From the category archives:

Benefits of being carfree

Update: Our (not so) Carfree Birth

by Angela 06.08.2009

Rowdy Kittens wrote recently in the Small Living Journal that one way for people to become more involved in their communities is to go carfree. We couldn’t agree more, and we’ve noticed this in particular around the birth of our baby boy. Because of complications, Dorea had to be induced at 38 weeks, and we [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Walking like a Tortoise

by Angela 02.26.2009

Most of the time, walking drives me crazy. I am obsessed with efficiency, and walking is slow. I think the one-minute walk to the kitchen at work goes by too slowly. The idea of a treadmill simply boggles my mind. Yes, I know that walking can be peaceful and I’m sure I should be living [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

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 [...]

13 comments Read the full article →

Making Choices: Frugality, the Environment, or Social Justice

by Angela 01.30.2009

I stumbled into the carfree lifestyle because I’m a cheapskate. I’m allergic to spending money, and cars drink up a lot of money. I get to feel overly proud of not owning a car because I’m being environmentally responsible. Living without a car brings two of my core values together. But those values are often [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

No digging out

by Angela 12.19.2008

On days like today (with snow falling at a steady clip), I extra love not having a car. No car to shovel out or move to a rare legal parking space. Being carfree really lessens the pre-snow anxiety and the post-snow grief. Day care is closed today, so I just walked down to a local [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Car-Free Grandma

by Dorea 10.10.2008

Angela asked an interesting question the other day. “When Grandma (Angela’s mom) moved here from Florida 6 months ago, would it have been better for us (from a purely selfish perspective) if she had kept her car?” Keep in mind, we’re talking from a purely selfish perspective, i.e. pretend she completely funds the car/insurance, deals [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Friendship, Cars, and Carfree Families

by Angela 09.19.2008

Josh Hart has done research in the UK on the impact of traffic on community life. His research shows that on streets with heavy traffic, residents have dramatically fewer friends in their neighborhood and their sense of what neighborhood space belongs to them is greatly decreased. It would be great to see similar research focused [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Costs of car ownership, part I

by Angela 08.27.2008

Those of us who go carfree or car-light often do so because of the high costs of car ownership. So I thought it would be a good idea to spend a some time detailing those costs, which look to me like they come in four broad categories: monetary costs, time costs, mental/emotional costs, and social [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

Surprising Benefits from Being Car Free

by Angela 07.21.2008

One surprising benefit of being car free has been the reduction of choice in our lives. This might seem counter intuitive in a world in which more choices are assumed to make us happier. But making choices takes a lot of time and energy. If we hadn’t been restricted geographically, we would have felt obliged [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

Becoming Car-Free with a Kid

by Dorea 07.18.2008

Before our daughter was born in Summer 2006, we were already avid bike commuters and users of public transit. We chose our Somerville (Massachusetts) neighborhood because it was an easy walking distance from groceries and work for Angela, and a manageable bike ride for Dorea. When we started planning for a child we decided that [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →