A year ago this week my family and I drove my Ford Explorer across country for the last time. I gave the vehicle to my brother. We returned home by train and bus.
We have been living “car lite” for a year. We own a 1996 Honda Civic. I drive it so little that my wife now accuses me of losing my driving skills. I think I’m simply a lot more careful 
I’m probably just kidding myself.
I’m happy to report that we have survived and thrived. Only once in the last year did we encounter a moment in which we wished we had a second car. I was expecting it to be more difficult. But, then, we’d been living car lite to a certain extent because I just haven’t been driving much in the last six years.
I’m still using my bicycle and my feet as basic transportation. My wife and daughter have increased their bicycling and walking. These methods are now our first choice as a family when we go out together — to the movies, the theater, the grocery, the music halls, the restaurants, and the civic events.
I’ve crowed before about this being easy. Part of the reason living car lite is easy for us is that we chose to live in Springfield’s urban core. We are 2.25 miles from the heart of downtown. I am .75 miles from work. My daughter is 1 mile from school. We have plenty of commercial services and retail within a mile of home. We are ready for the Great Reset.
Others are not so lucky. And that’s why I continue to push the 1-mile Solution and Keep a Bicycle at Work. And, others have very different values — especially in this area where having a home on 3 to 5 acres in the country is part of the attraction if one is willing to pay the price.
My daughter took the written driver’s test the other day in order to get a learner’s permit. She hadn’t studied. Couldn’t be bothered. She failed the test (missing mostly legal technicalities), but not by much. She’s learned a lot about traffic riding as a part of it on her bicycle. Back in the day when I was her age, to fail that test would have been a disaster — personally and socially. Not for her generation.
Her attitude was “meh.” She’s just really not interested in driving a car.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c9e074ab-b462-4766-a169-c560e8f30fe0)
Comments 7
we have been a one car family for years. which has presented quite a number of problems. particularly on days when i have to go to school and i miss the bus. i have been mostly traveling by bus to most places that i need to go, but due to the (basically and for lack of a better word) crappy public transportation in this town (and my desire to get in shape) i decided that another means of transport was needed.
Posted 24 May 2010 at 7:48 am ¶recently i got a bike (a 2010 jamis coda…i’m in love) and right after i got it it rained for 3 days. once it stopped raining i’ve pretty much been on it non stop.
i can easily see this as becoming my main method of transportation unless i have to work somewhere across town (i’m a substitute teacher) and don’t actually have the time (with out getting up at 4am) to make it on time.
i actually credit your blog with a good deal of this. thanks for being such a great source of information as well as a great source of inspiration
Hey Andy, I didn’t know if you were aware the guide is available in PDF
http://dor.mo.gov/mvdl/drivers/dlguide/dlguide.pdf
Posted 24 May 2010 at 7:49 am ¶A.J. Yep. I’ve even cited it here a few times. My daughter has a paper copy she hasn’t read
gasp… I’m glad you’re finding CT useful!
Posted 24 May 2010 at 9:39 am ¶What? Read books?! If kids these days are putting off driving, then I’m going to indie out and say I did that before it was cool.
Real O.G.s get their driver license the day before recieving their Masters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O.G._Original_Gangster
Posted 24 May 2010 at 1:02 pm ¶ha. the only class I cut in high school was driver’s ed on the last day when our teacher was handing back our tests. I hadn’t bothered to study and hated the class b/c I did not care about driving. I lived in suburbia but my house was two blocks and four blocks away from buses that took me to high school, The Mall, the library and NYC. Anyway, my teacher was the kind who told everyone’s grades outloud and I didn’t feel like being told I didn’t pass the learner’s permit and having the class look at me in pity. So I skipped- sat in some back hallway and read a book. I never even got in trouble for it.
Posted 24 May 2010 at 6:29 pm ¶We run one car too, but “lite” isn’t really how we run it. My cycling to work and back allows us to do it, but we drive the heck out of the one car we do have. Me included… I’ve been struggling a bit with resisting the car for errands and things. Perhaps getting my fam more into it would do the trick…
Thanks for the post.
Posted 25 May 2010 at 12:03 am ¶Andy, nice! Would love to interview you for my blog! Please email me and let me know if you are up for it. I profile carfree and carlite folks to encourage others to live the lifestyle- you can see examples on the site. Thanks!
Posted 10 Jun 2010 at 8:57 am ¶Bill