Carfree as a positive lifestyle choice.
In the Australasia reducing car use is too often held up as a “sacrifice”, made for the environment. In my opinion, not nearly enough is said about the many other good reasons to celebrate carfree living.
I don’t own a fancy carbon-fibre road bike, or logo-covered lycra clothes, or a car. I do own several very nice steel bicycles, plus a trailer, on which I perform all my daily tasks. I also ride them up into the hills on Sundays.
When I use the word carfree, I don’t actually mean I want to see all cars elimitated from the face of the earth. It is about getting them out of those every day activities that constitute 95% or so of our travel, and dominate the use of city space.
For me the benefits of carfree living are the following.
- Health: Combined with a diet of good home grown vegetables, I get to spend practically all my time at near-peak fitness.
- Fun.
- Reliability: My morning commute is about 12 minutes, ± 2 minutes.
- Self-empowerment: I can build, fix and power my own transport.
- Time and money: Though I could easily affoard a car, by not owning one I have cut back my working hours with the money I save.
- Space in my shed, the most important room in the house.
- State of mind: I arrive at work each morning with a clear head, and fresh air in my lungs, ready to concentrate on the task at hand.
- All those ultruistic things: Climate change, public safety, air pollution, noise pollution, rain forests, oil wars, sustainability and livable cities.
In the event that somebody invents some uncrashable, “green” car, immune from congestion, built from wheat grass, and powered entirely by the flatulence of our politicians, I will still be cycling, due to reasons one to seven.
