From the category archives:

Transportation options

On sometimes driving.

by Dorea 02.05.2012
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With one notable exception*, most of our living is done within a couple miles of our home. R’s daycare is about six blocks away. H’s school is about four blocks away. Groceries are about a mile away in Porter Square for the store we don’t like, or a little over two miles for the store [...]

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Unpredictable Driving

Thumbnail image for Unpredictable Driving by Dorea 01.31.2012

Angela and I are both mathematicians. Inevitably, when either of us mentions math, either that we do math, teach math, or studied math, the response we get more often than not is “Oh, I hate math.” You get used to it after a while, and we can usually find ways to move conversation back out [...]

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Kids’ walking personalities

by Dorea 01.23.2012
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Rebecca wrote a great post recently at Green Baby Guide that got me thinking about the impact of kids personalities on walking for transport with small children. Rebecca is a carfree mom with a fantastically unmotivated walker, and she bemoans the constant judgment of parents who push “big kids” in strollers even though no one really bats [...]

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What we ride

by Dorea 01.09.2012

I thought it might be useful for readers to know in more detail what bike gear we use to ride with our kids. Sure, we ride our cargo bikes, but we also ride (and have ridden) several other more standard (and more affordable) set-ups. So, here is some basic info about our current rotation. I [...]

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Car culture and kids toys

by Dorea 01.02.2012
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Like many families, we’ve just had a channukah-induced influx of toys into our house. Recent improvements in storage mean that we actually do have space for these toys, and they have been keeping our kids delightfully busy. We are also blessed with considerate grandparents who remember our space constraints, often giving our kids craft sets [...]

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Local Roundup: Somerville Illuminations ride, cargo bike sightings, new local family bike list

by Dorea 12.27.2011
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Last weekend, H & I decked out our bikes in festive lights, put on all the wool socks we could find, and and headed out for the second annual Illuminations Ride put on by the Somerville Arts Council and the Somerville Bicycle Committee. We arrived to a festive gathering of 75-100 brightly lit cyclists, including [...]

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True Life Stories of the Carfree– Melanie, Michael, Ryan (4) and Sarah (2). Winnipeg, Manitoba

by Dorea 11.20.2011
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In the fourth of our series about carfree families (that aren’t us), we turn to Melanie & Michael of Winnipeg, Manitoba, to provide us with some serious inspiration for winter riding as the weather gets colder. Are you a carfree with kids? Would you like to share your story? Please contact us at carfreewithkids at [...]

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Family Bike Shopping Part V: The Final Verdict

by Dorea 11.04.2011
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(See also Parts I, II, III and IV) In a final round of consideration, we looked at some of the higher-end bakfiets, looking for something essentially like Mike’s bike, but with a better raincover and a less finicky kickstand latch. The trimmest I found was the well-regarded Workcycles Bakfiets Short, which is available in the [...]

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Family Bike Shopping Part IV: The third and fourth bikes we almost bought, Joe Bike & Neat Bike Box Bikes

by Dorea 10.31.2011
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(See also part I, part II & part III) After ruling out the Zigo, I was able to take our friend’s Gazelle Cabby for a spin. Now, we weren’t actually considering a Cabby for reasons I’ll get into in a minute, but before riding the cabby, I hadn’t been thinking a Bakfiets-style bike, with the [...]

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Family Bike Shopping Part III: The second bike we almost bought, the Zigo Leader

by Dorea 10.30.2011

(See also Part I for info on why we were shopping and what we were looking for and Part II for the first bike we ruled out) After ruling out the Sun Atlas, the next bike we considered was the Zigo Leader. It looked like it would have great weather protection, and since it was [...]

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