Abby Quillen

Freelance Content Marketing Writer and Editor

Car ownership

Revisiting the Car-Free Life

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two boys in a bike trailer

“Drive to work. Work to drive,” my husband likes to say. He has a point. The average cost of owning and operating a vehicle soared to $9,100 this year, according to AAA.

Saving money is not the only reason to consider living sans vehicle, at least for awhile. We’ve done it on and off over the years, and every time, we’re amazed by all the perks of the car-free life.

As long-time readers know, we lived car-free for more than a year. We bicycled our way through a dark, rainy Western Oregon winter. We fetched groceries, hauled chicken food, and toted our son to parks and play dates on two wheels. My husband rode twelve miles round trip to work every day, and I pedaled across town and over hills when I was nine months pregnant.

A few days before our second son Ira was born in August 2011, we welcomed a vintage gold Volvo sedan into our family.

Why?

We loved so much about the car-free life as I documented on this blog. However, most authorities on the matter agree that infants should not ride in bike trailers or seats until they’re about a year old. That would leave me car-free and bike-free throughout an entire winter.

I’m a huge believer in choosing a joyful life when you have the option. So that’s what we did. And our Volvo brought us a lot of joy in those early, overwhelming days of parenting two little ones. I loved taking it to the library and piling the trunk up with books. I loved zipping across town to my mama friends’ houses when it was pouring rain. I loved being able to go on hikes on nearby trails and visit my sister, who lives an hour away.

My husband biked to work most of the time. I walked (and then biked, when Ira was ready) nearly everywhere. But we also had the option of driving. My friend calls this the car-optional life. It felt like a pretty good one.

Then something happened a couple of months ago. Our Volvo needed an alternator, and we didn’t have time to fix it right away.

So we revisited the car-free life … and loved it.

We loved it so much that we’re still doing it. The weather is lovely and we’re biking everywhere, sometimes up to 15 to 20 miles in the course of a day.

This time, perhaps because we took a year-long crash course in the subject (and because of that lovely weather I mentioned), car-free living feels infinitely easier. Joyful. And we’re astounded all over again by how quickly it transforms your body, health, mind, and spirit.

Now that our transit is entirely human-powered, we both feel fitter and healthier, have more energy, and are less stressed.

Arthur Conan Doyle sagely advised, “When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”

I agree. I know of no better mood lifter than gliding along the river or stream beneath newly leafed trees beside meadows of wild camas, community gardens, and unfurling irises, rhododendrons, and roses.

It’s been almost two months, and we just don’t feel in a hurry to jump back in the car.

The car-free life is not right for everyone in every place at every time. But it may be an adventure worth trying if you are able. You may find out you love it.

More posts about car-free living:

Have you ever lived car-free or car-lite? Have you ever wanted to try it? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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Car-Free Chronicles

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When my son Ezra was an infant, he was no fan of the car. Car rides, even short jaunts around town, invariably included crying and multiple comfort stops. But, at some point, my almost-three-year-old became a huge admirer of the automobile – perhaps right around the time we sold ours.

“Mama, we need a truck. A big, huge truck. We can drive it all over the streets,” he remarks as we walk past a neighbor’s pickup.

“Dada, we should buy a car at the store,” he insists as we cross the parking lot to the grocery store. “We need a car.”

On the rare occasions when we rent a car, Ezra is ecstatic. “I can’t drive the car yet,” he explains as he crawls into his car seat. “My feet don’t reach the gas pedals. I will drive it when I’m this tall.” He waves his hand a few feet over his head.

Sometimes I wonder if our car-free experiment, now in its eighth month, is cementing our son’s love for all things automobile. One day he’ll undoubtedly drive a monster truck and eschew gardens, clotheslines, and hand-washing dishes.

But if our experiment has made my son more enamored with cars, it has only reinforced my husband and my ambivalence about car ownership.

