Article: a car-free life

[ozbob]

a car-free life

--> here!

[Mozz]

I did it for a year in 2006 living at Oxley 250m from the train station using public transport and bike as an experiment.

Girlfriend did have a car which did help out, and she lived on the northside 200m from a train station.

I would say that 80% of my travels were easily accomplished, 10% were a PITA and 10% were generally unachievable without using a car (either taxi or relying on friends who had cars).

I like the idea of car sharing/rental as outlined in the article.

The other significant point in the article is it residential location is very much a factor in how you get around, choose poorly and you are in a world of hurt.

I recommend to many of my http://www.couchsurfing.org visitors who are staying in Brisbane for months, to secure accommodation within a 2-3km circle of where they will be working/studying and buy a bike rather than paying public transport fares.

The 15% increases past and future have become a $40-$70 per week factor when working out weekly rental costs, if they don't need to spend this money on PT then it can be factored into a more central accommodation selection.

[ButFli]

I did it for 4 years. I lived within walking distance of Uni and the shops and only took work that was easily accessible with PT. On the odd occasion I needed to get to somewhere out-of-the-way or move something big I'd pay for a taxi or rental car. I always figure that when you aren't paying to buy, register, insure and maintain a car you can spend quite a lot on alternative transport and still be ahead.

Come to think of it I live a pretty car-free life now. I drive to sporting commitments twice a week but other than that it's all foot and bus.