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Car-Free Challenge

One Very Small Mom and Two Kids: Car-Free
Sheryl Davies

My son might need therapy. At least I am quite sure that few three year olds exclaim with amazement, “Mommy, the cars go all by themselves!” I suppose you might say that our car-free month has warped him, but unfortunately or perhaps fortunately for him, this is just the beginning of our adventure – a test month. You see, our family is at a cross-road. In July, my husband begins 9 years of intensive medical training, for which he will need to commute at all hours, being on call and for which the only option is our car. We can either become a two-car family or we can have myself and my two kids (and possibly another in the future), become car-free. But can a family be car free? After all, this is simply not just commuting to work once a day, with some errands in the evening; this is multiple school runs, lessons and errands. After this month, we have shown – it can be and we love it.

At the beginning of may we set out to determine if this car free set up could work. I loaded my two boys, ages 5 and 3, in the Burley trailer and headed off. Soon I heard echos of childhood car trips: “He’s touching me!” “He won’t stay on his side” and culminating in a simple, long, high pitched, infinite decibel, “STOP!!!!” And yes, I did have to pull that bike trailer over, but unlike my parents’ solution, I couldn’t draw a line to enforce “sides,” there was no room, and I realized that my boys just didn’t fit – not to mention my son’s head nearly hitting the top. Then, there was my first grocery run to Trader Joes. When I go, my kids seem to load up on about 200 lbs of nuts. It all fit in the trailer, but I could hardly pedal on the way home. The difficulty was illuminated when my son exclaimed, “Mom! There is smoke over here!” Guess what? Those weight limits are real, and my son got a lesson in “burning rubber.” Kids got out, and we walked home.

We discovered that a long term car free family requires effort, commitment, and some investment. Of course, buying and maintaining a bike is always cheaper than buying a car, maintaining a car and paying for fuel (even with that increased grocery bill). But current products aren’t set up for a family to be truly car free, especially on busy roads over long distances. So, we sought advice from many, spent way too much time online, and took advantage of whatever minimal engineering skills we had – and invented the bike train. Now we were set to finish the month without my children maiming each other.

Through our innovation, and despite plenty on naysayers that suggested I needed therapy, we have learned that it can be done, and we have learned many other things:

• Dessert tastes better after a long ride, and living on a bike, everyday is a long ride!
• Many times it doesn’t take much long on a bike, than in a car, accounting for traffic.
• It is so nice, not to have to find time to head to the gym.
• Yes, legs do get tired even if it looks like I am riding a laz-y-boy. And despite how it feels, legs don’t fall off.
• There is always a headwind, no matter which direction you are going, and you could build a sail boat with a Burley.
• I’m slow. But what can you expect when you are dragging more than your own body weight behind you everyday?
• If you give it some time, you can accomplish more than you think you can, and you can get faster.
• Riding a bike is great therapy. Feel like selling your child on Ebay with no reserve? (I mean your real child, not your bike). I can tell you a 15 minute ride does wonders. And that plastic Burley cover truly muffles 3 year old temper tantrums.
• People are innately curious about a family on a bike, and be prepared to have your picture snapped by many camera toting tourists. It’s like they have never seen an entire family on a recumbent trike train before!

People’s curiosity has been the most rewarding part of the month. I am not an attention seeker, and could really do without the tourists. I would like to blend in, but at the same time, we are constantly approached by others who have stopped to talk to us about biking as a family, even when we are set up on a standard DF with a Burley. Many have commented that they always wanted to use their bike more, since they drive ridiculously shorts distances to school, for instance, but didn’t think they could do it with kids. Is it safe? Do the kids like it? Do you get tired? We offer our experience, our solutions, and help them troubleshoot their own unique issues. And I think that this is the point. It is one thing for us to sink money and time into a commitment to a care free life, but then only we reap the benefits of less car use and our contribution to less carbon emissions is only a pebble in the pot.

It takes more than just us, and there are little things that can be done. We could be eccentric and in your face about people’s need to go car free, or we can quietly show that an “average” family can reduce car use. At the beginning of this month, we sent out an “Evite” for a car free month, week or even just one day – and we have several takers. Many others through watching us and others have mentioned that they could do something on a smaller scale, perhaps leaving the car at home for anything within a two mile radius, or making that trek to school without the car. They take comfort that we do this every day, and feel safe in transporting our kids, and our kids even comment that they enjoy it.

Now, it is June. Our official month is over. We’ve learned. We’ve taught. We’ve grown (including those muscles!). Most importantly we have shown to ourselves that there is no need to go car shopping. Come July 2nd, when my husband heads to the hospital day and night, the boys and I are covered. Perhaps more will follow suit with us, and then our son will not be so strange and we can avoid that therapy bill!