One car families???? - Page 2

[SunRise]

We are a one car family, and its my car (partner mostly lives over seas). BUT I still walk to work every day, which is about a mile and a half. I am a walker (was a bike commuter in another city) and have walked an hour each way to work and back in the past. Right now its about a 45 minute walk...15 minutes to my sons school and then another 30 minutes to work. When I first moved to this city (10+ yrs ago) I didn't own a car, but after a couple years, it was clear this city was not so walk friendly and the bus situation was a bit lame, plus I don't like standing and waiting.  I bought a car so I could explore the parks and water falls outside of the city. It also made grocery store trips easier.

[amma_mama]

We are a one-car family and make it work, though sometimes it woul dbe nice to have the second car. My office is about 30 minutes by car, but there is also a subway station, but you have to drive there. DH works from home some days and some days he goes into the city and my office is on the way. When he stays at home, he drops me at the subway station and DD at school, then picks me up from the station with DD in the evening. On days that he goes into the office, depending on the timing and our respective meetings, I drop him or he gets off near my office and takes the subway for one stop. He then comes back toward my office in the evening and we drive home together, picking up DD on the way. We are stuck like glue on the weekends so only need one car. I would actually prefer to go into my office much earlier than I do now, but can't swing that without a second car. Technically, we could probably swing it financially, but it would come out of our budget for extras. Since we only feel the squeeze on our conveience once in a while, and once I get done ranting about absolutely needing the second car, we get back into our groove and get on without it.

[Xeli]

No-car family here, out of choice.  Though it does make the finances easier as well... but that isn't the reason we don't have a car.  We just don't need one.  We live in an urban centre, my DH walks to work and my work is easily accesible by public transportation.  Nearly everything we need is in walking distance.

[Eeyore35]

No car here. It can be tough. Usses in my town only run 'til about 6pm. So, for stuff like a parents' council meeting at my kid's school, I have to get a ride from someone or take a cab. School is only a 15 minute walk, but not safe in the evening/at night. I wlak my daughter to school, as the school district doesn't have bussing to school. I have health issues,so sometimes, we have to take hte city bus, and hten get ther afew minutes late. Altho, now I've connected with other paretns who will pick my daughter up if needed. She takes the school bus home.

Grocery shopoing is tough. I use a big wheeled bag, and that helps A LOT. I have a friend who does case lot sale stuff for me.

The worst is family stuff when I get a ride with my parents. My grandmother's funeral recently was a goodeample. It was 45 minutes awy, and I was gone for over 8 hours, while my friend watched my daughter. Very tough on my daughter, and I coudnl't get home when I wanted to.

Mostly, it works ok, though, and saves a ton of money.

[CherryBomb]

We are because we can't afford a second vehicle at the moment.  I hate it!  But we live rurally with no option for public transportation, so it really sucks.

[onlyzombiecat]

We are a one car family. Most families we know with 2 adults have at least 2 cars.

We can't afford another car and more gas, insurance, maintenance, etc. t really isn't a big deal to us to only have 1 car.

[Ravin]

We've been a one car family for a while, except for we've had 2 since August, because we expected the one we had to die any day. It's held on, but the tags expire in Dec. and there's no way it'll pass emissions, so we'll soon be a one car family again.

Our household has 4 adults; 2 of us drive, the other are given occasional rides. Until pg made it inadvisable, I rode my bike to work several days a week, and DH takes the bus to school. We currently only have 1 day a month where having only 1 car is a real inconvenience, and even that can be worked around by DH getting up early to drop me at work and me taking the bus home so he can take the car to his appt that's too far away to take the bus to and get there on time after class.

We've been without a car, and it was a real hardship, at least in summer. We lived in an area where the bus service was so-so, and the nearest grocery store by foot was a good mile away, by bus the nearest was about 4 or 5 miles away. When it was 115 by day and maybe 90 at night, it was hard to go grocery shopping! I like grocery shopping by bike from where we are now, there are several options w/in 2 miles, but with pregnancy it would really stink.

[mnnice]

We are a two car family and always have been, but are contemplating going down to one. 

