Hannah Beal (@hannahrbeal) explains what made her decide to give up the car for good …
Back in September 2012 I agreed to give up my car for a week, after reading this article written by Phil Kirby. I tracked my week on Twitter using the hashtag #givingupmycar, and generally found the whole experience rather enjoyable.
I learned some valuable lessons for when it comes to using public transport. Always, without fail, carry an umbrella. This is Britain, after all. Secondly, invest in substantial shoes – ballet pumps from Primark do not “cut it” it Leeds, in the autumn months. Thank goodness there was no snow like this week, my toes would have been suffering from frostbite faster than you can say “saving the environment and my wallet”.
As part of the week’s challenge, I was fortunate enough to have been provided with a Metro Card, enabling me to travel across West Yorkshire’s fine network of buses and trains. It’s not perfect – far from it, and you’ll know there are some serious congestion issues that are currently being debated. However, I spent much of my youth growing up in a village whose bus service ran to the local town on Tuesday mornings, and returned on Thursday afternoons. That’s right, to go into town via pubic transport you had to spend a minimum of two nights there. So please don’t complain about the public transport in Leeds and surrounding areas, as we’re very lucky to have frequent routes that serve the majority of areas on a regular basis.
I found during my trial week that with some careful planning, I didn’t have to restrict my usual activities, although some adjustments did have to be made. Instead of attending the weekly Saturday morning parkrun in Huddersfield, I attended the Leeds Hyde Park event instead. I changed the day I took part in my Pilates class to ensure I could take part at the Leisure Centre nearest my house, rather than the one I needed to drive to on the other side of Leeds. In fact, with some careful planning, I found I’d previously been so busy trying to do everything and cram everything into the week, I’d been making things over complicated, and over expensive. So at the end of my week, I started thinking about how I could make my life car-less on a more permanent basis.
This week, my beloved Mini (now at the end of its lease) is being taken back to the garage. And I’ve not got access to a replacement vehicle. I’m going car-less, for the foreseeable future.
My intentions are simple:
1. Save £ on my travel budget
2. Reduce my carbon footprint and save the environment (a little bit)
3. Get fitter and more active by walking more
4. Simplify my life a little, but not trying to do too much, all the time
My boyfriend doesn’t have a driving license at all, so he can’t really see what all the fuss is about, but for me, it’s going to be quite a substantial change. One week is one thing, but all the time? I think that may be rather different. How do we get to Barkisland next week for a friend’s birthday? How do we get to my friend’s wedding in the North Yorkshire moors? How do we get to my parents’ home in East Sussex?
Of course, all these journeys are possible via public transport – but some of them cost an enormous amount of money. On occasion, we’ll go over to Manchester for a night out – a gig at the MEN Arena perhaps. Driving over to Prestwich and getting the tram will always be quicker and cheaper than using public transport costing more than £50 for the two of us. Scaling down our activities outside of Leeds may be what’s required where possible.
Despite my reservations, I’m keen to go car-less and see the impact this has on my life. I’m looking forward to embracing the challenge with my umbrella and suitable shoes that are ready and waiting at the back door. What good is a car when it looks like that outside anyway?
This sounds great Hannah – looking forward to hearing how you get on.
We did the same just over a year ago – after making a new year’s resolution in 2010 to use the car less. There’s more here, including detail on how much it cost not to own a car – http://www.thesocialbusiness.co.uk/2013/01/what-did-it-cost-to-not-own-a-car-in-2012/ with links in there to the earlier posts too.
I never pretend that living without a car is for everyone – but it’s definitely worked well for us. A lot of what you say here chimes with our experience – we walk more, we do more locally, we shop more in town rather than out of town….
The other thing I’d say is that you don’t necessarily have to be totally “car-free” – just free of car ownership. Depending on where you live you might well have a City Car Club car nearby – for short hires – and there are plenty of car hire firms in Leeds – we mainly use Enterprise. If you are going to hire fairly regularly, get an annual excess protection insurance policy (like this one https://www.icarhireinsurance.com/#0) so they don’t sting you for excess insurance every time you hire.
Things might change – e.g. if either of us got a job where we need a car every day. But as things stand I can’t see us going back to owning a car. Life’s better without it!
Thank you Rob – I’ve read your articles and it’s really interesting to hear about your experiences. I’d also not really considered City Car Club schemes and the like – which may be suitable for those hard to reach wedding venues!
Will you go completely car-less and rely 100% on public transport or from time to time hire a car?
We’ve ended up car-less, not through any good intentions, more disorganisation and lack of cash. But we’ve been managing since 1 Sept and have no immediate plans or funds to buy a car.