A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law flew in from New York and rented a car for the week. We loved seeing her, and having a car around was great in lots of ways. We ran all kinds of errands and visited both the coast and the forest. I was able to zip over to a nearby town to interview someone for an article. My husband and I marveled at the convenience and warmth of cruising across town while rain pounded down. We shot sympathetic glances at cyclists who passed by us dripping wet and dressed head-to-toe in rain gear.

Then midway through my mother-in-law’s visit, my husband and I biked across town to run an errand.

“I feel alive again,” my husband said as we pedaled down the path. I couldn’t help but agree. For all the convenience of the car, I had really missed walking and riding my bike.

Plus, as my husband mused, car ownership is expensive — not only because of the car’s price tag, $3.80 a gallon gas, and the inevitable maintenance. With the exception of the ocean and hiking trails (which I love and miss visiting more often), we noticed that the car tended to take us to places where the main activity is spending money – notably malls, box stores, and home improvement centers. We hadn’t visited these places in about eight months, and we hadn’t missed them.

Apparently my husband and I are not alone in our ambivalence about car ownership. Car sharing was all over the news last week, when Zipcar, a car-sharing service with 560,000 members in 14 cities, went public on Thursday and raised an impressive $174.3 million in its initial public offering. Peer-to-peer car share services, like RelayRides, which allow car owners to rent out their own vehicles, have also been getting a lot of press.

The Oregon House of Representatives just passed a car sharing bill with overwhelming support. If it passes in the senate, it will allow car owners to rent their cars to friends or neighbors through a car sharing service without fear of losing insurance policies or facing increased rates.

As our planned one-year car-free experiment nears an end, we go back and forth about whether to buy another vehicle. Oddly, my husband, who once drove the car almost exclusively to commute to work and shop for groceries, is the one who’s more convinced we can live without one. He’s adapted amazingly well to commuting about 12 miles a day on his bike, and he’s in the best shape of his life because of it.

I rarely drove the car when we owned one, preferring to walk and ride my bike, but I’m more torn about whether we should buy another one this summer. I don’t want a car loan, and I don’t miss the stress and worries involved with maintaining an older vehicle. On the other hand, in a few months, we’ll have a new baby, who won’t be able to ride in a bike trailer or bike seat for quite awhile. I’m a huge fan of walking, and Eugene has decent public transportation, but I know a car will make daily life with an infant and three-year-old easier, a seductive idea as I contemplate caring for two little ones.

Hopefully car sharing will become an option for more of us soon, making decisions like my family’s easier and providing extra income opportunities for those who invest in car ownership. In the meantime, at least we know how Ezra will vote when we have to decide whether to shop for another vehicle.

As my mother-in-law packed, Ezra cried and told her how much he was going to miss her. Then, as we lugged her bags out to the rental car to say our goodbyes, we realized he was also going to miss something else.

“Grandma, please don’t take the red car,” he cried. “Can’t you walk to New York?”

Interested in reading more about car-free living? Check out these posts:

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Car-Free is Carefree

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Sometimes I miss the family car, especially when my friends seem to so effortlessly come and go, while my husband and I are plotting out our trips, negotiating whether we can fit all of our groceries in our bike trailer, and opting to stay home at times rather than trek across town after dark in the rain. But recently I came across a few more reasons to celebrate the car-free life.

We started 2011 with the highest gas prices ever in January, averaging $3.01 a gallon. In December, John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil predicted that gas will reach $5.00 a gallon within two years. More conservative forecasters predict that it will top out at $3.50 to $3.75 sometime this summer.

Of course, being car-free doesn’t make us entirely immune to high gasoline prices, since they trickle down into the cost of everything that’s transported. But it sure is nice not to have to pay for it at the pump.

And if high gas prices aren’t enough to make people want to park the car these days, accidents may make more think twice.

On December 9, NPR reported that five children a day die in car crashes. They are the leading cause of death for children, topping home accidents, illness, and poisoning. “I think it happens so frequently and with such regularity that we’ve lost focus on how important it is. And I think that we’re so reliant on cars to get us from Point A to Point B that we’ve sort of accepted it as the price of doing business. ” Ben Hoffman, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, told NPR.

