October "No-car" challenge - Page 2

[mumkenna&lucas]

Originally Posted by rachiem

**Points out the fact that many people, especially in suburban areas, have no form of public transportation whatsoever.**

Myself included.

That's where we live too! I would like to park it for lets say 10 days..

[kathirynne]

Originally Posted by shaper

How many kids are you going to be hauling around on the bus? I mean that in the best possible (most supportive, 'been there') kind of way.. I only have the one and he's 3.

I have 4 children (15, 13, 10 and 6), but I won't have to do much "hauling around", because we live about 4 blocks from their schools (actually, the 13-year-old's school is about 8 blocks away, but his school bus picks him up and drops him off at his younger siblings' elementary school). My bus stop is accross the street from the elementary school (my old student ID card still works as a bus pass) and we live within walking distance of a supermarket. So I really only need the car to get to church on Sundays, my children's musical performances, and for emergency trips to the doctor's office.

[phathui5]

Well, I haven't driven the van yet this month, so that's two no driving days for me. Plus, I found out today that I'll be hosting playgroup for the next two weeks, so I won't have to drive on Fridays.

[nascarbebe]

I think I already do that. DH has to drive every day to work but there are days I don't use the car at all. When I do drive it's rarely more than once a day. I live in a small town and the grocery store is only 10 min walk. I have an all-terrain stroller with a nice basket so we go on that as much as possible. I even lost weight this spring/summer! My town really needs more sidewalks to make it safe for pedestrians. If we had more sidewalks I could even walk to WalMart, which is only another 10 min. past the grocery store but it's hard with the ditches. Stupid town. No wonder people are so fat and sedentary around here. People look at me like I'm an alien when they see me walking.

[kathirynne]

I caved!

This morning we were in a mad rush to get ready for school, and my son grabbed the wrong stack of papers in his hurry to get out the door.

We got to school with not a minute to spare, and when he realized he had the wrong papers, I told him that I would go home and get the right ones for him. (I know, I know, he should have loaded his backpack last night before bed.)

By the time I walked home, there was no way I was going to be able to walk back to the school and still catch my bus. So, I took the car.

The good news is that before I left the house, I loaded up everything I need to do my monthly shopping (lists, reusable bags, jars to return to hfs for reuse in the bulk department, outgrown kids' clothes to consign) into the trunk, with the intention of doing it today, rather than on Saturday, as I had planned.

Does that redeem my standing in the "essential car use only" club?

[guest^]

Our hardest day so far has been the day DD had to be to PS(we HS) for chorus....which starts at 8AM. It was downpouring sheets of rain...we managed.

We are using a friends car to get DD to her dance class, and to get to far away errands.

mp

[polyhymnia]

Today was my first car day, and it was a planned one - I had a doctor's appointment and had to go in to work late, and if I had walked from the doctor to work I would have gotten there a lot later than driving. But, I did a bunch of errands after work that required the car so I won't need to use it again for ages on my own. We will be using the car Saturday to run some errands - take some skis in to the shop to be warrantied, go to the animal shelter to look for a 2nd cat, grocery shop, and run a few more errands. We've already mapped out the most efficient way to do it all with the least backtracking

[captivatedlife]

So I'm working myself in! I rode my bike home one day this week (7 miles and it was ok!). I'm looking to do it 2 times next week and then 1 day home only and one day both ways, and then full on week 4!

I'm excited!

[phathui5]

Still haven't driven this month!

[SusannahM]

I'll join in, but I need to think about my usage from Oct 1 until today to see what trips I've already made.

My goal will be 15 no-drive days. I'm REALLY curious to see how hard this is for me since we just moved here a couple of weeks ago. In Austin, it was a piece of cake. I think after doing a month's worth of analysis, I'll set a mileage goal.

