That's it! Throwing away my car(s) for good!

[cfg83]

Peakster -

Originally Posted by Peakster

Just to let everyone know, I added another video to the previous 2 at the top of this thread. Watch it and let the reply posts pour in!

I am happy you are ok!!!!!! I am sad for the Geo. It's eery because it seems like you are getting a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. You wanted to be car free and you are getting closer to being car free!

This sounds inverse-familiar to me. When I bought my motorcycle (back in 1986 I think), I used the excuse that I was going to take miles off my precious (Dad's) VW Karmann Ghia. But, I crunched my Ghia buying parts for the motorcycle!!!!!!! Oh irony, thy name is irony!!!!!

CarloSW2

[Peakster]

Ouch that is ironic. And costly for the Ghia .

It's been a week now without being able to drive my car at night, and I got to say: I'm kind of going though a bit of withdrawal! Isn't cold turkey fun?

The good news is that I've now ridden my bike nearly 140 kilometres since its purchase which is now more cost effective per unit distance than Gloria

[GasSavers_RoadWarrior]

Heh, I bought my Escort to be using while I R+Red Marvin, but it blew the headgasket and I had both of them dead... I had a parts van and no money, so I did the best patching up Marvin with the best of the parts off that... so Marvin is doing all the legwork right now while I wait out the weather and funds to get stuck into Wile-E again...

[Peakster]

Added yet another video to the top post. This living without a car thing is easier than I anticipated! How many here are now thinking of joining in on the fun?

[Snax]

Although I have since regressed to my old car driving ways for now, I know exactly what you mean. Late 2006, we sold one of our two cars. Not wanting to leave my wife and kids at home without transportation, this left me either riding my bicycle or the bus to get to and from work 2.5 miles away. As it turned out, it is very easy. It only takes 7 minutes longer each way by bicycle, and slightly longer by bus primarily because I have to wait for it when I could otherwise be travelling.

The weather was never a serious issue for me either. If it were too wet and miserable to ride, there was always the warm dry comfort of the bus after standing around for a few minutes with an umbrella. And the couple of times it snowed or iced over the roads - delaying the bus, I was able to ride my studded tire equipped mountain bike with no delay. And of course, a day of sun was never really a burden no matter which way I chose to get to work.

Before we sold the 2nd car, I initially thought it would be more of an inconvenience than it was. I thought that it would severly limit our independence to run seperate errands, but it really didn't. What ended up happening is that we saved even more fuel by consolidating our errands - and it never ended up being a situation of having to do two things at once.

Anyway, like I said, we've gone back to the two car family thing, but I hope to soon rejoin the bicycle commuter world later this spring. (Most likely with an electric hub motor kit to help cover a now longer commute that lacks bus service.) But we are still keeping the second car. :P

[Peakster]

When I arrived via Greyhound bus in Regina today, I took transit from downtown to my suburban house and was amazed by,

#1: I was only one of three people on the entire bus!! Even at 6:00pm.
#2: It only took me 20 minutes to get home. Not much different than if driving by car.

Regina's transit is really bad in terms of trying to get to other suburban edges of the city, but it's quite fine for getting into the heart of downtown. When I look for a job, I won't limit myself to what's walkable/bike-able in my neighbourhood, I'll keep downtown in mind too.

[Snax]

Originally Posted by theclencher

When I was house shopping I made it a requirement that it be within bicycling distance of work. That decision served me well for 13 years- saved lots of money, vehicle wear and tear, and burned lots of excess calories.

*nod

I specifically shopped for a home more or less in the center of town 6 years ago. I knew my work location might move, but with this smaller city, it wasn't likely to move any further from it's outlying location at the time. In that time, my work location has in fact moved twice, and will be moving again next week - all to three points of a triangle with my home virtually dead center in it. It just sucks that the original location for my work is where it is ending up again - without bus service, but it's still hardly a difficult ride.

[Headshot Zod]

small slightly off-topic sidenote.

Originally Posted by RoadWarrior

Importing it to Canada might be more of a PITA and moneypit than you anticipate though. Some US models are identical to Canadian models, some aren't. Things that might cause an issue are powered seatbelts and lights.

I bought my Dodge up in Kamsack SK and brought it back to the states. One of those items the Canadians have is daytime running lights. I guess this law went into effect in the early 1990's. So if you were going to bring a US spec'd truck to Canada you would probably have to find the entire underhood wiring harness to make it legal up there.

[Lug_Nut]

Originally Posted by Peakster

How many here are now thinking of joining in on the fun?

Getting there...
I just (three hours ago) sold my Jetta TDI for a fair profit. I still have what had been her '00 Odyssey when she took my Passat TDI, and I still have my '69 Saab, but neither of those have moved in the past two+ months.
The bicycles are my primary motive method now.

Headshot Zod: Missed you in 2003
AltWheels.ORG 2003 Vehicle Most Likely To Revolutionize Transportation
AltWheels.ORG 2003 Favorite Environmentall Friendly Passenger Vehicle
(yes, the plaque is mis-spelled)

[Peakster]

Sounds great Lug Nut. You'll be surprised of the amount of money you'll save.

Great timing too, because I just sold my final vehicle (the Tempo) yesterday for $240. I'm now officially car free (and almost at 400 miles on my bicycle since April)!

My new (err, old) wheels:
Attachment 1332