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These bloggers beg to differ. Welcome to the Car-Free Carnival, a collection of posts by women living without cars. Whether to save money, lose weight, or protect the environment, there are many reasons to reduce our time spent behind the wheel. Some of these bloggers are experts at living car-free. Others are trying it out for a limited time. Don't feel intimidated by those who go to extremes. They are examples for us all of what could be possible with some imagination and determination.
MOVING
Beany (Brown Girl in the Lane) and her husband moved from Philadelphia to San Diego last winter. And they did it? On their bikes. Well, the first 2500 miles of it anyway. They brought with them? Only what they could carry on their bikes. They arrived with zero jobs or housing and did those searches... via foot and public transit. By that point, they were sick of their bikes.
For me, the takeaway from Beany's experience is that planning is the most important key to car-free success. Beany looked for a job in a walkable community. She and her husband stayed in a residence hotel until they had found their jobs. Only then did they search for housing within walking/biking distance of their jobs, shopping, and other services.
Read about Beany's incredible adventure in her modestly titled post,
Living Car Free. And then check out the rest of her blog.
Beany's car-free move may have been extreme, but at least she didn't have a lot of stuff to haul around. Vanessa of Green As A Thistle, on the other hand, moved from one abode to another within the same neighborhood and bribed her friends and readers to come help her schlep everything on foot or bike. Catch the cute video of her move here.
MOMS
Blogger Kyouell (Biscuit Raising) and her husband went car-free in March, despite their neighborhood's low Walk Score of 37 out of 100 and two children to transport. As she writes in her post, Going Car-Free in the 'Burbs,
living without a car has caused her to change many of her ideas about
shopping, distances, and what is and isn't walkable. She started
walking after joining a "Walking Book Club" for exercise and realized
how ironic it was to drive two miles to the library to walk with her
group and then drive back home again. Soon, she was adding more and
more walking to her routine until finally giving up the car completely
a few months ago. Kyouell's post proves what can be done with a little
ingenuity despite less than ideal conditions.
Vancouver single mom Melanie, who blogs at One in 36 Million, has never owned a car in her life. Her carnival post, Single Mom and Carfree, details the various pleasures as well as ordeals of walking, biking, and taking transit, much of it through the rain, with a toddler in tow. One useful shopping strategy she employs: doing several smaller shops a few times per week rather than stocking up all at once. Personally, I find that this to be a good way to make sure our food stays fresh as well.
Angela and Dorea write Car-Free With Kids, living the car-free life in Cambridge, MA. In her post Biking with Kids in the Rain, blogger Angela finds a hilarious teaching moment about worms and plastic garbage bags. And in Car-Free Birth. Sort Of.
her partner Dorea weighs the possibility of getting her pregnant self
to and from the delivery room without a car. The jury is out.
NEWBIES
Bronwyn Lewis (Headphones Not Required) just gave up her car two weeks ago and has been trying to figure out the L.A. bus system. In a series of posts entitled Me vs. My Car, she'll be writing about her "new found freedom" from car ownership in the coming weeks.
Blogger How Green Is My Valley just began her Car-Free Blog Challenge this week. Read about Day 1 and Day 2 here. So far, she's found she just needs to get up and out a bit earlier to bike to the bus station instead of driving and parking her car and that special handling may be needed to carry home ice cream on her bike.
INSPIRATION
For a final bit of inspiration, please read Cafe Mama's post, Life With Kids, and Without a Car, Ignited. Her closing paragraph
