Transport Case Studies
Is it possible to be car free in Bristol?
Big family, needed our people carrier but couldn’t afford to insure it for teenagers to learn to drive so had to get a £500 old nissan as well.
- Well, why not just have the little Nissan?
- Impossible we thought, whole family can’t fit in it. But sold the people carrier anyway and found our lives were better for it.
- Eighteen months later the Nissan conked out, the teenagers had passed their tests, we started looking in Trade-It for a replacement. Then we realised we couldn’t be bothered to run a car so joined City Car Club instead. Far from feeling like a hardship, it feels like freedom!
- Cycle much more, do long journeys by train, use car club occasionally, and team up with friends for trips to the tip etc. Trains can be expensive but the cost of running the people carrier had worked out at £14 per day. The impact of not having a car is that one less car gets manufactured – embodied energy around 90 barrels of oil. It also means one less car parked on our overcongested city streets. The experience certainly makes you reflect on Britain’s supposed love affair with the car – read Sharon Beder’s article for a bit more depth.
Seeing the world by train;
Just hit retirement, and all those places we promised ourselves we’d visit now beckon.
- Flights are so cheap and quick. But if we really care about the state of the earth that our children and grandchildren will inherit, how can we justify this damage?
- So with ingenuity and a different perspective on the meaning of journeys, we are exploring more by train, helped by the man in seat sixty-one.