Why use a car?

For quite some time now I have been seriously thinking about going car free again, and making a lifestyle commitment to not owning a car. In my mid 20's I did not own a car, and have never really had an easy relationship with these machines. I do not particularly like driving, find most things to do with cars so overly complex requiring way to much maintenance and upkeep (and expense). Several factors came together recently that have resolved this decision and I will sell my truck (the Toyota Hilux) as soon as possible, giving myself more money to spend on sustainable cycling solutions and other projects without the millstone of car ownership to weigh me down.

Essentially I have been using my Long Bike (see my other blogs for details) as my main daily transport, and the more I use it, the less I want to own a car - for a whole range of reasons that I will detail in later posts.

As of the past few months I have been using the truck less and less, there are some times that I am still negotiating, and these most often involve my children. When a child is feeling sick, or it is really hot (though in this recent spate of ridiculously hot weather both my kids seem to have coped fine), or we have had to travel further then possible by bicycle (one trip was a 100km round trip to take my daughter to a birthday party!!).

Yesterday Chrissy and I drove to the beach. It is almost a 50km round trip. I had wanted to encourage Chrissy to go on the back of the Long Bike with me to town then for us to catch the train down to Grange, but I think that this solution will need to come once I really have removed the possibility of using the truck from our daily life. Having an electric power assist on one of the cargo bikes would help, especially getting home from town on a hot day when it is uphill all the way!

The only other thing that I routinely use my truck for is picking up old bicycles for the Bikes for Refugees scheme, but I do have a huge bike trailer that may still allow me to do this, we will have to see.

So this little journey is about my reasons, successes and failures as I seek to become car free in the city of Adelaide, lets see what happens....