7 Tips for Going Car Free

To live healthier and more financially free

by Mark Cramer, author of Old Man on a Green Bike: Chronicles of a Self-Serving Environmentalist

We can be conditioned to believe any absurdity: like a human being needs to power a two-ton hunk of steel to get around.

(Photo by Masa Critica La Paz)

The annual cost of owning a car hovers near $10,000, including the car itself, fuel, maintenance and repair, insurance, license and registration, taxes, depreciation, and finance charges. And that doesn’t include hidden health costs resulting from a sedentary lifestyle.

Here’s a brief list of why you should consider going car free. If you find the reasons convincing, check out the seven tips below that you can use to achieve that goal:

• The car is a time thief. For argument’s sake, let’s say you’re in the gig economy, netting $40,000 per year. This means that 25% of your work hours go to paying for the car. Without a car to feed and assuming your work week is 40 hours, you could accept 25% fewer gigs and spend the 10 hours extracted from weekly work time on hanging out with friends, visiting family, hiking, bicycling, writing a novel, improving your bowling score. Or don’t immediately withdraw those liberated hours until they can be used for a longer vacation or early retirement.
• The bicycle is faster than a car. When you count the hours spent working to support a car as part of net commuting time, including external costs, you see that the net or “effective” speed of a car in New York City comes to 5.7 miles per hour. In Los Angeles that effective speed amounts to 8 mph. Slower than a bike! (See Tranter & Tolley, “The ‘slow paradox’: how speed steals our time” from Slow Cities: Conquering our Speed Addiction for Health and Sustainability.)
• When you dump your car, you get healthier. Numerous studies show that switching from car commuting to public transport (where one walks to and from the train station or bus stop) leads to a decrease in BMI (Body Mass Index), a key health indicator. According to the CDC, adequate access to public transportation systems is associated with a range of positive health outcomes, including more physical activity, fewer traffic injuries and better air quality.
• Regular bicycle commuters have zero net commute times when longer life expectancy is considered. Studies published by The Lancet and CDC refer to the exercise benefits of walking to public transit compared to the sedentary lifestyle of car commuting. The health benefits of bicycling to work are even more pronounced. A 2015 research project found that regular bicycle commuters have a half-year longer life expectancy, which translates to an hour of quality life added for every hour cycled. Thus, the hours you commute today are returned to you down the road. This equals zero net commute time.
• Why haven’t I mentioned the environment? I’ve purposely excluded environmental arguments since the best social policies involve legitimate self-interest — in this case, health and financial freedom. Science magazine tells us that “live car-free” is the second most effective way to reduce our carbon footprint, the first being “have one fewer child.”

My family and I have lived without a car for a quarter of a century. My wife and I were able to raise a son without owning a car. With those life experiences as my credentials, I offer these seven concrete tips for transitioning to car-free liberation:

1. Determine the optimal car-free place to live. The easiest way to car-free-dom is to move to a place that has excellent public transportation, and if you bicycle, one that has safe bicycling infrastructure. However, recognizing that most readers live in places that are more challenging than San Francisco, Amsterdam, Paris and Portland, other tips in this list confront challenges faced in the typical American sprawl-burdened city.
2. Choose appropriate housing. Consider car-centric Southern California as our laboratory. The most important strategic decision is to find housing near a mass transit station. In Los Angeles or Orange County, this would be the Metrolink light rail or a regular Metro line that connects with Metrolink. Thirty-six American cities have mass transit ridership above 10% of all trips. LA is ranked 35. NYC tops the list at 56%. Dozens of other American cities show increased transit facilities. For example, in Phoenix, citizens voted to expand light rail. A car-lobby-sponsored Proposition 105 in 2019 would have halted the expansion of a successful light rail system, but 63% of Phoenix citizens voted to uphold the rail expansion, while also voting against budget reductions on the project. Finding housing near transit is increasingly possible across the USA.
3. Use blended transport. Back to Southern California, let’s consider Santa Clarita, a city so sprawling that it contains three Metrolink stations. The commuter can bike to the station, put the bike into the special “bike car,” and relax on the way to work in Burbank, Glendale or LA — that is, if the exit station is walking or cycling distance to the workplace. Metrolink is not cheap, but many companies offer transit subsidies to public transportation users as well as benefits for employees who cycle to work. Even with no subsidy, using transit is much cheaper than depending on a car.
4. Prepare for the weather. Both Orange County and Santa Clarita (LA County) can be blistering hot in the summer. Both pedestrian and bicycle commuters can avoid the heat on the way to work by walking or cycling slowly to the first early morning train when the air is still fresh. For the return, once home you can shower. On the hottest days I’ve simply cycled slowly, worn a tee-shirt and then changed to my work clothes after arrival. Many bike-friendly businesses have shower facilities on premises. For cold weather, dress in layers. Once on the roll you warm up and can remove a layer. For rainy weather inexpensive waterproof toppings can prevent the bike rider from getting soaked in anything less than a monsoon.
5. Locate your residence strategically for shopping and other common errands. Choose a residence within a half mile of a supermarket and within a mile of a public school if you have a child. My grandson Zane in Irvine, California lived 1.3 miles from his school, and he and I walked there together. For shopping you can use a shopping caddy with wheels for groceries. Buying less than a trunk load not only results in an enjoyable walk but allows you to choose fewer industrial-nonperishable foods because you can shop more frequently. By shopping twice a week instead of just once, you’ll find yourself making better dietary choices.
6. Redefine your road trips. Love a good road trip and don’t have a car? Just rent one. Renting is much less expensive than owning. My wife and I also have done many road trips by bicycle, where you feel the contour of the land and take in the aroma of the countryside. If I could change one thing in my life, it would be to have done more road trips by bike. You can place the bikes on a train to get yourself out of the city. Metrolink offers bike cars free of charge. For longer getaways carry-on bike fees for Amtrak range from $0 to $20.
7. Reject the stigma of not owning a car. Being seen on a bus in Southern California can be more embarrassing than being spotted in a porn shop. Car-indoctrinated LA folks look at car-lessness like homelessness. Some Angelinos see not owning a car as even more degrading than not haing a home. Here’s a quote from a chat group that expresses the stigma:

“If I weren’t involved in a relationship and had no plans of being in one, then I would ditch the car in a second. Cars are more social requirement in the USA than a true necessity. I think there are very few people in the States who would be fine with someone arriving at a date on bike. Many people would see this as a sign of poverty, instability, or immaturity, but at least hinting at social deviance.”

More than the challenges of transportation, shopping, weather and getting kids to school, the social stigma of not owning a car is the toughest obstacle and the most absurd part of our car-lobby-induced conditioning. Consider that no movie hero has ever taken a bus, except for Harrison Ford, and he was Richard Kimble, the fugitive.

Precious few American movies feature a bicycle rider as a hero, and none have a hero who rides a bike for transportation. Hollywood has been glaringly complicit with the car lobby.

When I finally realized my car dependency was an addiction fomented by the Consciousness Industry, raging defiance took over and I dumped my car.

But things are changing. Millennials are less hooked on cars. Public transportation has gained popularity among voters. Too bad most environmental movements have been slow to integrate healthy and cost-free human energy into their programs.