Carfree as a positive lifestyle choice.
In my opinion, not nearly enough is said about the many good reasons to celebrate carfree living.
I don’t own a car, or depend on them in any particularly critical way. Most of my mobility is by bike or foot. I am also a regular user of public transport. Once in a while if convenient, I hire a car, use a taxi or a delivery truck.
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 affoard a car, by not owning one I avoid a lot of financial pressures. Ting and I seldom have more than one full time income between us.
- 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.
- A bunch of 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.