I agree that most journeys can be done on public transport but often you’re left weighing up large costs vs huge amounts of time sitting on buses. We occasionally hire a car (Enterprise sometimes do 3 days for price of 2 on a weekend) and it works out cheaper than the public transport but would still meet some of your goals if you only used them occasionally?
Also the City Car Club is really good if you need a car for a short journey to somewhere buses only go 2x a week! But the costs rack up fast if you want to hire it for more than a couple of hours.
Good luck with it!
Thank you Kate – as I mentioned in my comment to Rob, I’d not really xonsidered car hiring, but seems like a good solution when in “desparate” situations. I know today (with the snow) is not a great day to compare journeys for, but I left my house at 7.50 to get to work for 8.50 – my journey is just 3.5 miles. So I agree, sometimes time is “wasted” on buses – but maybe I should use that extra hour to learn to meditate (or similar!)
I’m fascinated! I’ve never driven and get most places by public transport or walking but I cheat and use taxis here and there (or free taxis – mate’s giving me lifts). So never faced being used to a car and then giving it up. But a lot of my day job is persuading other people to use their cars less and buses/walking/cycling more.
Please let me know what works, what doesn’t. I find that the 15 minute bus ride means I catch up on emails and twitter, and I’m realistic about when we just can’t be bothered planning 2 or 3 connections (hence cheating option above). But if there’s anything information-wise or other things that would support people to let go, it would be great to know!
Thanks Ali – so far so good, though a few days in and even I would be worried if I was having major withdrawal symptoms!
We got rid of our car a year ago (more here – http://www.thesocialbusiness.co.uk/2013/01/what-did-it-cost-to-not-own-a-car-in-2012/). Re what can help others to consider cutting down on car use/getting rid of the car altogether, I think it’s important to share stories of people doing just that – like you have here and I have on the blog.
When people see “people like them” doing something they’re more likely to consider doing it themselves. I’ve tried to tell the story both from an economic perspective (it saves us money hiring a car instead of owning one) and from a green/lifestyle perspective (we like how our life has changed since we got rid of the car – and it’s better for the environment too).
As I’ve said many times, it’s not for everyone. Just as owning a car makes less sense than ever for a lot of us – rising costs, hassle of parking, time spent in traffic jams etc etc.
Metro has a big role to play here – investing in the infrastructure that makes it easier for people not to own a car. But also being part of a wider movement promoting the fact that access to a car doesn’t have to mean ownership of a car.
You make some good points, and reducing the carbon footprint is something we should all strive for, but circumstances can differ. Having recently given up my car for financial reasons I can’t deny missing it. As a single parent being car-less can be quite isolating. It’s meant giving up some social groups and hobbies, and using buses has a knock on effect on childcare as it takes a lot longer to get home from work. Our monthly adult and child bus cards cost 80 and 34 quid respectively, which is loads! On the plus side I like reading on the bus and my son is learning to be more independent. I’m trying to embrace it, but it ain’t easy!
Your points are very valid Maria – should giving up your car mean you do have to sacrifice your hobbies / interests? I would like to think not, but it appears sometimes ths is the case. Keep it up!
I’ve never owned a car, it’s quite easy if you live in a city and don’t have a family. Cycling can get you pretty much anywhere.
Barriers are things like courier depots located out in the sticks (DHL Morley!), and my employer moving from a nice spot by the Parish Church to an out-of-town business park poorly served by public transport (an unreliable 1hr+ journey on two buses – I prefer the 30-40 minute bike ride unless there is snow on the ground).
My cheating comes from the fact I have occasional hire cars from work, perhaps once a month, though I’ve gone nearly a year without driving before now. The taxman permits ‘incidental use’ without penalty so filling up at a supermarket allows a quick dash into the store for a few crates of cat food. I could easily survive without this perk.
Planning journeys in advance to secure cheap fares is second nature, often I’ll take a bike to speed up the journey at each end. Shopping locally or in town is a habit, between Kirkgate Market and Armley Town Street I can meet all my needs and easily beat supermarket prices (land for parking spaces isn’t cheap, they have to get that money back).
I’m from Liverpool and I’m studying here for the year – you can cheaply get to Manchester on the National Express and it only takes around an hour! It costs £5.50 Leeds – Liverpool so it’ll be less to get from Leeds – Manchester. The only thing is is that the bus depot is in Leeds city centre so you’d have to get there first…just a thought though as there’s a huge price difference between NE and getting the train!
We live a car free life and don’t find it any great hassle. We’re members of the City Car Club scheme – you can rent cars by the hour (by the 15 minutes in fact!) and we’ve found that great for, say, picking up something that you couldn’t carry on a bus or wouldn’t fit in a cab. Here’s the link – http://www.citycarclub.co.uk/ They have cars dotted in several different parts of the city, not just the centre.