Free!
I’ve sold my car. Signed. Paid for. Notarized. Done. Car freeeeeee! If you see a girl on a bike with a bigger than usual smile carrying a heavy check in the general direction of a bike shop, that’s me. I will be getting some sort of fast bike with the intent to conquer some rather large distances. Not sure what bike I’ll get. I kind of want to own all the bikes right now. Here’s an illustration of my happy day:
Note: I did not actually push my car off a cliff. But I was tempted. Selling it happened to work out better for my wallet and bike lust.
AWESOME!!!!! I did that about a year ago, never felt better in my life, welcome to the bike lifestyle 🙂
Thanks! I realized I’d been living the lifestyle for a while when I noticed I put 2000 miles on my bike this spring and less than 200 on my car. It was time to get rid of the dead weight.
Whee! We had a cute little 1974 VW Beetle, which was a great car – but after we moved into the place we’re in now, we were just hardly using it (and then, usually only when we were feeling lazy), so we decided we could better use the insurance, maintenance and gas money for something else, and sold it.
It’s been a great experience so far – everything we need is nearby, and we’ve really enjoyed the excuse to be more conservative with our movement, and also to just have built-in time to hang out as we move around that wouldn’t be there if we were driving. Not to mention, there is so much to see in a city that you completely miss while driving.
Right now, we have cars as the mainstream mode of transportation for the majority, with everything else as “alternative transportation” – automobiles should fill a very specific niche for long distance travel and hauling large things (or large numbers of people), and feet and bicycles should be the primary means of moving yourself around on a daily basis. Here’s to leading by example!
Don’t forget public transit!
Since you seem to like speed, long distance and seem to be doing some riding on your own.. Maybe a 2-wheeled recumbent would be worth considering ?
Been carfree myself for almost 6 years now, and have never looked back 🙂
The only problem I’ve found is that after a few years, you begin to wonder where is all that money I’m supposedly saving by not having a car? Could I afford a car now even if I wanted one? Obviously the lifestyle absorbs the extra, and if you had to get a car again (god forbid!), the lifestyle would have to adjust back downward accordingly.