NPR focused on the National Transportation Safety Board’s new recommendation that children ride in rear-facing car seats until they are two, citing that toddlers are five times safer facing backward than forward.

Or, of course, you could also just stay out of the car altogether.

Living car-free doesn’t make us immune to accidents either. We are fortunate to have an extensive network of off-street bike paths in Eugene, but it’s impossible to avoid riding our bikes on the streets altogether. And as much as I love walking, I’m all too aware that it can be risky. I know two pedestrians who were hit by cars – one fatally while walking down the sidewalk and another who was hit while crossing with the light at an intersection. But I do feel a little safer avoiding the highways. And the more people who choose to travel on bikes, on foot, or on public transportation the safer we’ll all be.

So at this moment, the car-free life really does feel like a carefree option.

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Lessons in Car-Free Living

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My family is doing an experiment in car-free living. We’re considering going car-free for the winter, mostly because our only car needs major repairs, and it’s too old and unreliable to sink much money into. We want to save money to buy a better, more efficient vehicle next year, and the best way we can think to do this is by living sans automobile for awhile.

We tried the car-free life last month to see how difficult it would be. My husband rode his bike to and from work. My son and I walked and rode everywhere. Honestly, it’s been great. My husband has been enjoying getting exercise outdoors each day, since he has to be inside all day. Our son is getting older and can walk further distances, making it much easier than the last time we tried this a year ago. And we’re having a great time riding bikes together to the store, park, library, and farmer’s market on the weekends.

This feels like a normal, sensible way to live. But what we’re contemplating is downright radical. Just look at these statistics:

It’s no secret that driving is not good for us, the environment, or our society. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “Driving a private car is probably a typical citizen’s most “polluting” daily activity.” Cars spew hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide into the air, and air pollution is linked to asthma, heart disease, cancer, and even diabetes. According to a 2004 study, each hour we spend in a car each day is also associated with six percent greater likelihood of being obese. And driving isolates us from each other, and too often, leads to rage and aggression

It takes about 30 minutes to walk two miles, and about ten minutes to ride a bike that far. Most of us can use more exercise. So why are we driving so much? City planning – suburbs, strip malls, cul-de-sacs, drive-through restaurants, and box stores with gigantic parking lots – undoubtedly plays a huge role. But even in places where it’s easy to walk, ride, and take transit, like where I live in Eugene, Oregon, the vast majority of people still drive alone nearly everywhere they go.

My family is learning many lessons from our experiment in car-free living. Maybe they can help others who want to drive less or ditch the car altogether.

  • Plan trips wisely

During a downpour a few weeks ago, my husband made four (yes, four) trips to the hardware store to get materials to fix our faucet. If he’d been driving, it would have been annoying. Because he was riding his bike, it was also exhausting. I don’t think we’ll make that mistake again. We are learning to plan all of our trips much more carefully.

  • Break old habits

The hardest time to be car-free is in the evenings. We want to zip out for take-out or run to the store to get a dessert. Like quitting any habit, we’re just having to change our ways – as painful as it feels sometimes. The good news is we’re saving a lot of money (and keeping packaging out of the landfills) along the way.

  • Make the journey part of the adventure

I interviewed a car-free family with four kids for an article awhile ago. Monica Adkins told me that riding bikes often sounds difficult before her family sets out, but once they are on the bikes, “It feels good on my face and on my hair. My kids are giggling and talking and closer to reality. And we’re getting exercise. Everything about it feels really good.” I think about her quote all the time. We often lose a lot in convenience and ease when we leave the car at home, but we gain lots of fun and fresh air on our journeys.

