My Green Family. ramblings of one family's journey to green living

When Odum first suggested we give up the car and bike everywhere I thought he had finally lost it. All those late nights had finally caught up with him. When he assured me he was serious I thought long and hard about it. And the more I thought about it the more excited I was for the challenge.

After all I come from a long line of bikers, both my grandparents where avid cyclists. My grandfather biked around Europe and my grandmother around Scotland. My incredible Uncle Ron biked from British Columbia to Ontario in 2005 and from Ontario to Newfoundland in 2008. We’d save a heap of money, significantly decrease our carbon footprint and get into wicked shape. So in May we sold the car and then Odum promptly left for a 4 day conference 6 hours away, leaving me with 2 kids under 3 without a car. Timing eh?!

I was of course scared shitless. We have two kids, two under 3. Was it going to be difficult doing everyday errands like grocery’s? What about getting to appointments? The nice thing about where we live right now is that we’re close to everything. The grocery store is a ten minute walk; I can see it from our bedroom window. The library which we go to once a week is about a 15 minute bike ride and actually it’s quicker to bike to than it is to drive to. (Waterloo has some great biking and walking trails.) Our favorite park, complete with splash pad, mini zoo, pond and two great playgrounds is a ten minute bike ride. The furthest we had to bike was to Tristan’s speech therapy appointments which is a 30 minute bike ride and to the doctors which is about forty minutes. The great thing about Odum being a Master’s student is how flexible his schedule is. Whenever we needed to go somewhere far we always went together until I felt comfortable on my own.

It’s now 7 months later and its one of the best decisions we’ve made.The secret to our success is our equipment. If you’re considering going carless and can afford to, spend the money and get a decent bike. Both Odum and I have hybrids, a cross between a mountain bike and road bike. They’re great for on the road and the few times we’ve off-roaded it on trails. Our bikes are comfortable and the gears work well which also makes biking enjoyable.

We did lots research on bike trailers for the kids and got a top of the line one. Obviously my biggest concern was their safety and I wasn’t willing to comprise on the trailer. We have a Chariot and I love it. Easily my favorite purchase ever! It’s roomy, has a storage area, and is easy to pull. Keep in mind I’m small, 4’11” and 100lbs on a good day. So me saying it’s easy to pull 2 kids weighing about 50lbs is saying something. The best thing about the Chariot is it can come with many attachments. It can easily change into a stroller, a jogging stroller, you can even get a harness for yourself and hike with it or cross country ski. I think one of the best things about using the chariot has been not having to wrestle the kids in and out of car seats and then into strollers. All I do is take the bike hitch off and put in the strolling which takes about 2 minutes for this unhandy mom. It’s great! Chariot carriers are also 100% free of harmful phthalates and are 99.7% PVC free and they’re made in Canada.

I’m really proud of our decision to go carless. We’ve saved so much money on insurance, maintenance, parking and gas. Best of all we’ve decreased our carbon footprint considerably. We only rented a car three times and that was to run errands we couldn’t have done on bikes or go on long trips. Both of us also got into great shape, I was either biking or jogging with the kids in the Chariot everyday.

We will get another car, hopefully in January, with all of Tristan’s therapy appointments we kind of have to. I can’t bike with the Chariot in the snow, and it’d be too cold. And there’s no way I’d take Tristan on the bus, that’s a whole other post! And I don’t think Tristan will cooperate in the Chariot next year, he’s just started to rebel against it now. But we’ve had such a great experience I think we’ve both become aware of how unnecessary having a car in the city is. And I think we’ll both be much more aware of not driving if it’s not a necessity or planning better if we do need to take a car out.

For me getting rid of the car felt like a big risk to take, but I’m glad I did. Whenever I get back from a ride I feel energized and like I’ve done something great for our planet by having one less car on the road. I’ve set an example for my children, and I hope one day they enjoy biking as much as I do.

We’re also not the only family to go carless, here is another family that took the Carless Challenge. So how about you? Are you up for the challenge?