Okay - just did the analysis. Here are the trips so far with approximate mileage:

1 - grocery store (10 miles)
2 - none
3 - parents' house (24 miles)
4 - none
5 - playdate (6 miles)

Total days of driving so far: 3
Total miles so far: 40

[guest^]

I am trying so hard to keep upbeat about having a dead car-actually van. I'm borrowing a friend's car to get DD across town to her dance class, and wrap errands into the trip. This week, we left early for dance to get the DC sneakers,cat some litter,post office, and DS's eyeglasses adjusted. I(or we) have walked to take DD to her music class and chorus at the PS,grocery store,HFS, and library. I have now pulled my neck out, and my torn rotator cuff on my left shoulder is aching....so this week, I think I will have groceries delivered-it costs $6. Oh, and even though I don't really like our parish(I was driving to another church), we are now back at our home church-which is just a hop and skip away from our home. Tryingto give my attitude a jump-start, as DD is starting to complain. DS loves our new adventure-DH tas taken them on bus rides three times since our van died.

mp(trying to teach my DD a world view from our mid-west windows....no,honey...it's just a mid-western American obsession to drive everywhere...millions are also lugging thenselves to and from....):

[choli]

Every month is a no car month for meI've never owned a car! I live in the city and can do pretty much everything I need on foot, or more rarely, by public transport or cab. I like it this way and have no desire to have a car.

[SusannahM]

I'll join in, but I need to think about my usage from Oct 1 until today to see what trips I've already made.

My goal will be 15 no-drive days. I'm REALLY curious to see how hard this is for me since we just moved here a couple of weeks ago. In Austin, it was a piece of cake. I think after doing a month's worth of analysis, I'll set a mileage goal.

Okay - just did the analysis. Here are the trips so far with approximate mileage:

1 - grocery store (10 miles)
2 - none
3 - parents' house (24 miles)
4 - none
5 - playdate (6 miles)
6 - parents' house and then out to dinner (30 miles)
7 - out to eat for birthday lunch (35 miles)

Total days of driving so far: 5
Total miles so far: 105

Okay, so I'm going to do MUCH better this coming up week. No more birthday celebrations for one thing! Every birthday we have in this family seems to involve about 3 celebrations.

[phathui5]

I did well last week (didn't drive until I ran out for ice cream and beer Friday night). I did drive around this weekend, but I'm only trying to park it on weekdays. Here's to another week of parking my car!

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

I've made it three days so far without driving this first week. I'm hoping to have more!!!

[SusannahM]

How did everyone do? We drove 14 days, 423 miles total. I think our ultimate goal will be 6 days/month of driving total, and about 300 miles/month.

[polyhymnia]

I lost track of # days driving, but I only got gas once on the 17th - 11 gallons. We've still got about 1/4 tank left, I'll probably get gas again next Wednesday. Before that I got gas on 9/28 (12 gallons). So, we did reasonably well. not fantastic but reasonable. I'm guessing about 20 gallons of gas for the month.
Once ski season starts, we'll be back to at least every-other-week gas - we'll have 140 mile round trips to the cabin every weekend. Ugh.

[wombatclay]

Well, I spent almost 2 years without a car... my now 2.5yo thinks nothing of walking a mile or more!

But we're moving ~15 miles away from town (no bus service either) so... I guess I'm going to be doing more driving. I'm hoping to drive on only 3 days each week and grouping all the "in town" activities on those three days. T/TH for dd's play school and S for church. But DH will have to drive on the other days (I'd drop him off/pick him up on my "3 days"). It's the one big down side to the move.

But that's just 3 days a week for me...so roughly 12 days a month.

[savithny]

Well, until my DD starts K next year, our day includes a trip to drop her off at preschool and pick her up. It *doubles* the miles we typically drive in a week to do that, but the school is not realistically accesible (for us) via other means. It's a long, winding, hilly trip, and while there's a bus up there, we'd have to wait an hour at each end for the bus back to town.

Once DD is in school and taking the bus, DH and I can both walk/bus to work and home again, (three different bus routes go right by our house), and I can see being able to cut our car trips to 1 or 2 a week.

But until then, my goal is to limit *extra* trips, outside the preschool drop off/pickup. I combine errands onto one day and have been cutting back on going out "just because."