Well, some weekend!
We managed to sell the broken car (£450) which was fantastic and means we can pay the garage bill with some left over. They guy who had bought it wanted it for spares for HIS Frontera but declared ours so tidy that he is going to do it the other way round, so he went away a happy camper.
THEN.....
I get a phone call from my Mum telling me that she and Dad have decide to give us £1000 towards a car!!!
WOW!
This means that husband will be able to not only buy the old Landrover he has his eye on BUT that the money we would have had to pay for one can now go towards all our bike stuff!!
What?...Do I hear grumbles of "humf....thought they where going car less?" at the back there?
Well I never said we would never get another car (hence the "almost" in the title).
The aim is to still get mobile under our own steam, but life where we live without a car at all....not impossible but very very hard.
I talk to people who have no car at all and they all have the same thing in common, the live in the city, they live in a part of the world that doesn't take glee in dumping feet of snow on you for 2 months of the year.
The plan is still to kit us out with the equipment to cycle as a family safely and in most weathers, the plan is still to use the public transport that is available to us.
The check list should run...
1) if I can walk I'll walk.
2) if I can't walk I'll cycle.
3) if I can't cycle I'll take the bus/ train.
4) if I can't take public transport I will see if it can be delivered.
5) Only if I have exhausted ALL of the above options will I use a car.
I am not anti-car per say, but I AM anti-wasteful journeys. The village school here is 5 minutes walk from my house and I live the furthest away. However on several occasions I have seen ALL the other village children driven to school, or driven BACK to school for after school clubs! Not one child in the village lives more than 4or 5 minutes walk away...so WHAT if it rains! Carry an umbrella, wear a rain coat and wellies!!
I think you can't be anti-car if you then expect things to be delivered to your door (groceries etc) but you CAN accept that it is more Eco friendly for one small van to bring groceries to 8 or 9 houses than for 8 or 9 cars to drive to town.
If it wasn't for the fact that we have the horses I would seriously consider a move to a more urban area, so long as I could still grow all my veggies!!
I read with envy the people who talk of cycle lanes and bike racks and no car zones and eye up our fast car designed roads and shudder.
BUT!!
But we will solider on....I can't get fit in a car!
Although when there is 3 foot of snow in February I suspect that I may slink into the passenger seat of our landrover pretty quickly :P
Just be sure that when you do get bicycles DO NOT be cheap. The thing about getting a bike as your number one mode of transportation is it needs to be comfortable and do a good job. You need to enjoy riding or else it is too easy to fall back to the car. And you don't want to end up in a huge sweat when you get the grocery store that's 5 minutes away either.
ReplyDeleteThat being said you don't need to break the bank, but getting the "Walmart special for $100" isn't going to get you anywhere.
I would suggest that if you know someone who cycles go with them and shop around, as with anything dealers will try to swindle you and sell you something you don't need or is overpriced if you don't really know about cycling.
And for the record we don't have a car but where we live we are also flooded with many meters of snow for 5 months of the year ;)
eeek..snow and ice is looming at the forefront of my mind!! The plows and gritter hardly ever bother doing the village, we live at the end of a 1/2 mile dirt track and have had to dig ourselves out many times :P
ReplyDeleteWe have a really good bike dealer in the big town, he sorted out a bike for my husband and he loves it...the kids bikes were off the internet and "cheap" and it shows!! The dealer has new ladies bikes for @£200, a price we had origionaly balked at but as you say, when its going to be your main mode of transport...husbands bike has so many gears that there are few hills he can't get up :D
Oy! what have I let myself in for!!??