Currently,DH and I both WOH and DS1 and DS2  attend public school, but all are less than a mile from where we currently live.  We all usually walk (my car hasn't moved in a week).  We also have a bit of an odd parking situation in our current home (One attached garage stall, but the other car needs to sit outside, but not on the driveway or the street.)  

I do struggle a bit with what the one car should be? Should we keep our big truck or our smaller car or get something different altogether?

[sailorscout]

We're a one car family, I don't really like it but I'm used to it.  He works about 30 miles from where we live.  On days when I have someplace to be like an apt or whatever he'll get a ride or I'll get up at 4 am and drop him off at work but i hate waking up ds so I avoid that at all costs. 

[freestylemama]

We are a one car family.  It works really well for us right now, but if we moved to a different city or I started working full time I think we'd have to go back to two.  We live in a medium sized city in an urban neighborhood.  We're a block from the main bus route.  DD's preschool is a 5 minute drive or 15 minute bike ride away.  DH works from home about half of the time.  His office is also a 5 minute drive or 15 minute bike ride away.  He can walk home in 45 minutes or take the bus home in 20.  Several of our friends' families also have only one car.  The city is set up really well for it and its bus system is one of the best in the nation. 

I think quality of life really improves for everyone when people rely less on cars.  We bought a Burley and it was a great choice.  When it's nice out I often ride to our food co-op for groceries or go to the museum or do whatever.  When it's nice we sometimes don't drive for days.  It's really nice and we're definitely healthier for it.  We also tend to talk more to our neighbors when we walk or ride.

[sunanthem]

Another 8 years, 1 car family here. My dh and I go to college together during the day and are home together at night, so we make our lives work out like that, and take turns with the car if we need to go elsewhere. No big problems here, so far.

[Usually Curious]

We will be once ds graduates and goes off to college. As it is, we enjoy all the expenses of two cars, but the inconveniences of being a one car family. I cannot tell you the last time dh or I drove our ds's car!

His grandmother 'gave' him a newer, more dependable car recently. We debated about keeping or selling his old car for dh to take to work (3mi away). We decided it wasn't worth it. I rarely leave the house w/out help (three little boys to chase).

We love being a one car family. I can walk to town for groceries, walk to my son's school, etc.

[Honey693]

We're one car and it sucks.  DH has to jump around between different buildings for work so I can only drop him off at work once every week/week and a half.  That means running all my errands after dark and not getting together with friends during the day.  We've been doing thsi for 7 months  and we're looking for another car right now b/c I hate it.

[Smokering]

We'll officially be a one-car family when I get my licence. :p Right now we have one - old, pretty junky, a gift - but can't legally drive it! Having been a NO-car family for four years, a car feels like an absolute luxury. BUT, DH works from home. And before that his work was a 10-minute walk away.

[gumshoegirl007]

We're a one car family and I really like to be able to say that (the caveat is that I'm the person who gets the car).  We live in a city (but it's more urban density-like than a city in our area) and DW takes the bus to work.  It's a 30 min commute from our house.  Our kids are now also responsible for getting to and from school on their own and it's too far to walk.  So we have bus passes for them, too.  This means that our monthly outlay on public transportation is $230.  Which is pricey, but more affordable than a second car.

As I get to keep the car during the day (and I don't have to pay for parking at work), this means that I'm also responsible for coordinating and shuttling the children to all their various medical, dental and orthodontist appointments.  And, I have to deal with all school emergencies that require a child to be picked up.

Now that DW has gone back to school part-time for a professional certification, it's a bit of a challenge to coordinate getting everyone to all of their activities.  Here, the bus doesn't make sense because it can take 1 hr to get there one way on the bus, opposed to 10 minutes of driving.  This means I'm picking up a lot of the shuttling.

A second car really isn't in our future, but we are investigating getting a car-share.  We have a program called virtucar where you can sign-in and share a car as needed for a minimal cost.

[chiromamma]

One car here...totally by choice. In addition, we strive to be car-lite....bike, walk or bus places that we could drive to. It's easy  where I live.