  • Learn to barter and ask for help

“The hardest part is asking people for rides,” my husband lamented recently. He’s right. But it’s also the best part. Our neighbor offered to drive us to the airport, and we got to know her a lot better during the drive. A friend helped us pick up chicken food in exchange for some fresh eggs, and we were both excited about the trade. We’ve also started car-pooling with some friends to a weekly get-together, and we always have a great time on the way over. So even if it’s hard for us to ask for help, we’re building a tighter community and closer friendships.

  • Set a goal and celebrate

We’re not planning to be car-free forever, but for now we’re sort of reveling in it – in how healthy it is, in how much money we’re saving, and in the little bit we’re doing to make the air cleaner for everyone. It’s also freeing not to worry about maintaining an old and ailing vehicle – at least for now. We  know the idea of living without a car may sound crazy to a lot of people, but it’s starting to seem a lot less crazy to us.

Looking for more on car-free living? Check out these posts:

Are you trying to drive less? Do you have any tips to share?

The Joys of Living Carlessly

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Shareable.net published my article about Paul and Monica Adkins, who live car-free with four kids. Their enthusiasm for simple living is contagious. And the amazing photographer Jayce Giddens took beautiful photographs of the Adkins cycling through fall leaves to accompany the story.

The article begins:

Paul Adkins rode a Yamaha 60 motorcycle when he was five and bought his first car when he was 14. Growing up in Kent, Ohio, he and his four brothers spent their weekends working on cars.

Now, at 44, Paul lives with his wife Monica and their four kids in Eugene, Oregon. They have a black Labrador, some chickens, and a two-story house near the Willamette River – but no car.

Two years ago, Paul and Monica sold their Toyota Previa minivan to go car-free. Paul works in a bike store and is the former board president of a bicycle advocacy group called Greater Eugene Area Riders (GEARs). He had wanted to sell the family car for a long time, but it was Monica who made the final decision.

“For so many years, when Paul would talk about going car-free, I kept thinking, but, what if…” Monica says.

Monica’s what-ifs weren’t what you might expect. She didn’t worry about how the family would handle a medical emergency, or get the kids to school in bad weather, or take their dog Josie to the vet. She was more concerned with how they’d go to the coast or Portland for a weekend or take their canoe up the McKenzie River.

“But one day I woke up in the morning, and I realized we’re paying into this really horrible system,” she says.

“We try to look at where our money goes and shop locally.” Paul adds. “When we give our money to gas or insurance, it doesn’t come back to us in any way.”

“It was like going on a diet and not drinking soda anymore,” Monica says. “We were divorcing the system.”

You can read the rest of the article here.

A Snapshot of Car-Usage in America

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(Originally published September 14, 2009, reprinted in celebration of National Bike Month)

The 5 U.S. cities (1,000+ population) with the least car ownership* (2000 census):

  1. Hooper Bay, Alaska (Pop. 1022) – 95.65% of households car-free.
  2. New Square Village, NY (Pop. 4707) – 73.77% of households car-free.
  3. Kaser Village, NY (Pop. 3299) – 68.57% of households car-free.
  4. Kiryas Joel Village, NY – (Pop. 13,214) – 57.78% of households car-free.
  5. Kotzebue, Alaska – (Pop. 3082) – 51.29% of households car-free.

Number of U.S. cities (1000+ Population) in which 100% of households own a car (2000 census):

155

Average cost per year of owning and operating a vehicle (2008):

$8,095

Average percentage of household income Americans spend on transportation costs each year (2007):

17.65%

Number of minutes per day the average American reports spending behind the wheel (2007):

87

Amount of time the average 16 year-old American will spend driving a car in his or her lifetime (Figure based on 87 minutes per day average driving-time and a 77.8 year life-expectancy):

3.73 years

Percentage of workers who commute to work in a car alone every day:

85%

Average cost of a new car:

$28,400

Number of motor vehicles scrapped in the U.S. every year (2007):

12,737,000

Federal Highway Administration budget for 2010:

50 billion

Federal Transit Administration budget for 2010:

10 billion

Federal Railway Administration budget for 2010:

1.5 billion

*Click on hyperlinks to see sources for statistics.