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How common is courtesy?

by Angela 06.02.2010
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This past weekend, my family took a walk to see the red-tailed hawks nesting in our neighborhood. On the way home, Dorea was yelled at by a fast-moving biker for stopping to say hello to someone. At the time we were on a sidewalk which is also used as a bike path, but contains primarily [...]

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Embracing our Tiny House

by Dorea 02.04.2010

Ever since we found out baby R was a boy, we’ve been thinking about real estate. We own a 650-ish square foot two-bedroom condo in North Cambridge (and about 40 of those sq ft are unheated enclosed porch). Our approximate plan when we bought the place two and a half years ago was that if [...]

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Not shopping with kids

by Angela 01.26.2010

One huge advantage of our carfree lifestyle is that we don’t shop very much. I believe being without a car means fewer shopping trips, but I don’t have any research to back me up. If you’ve seen any, please leave a comment! I did find a study today that shows shopping trips are the most [...]

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Advice for taking the car free plunge — Part II: Back-up Plans

by Dorea 10.04.2009

This is part of a series in response to a question we got way back when from a family considering remaining car free in our neighborhood after their car met an untimely (or timely?) demise. In Part I we addressed some questions regarding gear. Here we bite off something perhaps even more important: The Back-Up [...]

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Advice for the carfree plunge, Part 1: Gear

by Dorea 08.31.2009

We got a comment last week from Lauren asking for advice in taking the step from car-light family to car-free family. She writes: “My family (two grown-ups one 3.5 year old) have been day dreaming about being car free for a while- since we already owned a car, it was easy to just do our [...]

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Suburban Friends and the Carfree Family

by Dorea 07.29.2009

We got a really great question on the When you really need a car post. BusChick writes (somewhat edited here): “The biggest driver (pun intended) of car use for us is visiting friends. My family lives in the city, and so do most of my old friends. I, do, however, have one or two close [...]

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On (not) using my body

by Dorea 07.27.2009

A recent article in the New Yorker combined with trying to get used to my post-partum body, has gotten me thinking. The article opens with research showing that Americans started gaining weight in the early 80s, after remaining relatively stable through the 60s and 70s, and that we’ve kept on gaining, and then launches into [...]

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Biking with Kids in the Rain

by Angela 04.10.2009

Earlier this week, I was nearing the end of the day, which is the time when I pick up my daughter from daycare on the bike and madly rush home. But it was raining. And the kid and I were completely devoid of rain gear. I cursed myself a little bit for never remembering to [...]

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Xtracycle shopping

by Angela 03.06.2009

True confession time: I have no right to be writing this post right now. Between illness and bike problems, it’s been far too long since I’ve done a good shopping trip on a bike. In fact, thanks to the generosity of our friends, I’ve borrowed a car for several in the past couple of months. [...]

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Surviving carfree babyhood

by Dorea 02.19.2009

We recently got an interesting comment from Charlotte of Chic Cyclist, on the thread about how we gave up our car. Charlotte writes: “some vestigial teenager in me clings to the ‘option’ of having a car somewhere, just in case. I’m going to have to read about how you handled the early months of H’s [...]

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