What carfree living looks like
So now we wait for the rain to stir dormant roots and wash away all evidence of my former motoring life.
Here’s the dead spot on my lawn where the minivan used to be parked. It had been sitting there since last May, when I hung up my keys to begin a 30-day experiment in carfree living.
Eleven months later, it was time to cut the cord. The wrecker came and picked up my car last week. Now it’s just me and my bikes. Into the Great Wide Open.
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About the author
Chris Baskind writes about the environment and simpler living. He's also an advocate of carfree transportation, relying entirely on bicycles since June, 2009.Three years ago, Chris launched Lighter Footstep, a pioneering website focused on greener, healthier, more affordable living. It was recently acquired by the Mother Nature Network (MNN). Connect with Chris on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.
Check out ecoMinima!
And it looks good… Almost as good as my new (green) Travel Card.
I'm jealous.
Might want to toss out a hand full of grass seed to speed up the process!
Ha! I wouldn't even know what to toss here. In this part of Florida, the lawns just … well … grow. I have no idea what that hardy collection of wild grasses might be. Pretty stubborn stuff, though. As you can see, “dirt” here is almost entirely sand.
“Wild grass that grows in sand” sounds like a god thing to call it…
enjoy the new yard area!
Jesse
Hey man, congratulations on your big change. Looking forward to hear how life is gonna go for you. I'm assuming you live in a city where you can bike places. Where you at?
Thanks very much! Actually, I live in suburban sprawl — a small unincorporated community outside an equally small city. Beyond a few marked bike lanes and bike racks on buses, there's no cycling infrastructure at all.
I work out of a home office, which is a plus. Everything else happens on a bike, and we cyclists here are on our own.
Thanks very much! Actually, I live in suburban sprawl — a small unincorporated community outside an equally small city. Beyond a few marked bike lanes and bike racks on buses, there's no cycling infrastructure at all.
I work out of a home office, which is a plus. Everything else happens on a bike, and we cyclists here are on our own.
Thanks very much! Actually, I live in suburban sprawl — a small unincorporated community outside an equally small city. Beyond a few marked bike lanes and bike racks on buses, there's no cycling infrastructure at all.
I work out of a home office, which is a plus. Everything else happens on a bike, and we cyclists here are on our own.
Thanks very much! Actually, I live in suburban sprawl — a small unincorporated community outside an equally small city. Beyond a few marked bike lanes and bike racks on buses, there's no cycling infrastructure at all.
I work out of a home office, which is a plus. Everything else happens on a bike, and we cyclists here are on our own.
Thanks very much! Actually, I live in suburban sprawl — a small unincorporated community outside an equally small city. Beyond a few marked bike lanes and bike racks on buses, there's no cycling infrastructure at all.
I work out of a home office, which is a plus. Everything else happens on a bike, and we cyclists here are on our own.
Haha, that's awesome. I live in a decent size city but everything is so spread out it's pretty impractical to ride a bike anywhere; on top of that it's not very bike friendly. My hope is to quit my day job so I have time to bike whenever I need to go out.
Well, that's all part of what we'll be thinking about in what I call the Minimalist Century.
All sunshine and rainbows aside, our kids (and their children) will live in a world very different from ours. Our past was built on cheap energy and access to more resources than we could consume. This is all coming to a screeching halt.
We'll reconsider how we build our cities, where we live in respect to our work, where food will be produced — even basic things, such as what happiness means in a static economy. Anyone who thinks our lifestyles won't change substantially (and soon) is living in a fantasy world.
Yeah, move closer to work or find ways to work out of your home.