Transport conundrums.

Apr 26, 2010

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When I gave up work, I gave up my car as well. (Well, actually, I gave it back when we moved, but close enough 😉 ) Since we’ve been here I think there’s been about twice when having only one car has caused a problem, and both times we’ve worked around it with lifts from friends. However, Tim is in the process of going into business for himself, and the business will most likely require him to have first call on the car, pretty much at all times, and almost definitely at short notice. Meaning that we need to think through the car using position again.

Living where we do, most of our activities are accessible on foot. The library, swimming pool, brownies, beavers, local shops – we’ve got pretty much everything within a mile. Means our swimming lesson outings are very good for us all – mile there, swimming, mile back, but I don’t have a problem having fit children, and soa is still manageable in the carrying stakes 🙂

That’s most of our activities. Our home ed music and groups are further away, about 10 miles to be precise. And very often we go on from music to a different location for the afternoon, so while it would be feasible to get to music on the bus (feasible but unpleasant, the bus journeys will take longer than the music session!) it would be rather difficult to do the rest of the stuff.

Hm. Do we really have to have a second car just so that we can get to home ed groups/ forest school and the occasional camping trip?

There must be another option, but I’m not sure what it is. Am thinking atm that it could even be cheaper to hire vehicles for holidays and use bus/ taxi when we absolutely can’t walk. Wondered if anyone out there has any experience to contribute to this thought process?

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Comments

10 responses to “Transport conundrums.”

Julie G.
26 April 2010
Do a feasability study of taxi as opposed to long term car usage. Give yourself a figure for initial car cost, insurance, tax and MOT, possible maintenance and fuel costs/milage to the nessesary ‘occasions’. Then ask a local Taxi company how much they would charge for each weeks trips and add in car hire costs for holidays. Then work out yearly cost for each.
Then compare both to a lease hire/purchase of a tax deductable van/car for hubby.
It should clarify your thoughts even if they come out fairly close in costs.
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Jenny
26 April 2010
Car sharing is the only other thought that comes to mind.
What is Tim going to be doing?
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Liz
26 April 2010
We don’t have a car at all and so, for us, the only solution has been to accept that some things are simply not accessible for us. It is highly irritating but, given that we don’t have the resources for taxis and hire cars, some places are just too tricky, time-consuming or expensive to get to by public transport. It has also meant that camping is just too difficult to contemplate at the moment.
I have also found that friends withc ars tink nothing of doing one activity and then going on to another one or going on to go shopping or something, whereas for us, that’s not an easy option. So, looking at it more positively, it has meant we have to live our lives at a slower pace and plan things more carefully.
.-= Liz´s last blog ..Some thoughts on the end of breast-feeding =-.
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Clare
26 April 2010
We gave up our car at Christmas and honestly haven’t looked back. In London, so tube and buses good, and my patents help us out. I would echo what Lis says about the benifits of slowing down, and not being able to do everything. Plus bye bye baby weight! reckon it saves us around Â£150 a month. We’re hiring a car for our holiday. Do you have anything like streetcar near you? Might be a good option if things only take an hour or so, prob. would be easy to compare with Taxi prices if you did the same thing each week.
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Caroline
27 April 2010
We’ve never done HE groups and because of the size of our family it’s not a huge deal, but for MY sake I do sometimes think it would be nice to be able to drive and join in with them. Perhaps I just need to get my act together and try to organise something local to ME once in a while. Bus trips are out of the question really. It’s over a mile to the bus-stop each way which with a couple of kids is doable, but not with 7 ~ it’s also too expensive!! If I were to try to do HE group it would be at least two buses…
Music ~ could you get home tutors instead?
The other thing I sometimes wish I could have a car for, especially in the summer months, is simply taking the kids out to interesting places sometimes instead of most of our learning be so home based.
If I were you I would think twice about not having a car, but I can’t drive and we have managed nearly 8 years without me having one ~ that said, I really do feel life might be enhanced for the kids if I did drive and have a car.
.-= Caroline´s last blog ..Blog Award =-.
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Caroline
27 April 2010
PS ~ forgot to say I’ve left you a little ’10 things that make you happy’ award on my blog, so if you’d like to join in hop over and collect it 😀
.-= Caroline´s last blog ..Blog Award =-.
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Lucy M
28 April 2010
Totally different circumstances and a long time ago now (pre-children), but at one point I was car-less and seriously considering getting one due to being heartily sick of the horrendous two-step bus journey home in the cold and the wet, lugging 60 or 90 exercise books with me. However, after doing some dead reckoning back-of-an-envelope style, I worked out that I could get a taxi home every day of the week – I got a lift in the mornings – and it would *still* be cheaper than owning the smallest of cars. So I relaxed and if I needed a taxi, I got one.
Having said that, if I had three children, each of whom needed their own carseat (how tall is Big?), complex taxi journeys would be tricky (where do you leave the seats when you’re visiting a castle?) and combining taxi with public transport is very tricky. But then we do school and jobs and live in a small village with crap bus services, so time and opportunity are limited.
I would love to live in a carless community, with plentiful foot and cycle paths, maybe a little internal electric bus, and good public transport connections to the outside world, with a few cars available for loan to members of the community, bookable for more complex trips…but sadly I don’t.
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tbird
29 April 2010
hmm, it’s a real challenge isn’t it! the HE family down the road from us only has 1 car, but he works 2-10 shift so they can use it all morning which does give them some sort of freedom but means that if they want to go somewhere special he has to take the day off or get 4 different buses to get to work. We are not well provisioned with buses or trains round here and being built onto a steep-ish valley walking and cycling are always a bit of a challenge!
I love the freedom of saying “mm, nice day, lets go somewhere” or more likely “hmm vile weather, how about a museum trip to cheer us up” but most days my car sits all forlorn on the drive until I go to work in the evening. I could live without it, most of the time, but I do think we would be somewhat trapped at home because our transport network is just hopeless! If I lived a mile or two away from most things, I think I could manage better, but still, how much are you going to miss the further flung activities?
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Jax
30 April 2010
Thanks all for great contributions, lots of food for thought 🙂
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joxy
9 May 2010
Its worth checking if your local taxi company has child seats already. Some do – or the new cars have them integral.
I think the only seat youmight need is one for soa.
I’m carless too and for the most part manage fine, although I do sometimes chaff at the amount of time it takes to get somewhere, when it only takes 10 mins in a car. Being a big lass myself too, I find the walking etc to places ok.. but by the end of the day I’m shattered and soooooo not in the mood for the walk back.. thankfully, often I’m able to get a lift back – and I do sometimes get a taxi too. My charge makes it difficult though, as she has to be in a proper car seat and carrying one of those around is a bit of a nightmare.
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