

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule wrote:

but you can always hitch a lift if you are going anywhere more than 20mins walk..

I take it you are a well built man and not a petite young woman such as myself then?

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

kittiwoz wrote:

I take it you are a well built man and not a petite young woman such as myself then?

I don't think sex or build has anything to do with it - more of the attitude of people from some regions.

When I've lived in the north hitching is virtually unheard of. In the south-west and it was very common - if I wanted to get from street to wells, or glastonbury to bristol it was easier to hitch a lift than to wait for the once an hour bus. A lot of people without vans/cars did the same - including 'petit young women' and teenagers.

I suppose it comes down to fear/perception of crime in comparison to actual crime.

None of my friends who hitch have ever been raped, pillaged, murdered, beaten, mugged or !!!!!!ed whilst on the road across the uk, eu, aisa and latin america. So I'll continue to hitch without any fears - and I'll do it with my baby. When she's older I've no doubt she'll do it to.

kittiwoz

I agree that the fear/perception of crime generally far outweighs actual crime. I also agree about the geographical thing. I've seen a lot of people hitchhicking in Ireland including young women but it's rare in the bit of the South East I'm from. I couldn't comment on the prevalence round here (North West) since I live in Manchester and obviously people don't hitch lifts in urban areas.

However, while I agree that the fear of crime is often overstated and can have much greater impact on peoples lives than crime itself if they allow it to, I still don't like to put myself in situations where I am vulnerable if it is something I can avoid. There are dodgy people out there. I had a guy pull up and offer me a lift when I was on my way to the shops this Summer. I am 23 years old and 4'10" and I was wearing a denim pinafore dress and plimsoles and had my hair in plaits. Do you see what I'm getting at here? I sometimes get IDed in pubs if that makes it clearer for you. I reported the incident to the police who agreed I was right to do so. Obviously someone who just pulls up and tries to get you in the car without your suggesting you want a lift is going to be dodgy and someone who gives you a lift because you ask may well be fine but occasionally someone hitching is going to be unlucky and the guy they ask for a lift will be the guy who would have being trying to get them in the car anyway. I would expect that the less common hitchiking is the more likely that becomes.