I've Done it. We Are Currently a No Car Household.

TJ27

I've been thinking about getting rid of my gas guzzling car for a few months now. I started cycling to work (five miles each way), the kids walk/tandem to school, we get shopping delivered, we have train stations and bus stops nearby, my wife is disabled and goes everywhere by taxi.

There's a place not far away where we can hire a car for twenty quid per day if we really need to.

The car was actually costing us about five and a half grand per year to run/keep and much of the time it was stood outside the house doing nothing.

So on Monday I sold the damn thing and it paid off about a third of our remaining mortgage.

It feels quite nice not having a car actually. I wonder if we'll miss it?? Only time will tell.

rosh12

Just wanted to say well done...! Our carbon footprint has been kept quite small , partly because I never got round to learning to drive... until this year! It's amazing how tempting it is just to pop in the car when for the last 30+ years I have been fine with sharing lifts, buses, trains, even-- shock-- walking!

bigpaws23

congrats TJ27; I admire you. My car is probably my 'green sin' as it were. I would never give it up. However, I use it to collect 6 tonnes of fallen wood throughout the year to heat my home for winter. So I don't know how the 'bigger picture' of my carbon footprint looks in those circumstances.

Well done though; I don't think you'll look back really from what you have written in your post. What a great debt to have lifted from you

Bigpaws x

Tam_Lin

Well done - I admire you. I don't drive, and DH would never give up his car. To be fair he drives a lot during the week and it would take him 2.5 hours each way to get to work by public transport, so it's not really feasible for him.

TJ27

Thanks folks.

To be honest I didn't really do it to improve my green credentials. It's been more to do with the fact that I really quite enjoy my daily bike ride. And as I didn't use the car for work, or for lots of other things, it was a very expensive ornament to have on my drive.

It'll be interesting to hear what they say to me in work. I am actually contractually obliged to have a car for work purposes, because I do calls around the city. I'm currently using my bike without any problems but I wonder if they will object. I get a payment for using the car. Ah well, we'll see.

Ytaya

I currently run a car because my 15 mile commute would take 90 minutes (each way!!) by public transport. In September, I'll be able to move closer to the campus so I can ditch my car. I'm so looking forward to it! My car costs me about £50/month before I put a drop of petrol in it. I can get a student subsidised bus pass, use taxis and even rent a car once or twice a year for long journeys and STILL be better off! Congratulations!

newlywed

Ytaya wrote: »

I currently run a car because my 15 mile commute would take 90 minutes (each way!!) by public transport.

I just got rid of my car (but not through choice). My 5 mile journey to work now takes 75 minutes instead of 25!!!! And the public transport and food delivery costs etc, for me and OH costs 3 times more than running a car!! The council claim that they are encouraging people to use public transport

It takes 40 mins round trip walking just to get milk and bread (and we live in a "city")!!!

Well done for getting rid of your car if you don't need it/use it though, I agree an expensive ornament. My sister got rid of hers as she lived in an area that needed a parking permit to park near your house and could walk to work in 20 minutes.

pudding06

TJ27 be careful if you are being paid as an essential car user. You will have to pay back any 'over' payments when they realise you have no car. My OH would lose his job if he didnt have a car - because its essential for his work ( hence the essetnial car user payment) although he could get to work on public transport and get around on public transport at a push. He has to show his insurance to work when its renewed every year to prove he's insured.

pudds

TJ27

Thanks for the tip pudding. I do indeed get an essential car user allowance. I work for a local council. I too have to show that I have business insurance for my car every year. However, I do now have third party insurance for my bike and it does cover me for business use. I've told my boss that I no longer have a car and I'm just waiting to see what happens really. It would be very interesting if they tell me that I MUST have a car, after they go to great lengths to display their green credentials.

It's a bit of a strange situation really, I get e-mails every week basically saying, "Don't use your car for work, get the train/bus or even better walk/cycle." So it would seem a bit bizarre if they now penalise me for taking their advice. If I were to get a banger, it would actually be more cost effective for me to keep my allowance and run a car, than to lose my allowance and cycle.

I've tried to suggest that the council might actually be better off paying more mileage allowance for cyclists than for cars. Sure, this might cost them a couple of quid extra per year. But their own website says that car parking spaces cost them £500 per year. So that's half a grand I've saved them for starters. Not to mention all the other benefits they reel off.

My suggestions have been based on their own advice but so far seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I'll be trying again next week.

By the way, I know of a chap near me who commutes 36 hilly miles twice every day!! So even long journeys are possible. (That's flipping extreme though.) My 5 mile commute takes me about 17 minutes, which is very slightly faster than by car. Depends on traffic, lights, etc.

Edit: Actually I've just measured my route to work properly. It's four miles, not five. I thought I was a bit quick.:D

GeordieBird

It's really liberating not having a car. I remember when mine was off the road for 6 months last year. The 2 hour commute was a pain though. Now I've got a new job, so really do need the car for when I'm working on site. But I cycle and walk everywhere else, or when I'm in the office.

Well done you! And good luck persuading work - we get 10p a mile for bikes!

GB x

mjr600

I feel that congratulations are in order for doing away with the car not for enviromental reasons but for financial and lifestyle reasons, this being a money saving site and all that.

But I'm afraid those early posters who talk about a car being a green sin and carbon footprints have once again attempted to subvert a good thread with religious enviromental feel good babble.